Client Focus

My focus is to provide my clients with the professionalism, expertise and attention to get them the legal outcome they deserve.

Many people in the Trenton/Mercer county area are familiar with the Blake name. My father Tom Blake and my two brothers ran a family hardware business in the city of Trenton, founded over a 100 years ago and passed down for three generations. If you have visited the store, you have experienced a professional, knowledgeable and supportive family atmosphere- the willingness to listen, to serve you and solve your problem before you walk out of the store.

I have modeled my practice around the same principles my father abided by: serving every client with professionalism at a fair price value and developing a relationship based on trust, commitment and hard work.

Although I no longer work in the fields of divorce, child support, bankruptcy, collection work, employment law, discrimination, social security and medical mal practice, I know a number of attorneys I can recommend in these areas. If you have any issues with an attorney I recommend, I am available to answer any questions and have no problem contacting that attorney to address your concerns or questions as if it were my case.

My personal goal is to make sure phone calls emails and questins are promptly responded to and to be on time for all office appointments. I do my best to accomdate your schedule with evening and weekend appointments. I consider your time just as important as mine.

One of the pleasing benefits of retaining my office is that I personally handle each case transactions,each trial or each interview. You are not directed to a young unexperienced attorney. I conduct the initial conference consultation with my cleints and handle the entire file from start to finish. I strongly believe that to do the best job for you, my involvement in all aspects of your case is necessary.

Of course after you interview with me, if I feel your case needs the expertise or resourses from a larger firm, I will not hesitate to refer you to one of my colleagues to represent your best interests. Additonally, I will remain available to give advice or to contact the firm ot monitor the progress (or lack there of) of your claim.
Serving my clients with care and attention so that they achieve the best outcome.

The following are just some of the recent large personal injury trial results I have achieved for my clients. A number of times throughout my career, I have been recognized as obtaining one of the top fifty verdicts in the state of New Jersey for a specific year.

• $227,000 jury award for torn knee ligament ($12,500 pre-trial offer and limitation threshold)
• $200,000 jury award for neck and back disc injury (zero pre-trial offer)
• $200,000 jury award for neck back strain sprain ($6,000 pre-trial offer and limitation threshold)
• $25,000 Jury Award for neck strain. (zero pre-trial offer and limitation thresold)
  
• $100,000 jury verdict for lower back and shoulder soft tissue injury ($1,500 pre-trial offer and limitation threshold)
• $50,000 jury award for low back strain (insurance company offered $2,500 pre-trial and limitation threshold)
• $100,000 jury award for neck/back soft tissue injury ( zero pre-trial offer and limitation threshold)
• $40,000 jury award for strained back. ($1,500 pre-trial offer and limitation threshold.)
• $58,400 trial verdict – neck and back strain/sprain ($2,500 pre-trial offer and limitation threshold)
• $1,000,000 jury verdict neck and back injury/no surgery. ($5,000 pre-trial offer and limitation threshold)

Remember these are trial results – evidence my firm tries cases and doesn’t settle at any offer the insurance company makes. Very few lawyers (despite what they advertise) are actually willing or have enough experience and expertise to go to trial.

The above cases reflect some of the trials where a small amount was offered to settle and the client’s truthfulness and the merits of the suit made the decision to go to verdict the best way to proceed. While these results are not always guaranteed, over the years there have been many cases that my firm has settled for higher amounts, for example, we procured $2.6 million personal injury settlement on a medical malpractice suit with a $9.2 million dollar payout.

My firm also evaluates and claims where the client has selected the Lawsuit Limitation or Verbal Threshold. As you may or may not be aware, this threshold makes it imperative that an experienced trial attorney manage your case to achieve justice because in most trials where the limitation threshold applies the defendant prevails and injured party gets no compensation. Additionally, on almost all lawsuits, our firm pays the costs and expenses for the case with no reimbursement from the client if there is no recovery. Most attorneys’ retainer agreements require the costs to be repaid, win or lose. I look at this reimbursement as adding insult to injury in the rare cases where my client does not recover anything. There are very few occasions where my firm requires prepayment of costs on a contingency fee case. This is normally where the case does not develop as planned and I notify my client in writing that future (not past) costs will be required to be paid by the client to continue with the suit.