For nearly 40 years, we have earned an undisputed track record of success by obtaining recoveries in more than 99% of our cases for a total of over $980 million for accident victims and their families from insurance companies and corporate defendants.
Proven Track Record
Our firm has represented victims of auto accidents in California for over 40 years, earning an undisputed track record of success by obtaining recoveries in more than 99% of our cases for a total of $980 Million.
Honors & Distinctions
GJEL has been recognized as one of the top law firms nationwide. We’ve received top ratings from US Best Lawyers in America®, Northern California Super Lawyers®, and National Trial Lawyers’ Top 100 Trial Lawyers in addition to being recognized by Forbes and Newsweek.
Unparalleled Expertise
Our attorneys consistently display their expertise in the area of accident investigation and accident reconstruction. This expertise ensures that our clients are fully and fairly compensated for their injuries.
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“Personal Injury” is a broad term, and GJEL Accident Attorneys has extensive experience with car accidents, bicycle accidents, motorcycle accidents, truck accidents, wrongful death, and insurance claims and disputes.
2023 Awards & Recognition for GJEL
- FindLaw/Super Lawyers Award
- America’s Top 100 High Stakes Litigators
- Lawyers of Distinction Honor
- CAOC Presidents Club Member
- NTL – Civil Plaintiff – Top 100
- Million Dollar Advocates Forum Member
- Walk SF Sponsorship Awardee
- National Association of Distinguished Counsel Recognition
- 2023 Attorney Client Satisfaction by American Institute of Personal Injury Attorneys (AIOPIA’s 10 Best Personal Injury Registration)
- America’s Top 100 Personal Injury Attorneys
- Best Lawyers Award 2023
- Newsweek’s Top Personal Injury Attorneys 2016
- Forbes: Bay Area Leaders in Law
- Top 25 Motor Vehicle Trial Lawyers
- Top 10 Trucking Trial Lawyers
- Top 25 Products Liability Trial Lawyers
- AV Preeminent Award by Lawyers.com 2023
- Best Law Firms Recognition
- Motor Vehicle Trial Lawyers Association – Top 25
- Trucking Trial Lawyers Association – Top 10
- Products Liability Trial Lawyers Association – Top 25
Why Is GJEL The Best Personal Injury Firm To Work With?
- GJEL has earned honors from a number of major national authorities. US News and World Report ranked GJEL as a Tier 1 Personal Injury Law Firm, and we were featured on the cover of the inaugural issue of “Best Lawyers Magazine.”
- Consistently rated among the nation’s top car accident and personal injury firms, GJEL has earned an “AV” rating (the highest possible) from the prestigious Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory.
- Our track record has earned extraordinary weight and respect with insurance companies and defense attorneys, which helps yield better and faster results than law firms with lesser reputations.
- We take pride in “fighting for the little guy” and never take an assembly-line approach to personal injury and auto accident claims. This means that clients always have direct contact with lawyers, even within minutes of your first call.
- Our accident reconstruction experts are the best around, and are put to work on your case immediately.
- GJEL attorneys attended Stanford University, the University of California Berkeley, the University of Chicago, and other leading universities.
- Consultations are always free and conducted at the client’s convenience, including any time on week days or weekends, on the phone, at the client’s home, or at any of our offices throughout California.
- We only win if our clients win. We charge no up front fees, and no matter how long and hard we work on your case, GJEL only gets paid if you obtain recoveries.
All of the attorneys at GJEL began their careers in public service, and although our cases have become larger and more complex over the years, the commitment to “fighting for the little guy” has remained. We still take cases we believe in for people we care about.
Our track record of success has also enabled our attorneys to be very selective, which allows us time and resources to work every aspect of the case and develop a personal connection. While we are proud of the more than $980 Million obtained for clients over the years, we are just as proud to have regularly maintained friendships long after cases have been settled.
Investigation and Accident Reconstruction
When we handle a case, the police report is only the starting point. With budget cuts affecting every police agency in California, police reports are often written quickly and without a full investigation. We have a team of sophisticated investigators, including retired city police offers and California Highway Patrolmen, who dig much deeper into the facts than the average police report does.
With over 25 years’ experience in catastrophic injury and serious car accident cases, we also routinely work alongside California’s foremost accident reconstruction experts.
Our use of expert testimony and analysis in depositions and in the courtroom, including this $10.65 million recovery for the family of a man killed in a pipeline explosion and this case in which we recovered $1.75 million for the family of a woman killed on Interstate 80 often lead to larger verdicts or settlements that firms without our experience and expertise are unable to obtain.
We bring all of these resources to bear on each client’s case in order to see to it that our client is fully compensated for their injuries.
Staff Size and Organizational Strength
Our staff-to-attorney ratio is double that of the average personal injury firm. All of these resources are poured into each of our client’s cases. Because we are far more selective than the average personal injury firm and have a much larger staff than the average personal injury firm, our clients’ cases get enormous and immediate personal attention from the full force and effect of our office.
We believe this is the right way and the professional way to run a law firm.
View A Full List Of Our Awards
We are consistently rated as one of the top law firms nationwide by judges and other lawyers. Detailed information about what each distinction means and how we are rated follows below.
Northern California Super Lawyers ®
Awarded to all five GJEL Personal Injury Attorneys
Only 5% of the total lawyers in the state are selected for inclusion in Super Lawyers. Our attorneys at GJEL have been selected as Super Lawyers many times over the past decade.
(Excerpted from SuperLawyers’ Website)
Super Lawyers is a listing of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. Polling, research and selection are performed by Law & Politics, a publication of Key Professional Media, Inc. Law & Politics has been publishing legal magazines since 1990 and Super Lawyers since 1991.
No other legal publisher goes through the unique multi-step process that Super Lawyers employs to find evidence of peer recognition and professional achievement.
Final candidates are segmented according to firm size. Those with the highest point totals from each category are selected. Only 5 percent of the total lawyers in the state are selected for inclusion in Super Lawyers.
2006-2023
Best Lawyers in America®
Awarded to all five GJEL Personal Injury Attorneys
(Excerpted from the Best Lawyers Website)
Best Lawyers is the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession. For a quarter century, we have helped lawyers and clients find legal counsel in unfamiliar jurisdictions or unfamiliar specialties. Best Lawyers compiles lists of outstanding attorneys by conducting exhaustive peer-review surveys in which thousands of leading lawyers confidentially evaluate their professional peers.
Because lawyers are not required or allowed to pay a fee to be included, a listing in Best Lawyers is widely regarded within the legal profession as a signal honor, conferred on a lawyer by his or her peers. For 25 years, Best Lawyers lists have earned the respect of the profession, the media, and the public, as the most reliable, unbiased source of legal referrals anywhere.
GJEL Attorneys Andy Gillin, Ralph Jacobson, Luke Ellis, Kristin Lucey, and Jim Larsen have all been named to Best Lawyers in America.
We were recently selected as a top law firm for 2024.
US News Best Law Firms
GJEL was named a Tier 1 Personal Injury Law Firm (highest ranking) in the San Francisco metropolitan area in 2016 – 2022.
(The following is excerpted from the US News Best Law Firms Website)
Client and lawyer surveys collected mostly reputational data. Using a scale of 1 (weakest) to 5 (strongest), clients voted on expertise, responsiveness, understanding of a business and its needs, cost-effectiveness, civility, and whether they would refer another client to a firm. Lawyers voted on expertise, responsiveness, integrity, cost-effectiveness, and whether they would refer a matter to a firm and whether they consider a firm a worthy competitor.
All of the quantitative and qualitative data were combined into an overall U.S.News – Best Lawyers overall score for each firm. Firms with the highest overall scores were included on metropolitan lists that covered as many as 81 practice areas in 171 metropolitan areas and 7 states and national lists covering 39 practice areas. Because firms were often separated by small or insignificant differences in overall score, they have been tiered rather than ranked sequentially. In general, the first tier includes those firms that scored within a certain percentage of the highest-scoring firm(s); the second tier, those firms that scored within a certain percentage of the next highest scoring firm(s), etc.
View the firm’s profile on USNews.com.
National Trial Lawyers’ Top 100 Trial Lawyers
GJEL Accident Attorneys have been named to The National Trial Lawyers Top 100 Trial Lawyers list from 2012 – 2023
The National Trial Lawyers: Top 100 Trial Lawyers is a professional association composed of only the most qualified trial lawyers from each state. Membership into The National Trial Lawyers: Top 100 Trial Lawyers is by invitation and is extended only to those attorneys who exemplify superior qualifications, trial results, leadership, influence, reputation, stature, and profile in the trial attorney community, as viewed by our organization, other trial lawyers, members of the bench, and the public at large. The Association conducts the necessary investigation and diligent evaluation of trial lawyers’ qualifications for invitation as one of its exclusive members.
Newsweek – Best Personal Injury Attorneys 2016 & 2024
Awarded to Attorney Andy Gillin
Founding attorney Andy Gillin was named one of 2016’s best personal injury attorneys by Newsweek. See the full profile on NewsWeek.com here.
National Law Journal – Top 100 Verdict in the Nation, 2009f
GJEL Accident Attorneys received special recognition from the National Law Journal in 2009 as a Top 100 Verdict in the Nation.
At the time, the wrongful death verdict was the largest even awarded in Contra Costa County. Read more about the case here.
Litigator Award, 2014
(Excerpted from the Litigator Award website)
The Litigator Awards™ represent the highest honors in Trial Law, and justly stand as the nation’s most coveted symbol of “Litigation Achievement”.
Presented in up to 72 “Practice Specialty” categories, the Awards are based on actual “Verdict & Settlement” dollar achievement rather than peer popularity, making them perhaps the most rigorous and openly judged Award Ratings anywhere.
Those awarded join an exclusive fraternity of Super-Star Lawyers who have won Million, Multi-Million and/or Billion Dollar cases – a feat achieved by fewer than 1% of all lawyers. Of the nearly 1.1 Million lawyers considered, only a select few (about 12 Law Firms) per State or DMA, will achieve the distinction of being awarded each year in any given Practice Specialty
AV®-Rated by Martindale-Hubbell®
(Excerpted from the Martindale-Hubbell website)
AV® Peer Review Rating – An AV® certification mark is a significant rating accomplishment – a testament to the fact that a lawyer or law firm’s peers rank them at the highest level of professional excellence.
For over a century, lawyers have relied on the Martindale-Hubbell® Law Directory for authoritative information on the worldwide legal profession. The Martindale-Hubbell® Peer Review RatingsTM play an integral role in this service to the legal community.
Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Ratings attest to a lawyer’s legal ability and professional ethics, and reflect the confidential opinions of members of the Bar and Judiciary. The legal community respects the accuracy of ratings because it knows that its own members – the people best suited to assess their peers – are directly involved in the process.
Lawyers and consumers need to have confidence in the individual under consideration. Using ratings, they can select counsel with superior ethics, as well as the desired level of professional experience.
Plaintiff Magazine Feature
GJEL Accident Attorneys’ Managing Partner Andy Gillin was featured in the April 2010 issue of Plaintiff Magazine. The author of the article interviewed a number of Andy’s peers, as well as Andy himself. Click here to read a PDF version of the article »
Frequent Lecturers for California Bar Associations and other Legal Organizations
GJEL Attorneys are frequently asked by our peers to lecture to other lawyers, and we’ve published a number of scholarly articles regarding California personal injury and tort law. California attorneys routinely consult us for our expertise in handling catastrophic injury cases, particularly those involving auto accidents and motorcycle accidents.
Below are just a few of these instances:
- Andy Gillin, Lecturer, Catastrophic Injury Cases: Handling the First 100 Days, Consumer Attorneys of California
- Andy Gillin, Lecturer, Civil Litigation, California Continuing Education of the Bar
- Andy Gillin, Lecturer, Civil Litigation, California State Bar Association Education Institute
- Andy Gillin, Lecturer, Civil Litigation, California Trial Lawyers Association (now CAOC)
- Andy Gillin, Lecturer, Civil Litigation, Women Lawyers of Alameda County
- Andy Gillin, Lecturer, Civil Litigation, Alameda-Contra Costa County Trial Lawyers Association
- Ralph Jacobson, Author, Uninsured Motorists Cases: Notice of Action
- Ralph Jacobson, Contributing Author, Litigation in the Fast Lane
- Luke Ellis, Lecturer, Trial Practice, California Trial Lawyers Association
- Luke Ellis, “Maximizing Settlements,” Alameda Contra Costa Trial Lawyers Association
- Luke Ellis, “Cross-Examination,” San Francisco Bar Association
- Luke Ellis, “The Defective Sulzer Hip Litigation,” Alameda County Superior Courts
- Luke Ellis, “Handling Products Liability Cases,” Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB)
- Luke Ellis, “Use and Admissibility of Demonstrative Exhibits,” San Francisco Trial Lawyers’ Association
- Luke Ellis, “Demonstrative Evidence,” California Trial Lawyers Association (now CAOC)
- Luke Ellis, “Opening Statements,” California Trial Lawyers’ Association
- Luke Ellis, “Automobile Cases,” California Trial Lawyers’ Association
- Luke Ellis, “Selected Evidentiary Issues,” California Trial Lawyers’ Association
- Luke Ellis, “Jury Selection,” California Trial Lawyers’ Association
Going The Extra Mile
We help clients get back on their feet and get their lives back. The number of medical specialists our clients see is often overwhelming, let alone trying to figure out the damage issues with their cars or motorcycles, getting investigative reports and medical records, or securing a rental vehicle.
We let our clients focus on what is really important–their health. We set up appointments with doctors and medical specialists who will provide you with the absolute best care. We coordinate accident investigations. We communicate with your health insurance company. We follow up with the insurance company of the person who hit you, as well as your own car insurance company. In a nutshell, we handle all the details of your case, so that you can focus on your health and your family.
Below are just a few of the steps we take to ensure as smooth a transition as possible back to a normal life.
Coordinating Your Health Insurance
Many people who suffer severe injuries in an automobile or car accident lose their job and therefore lose their health insurance. Losing health insurance when you need medical care is one of the worst things that can happen to a person. We have successfully assisted hundreds of clients in getting the health insurance they are entitled to, regardless of whether the first response from their employer or their insurer is “you are no longer insured.”
There are many techniques that we have successfully employed for our clients to either hold on to their health insurance, or obtain alternate health insurance. We provide both short term and long term solutions. The short term solutions are for the purpose of getting through a period of time where the client has the most acute need for health insurance. The long term solutions often involve Medicare, Medi-Cal, or other government programs that many people do not realize are even available to them.
In our 25+ years of experience in California personal injury and auto accident law, we’ve helped clients with virtually every kind of major injury get the care and assistance they deserve from every major primary care provider and health insurance company in the state.
Securing a Rental Car
When a person’s car is no longer drivable as a result of the fault of another that person is entitled to a rental car for a reasonable period of time. Certain insurance companies will attempt to avoid their responsibilities, hoping that the injured person will just give up. For over twenty-five years we have seen to it that insurance companies live up to their responsibilities in this regard.
Keeping Your Insurance Rates Low
Some insurance agents try to convince their clients not to make an uninsured or underinsured motorist claim by telling their clients that their insurance rates will go up. This is absolutely incorrect. Under Proposition 103, enacted by California voters, an insurance company is not allowed to raise rates for an accident which is not the fault of the person who holds the insurance contract. This means the insurance company cannot raise your rates, cannot drop you, or cannot give you any negative consequences for an accident in which you were found not to be at fault.
If you are not at fault for an accident and your own insurance company takes the position that you were at fault, as part of taking your case, we will take on your insurance company without risking a rise in your own insurance rates.
We would love to hear more about your case. Call GJEL Accident Attorneys at 1-855-508-9565 for a free consultation or email us at lawfirm@gjel.com. We also have offices throughout California to meet with clients. Visit the Contact Us page to find the office nearest you.