Meet Attorney Paul R. Cavonis - Our Injury Law and Trial Attorney (Transcript)
Paul R. Cavonis, Injury Law & Board Certified Civil Trial Attorney
Paul: My mother was a waitress. My dad was a blue-collar guy. He did construction work. He had a cabinet shop. We didn't have a lot, had a good childhood, but it was pretty sparse. My mother always taught me that if you worked hard and you applied yourself and you did the best job that you could possibly do, you'd get someplace in life, and my mother was always very proud to say that I was going to law school. That was one of the really proud moments in her life.
I'm the first one in my family to go to college. I started out really doing construction work for a family construction business. I did general construction, and then I gravitated towards what we call millwork carpentry. That was the detail work, building staircases and cabinets. I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed working with my hands. I enjoyed being a creative problem solver, taking something that was in its raw form and then molding it into its final form.
Building a successful case is very similar to building a house. You start with the foundation. You start at ground level. And just like construction, you can't build a successful case on a shaky foundation. Anyone who is thinking about retaining an attorney, particularly if you have an injury case, needs to be very concerned about who is actually going to handle that case. If I were looking for a lawyer, the very first question I would ask is, "Do you try your own cases?"
Ron (Client): You know, you're in this huge courtroom. The judge, the recorder, the jury, it is very frightening, but there was just Paul in there against the insurance team.
Renee (Spouse of Client): It was almost like he could predict what they were going to say, so he had his response ready.
Paul: I tell clients all the time, the more we prepare a case for trial, the harder we prepare a case for trial, the less likely that case is ever to get to trial. Why? Because you're negotiating from a position of strength and you're demonstrating to your opponent, these insurance companies, that you're willing to try the case.
Ron: From his depositions to the medical witnesses, to his cross-examinations, to his closing, Paul just ran that courtroom. It was very impressive.
Paul: I commit to that client that they're going to get 100% of my effort. It doesn't matter if it's a relatively low speed automobile accident case or if it's a catastrophic injury or death case. All of those cases get the exact same attention, the exact same dedication from everyone in the office, not just me, but even our support staff.
Sean (Client): The diligence that Paul and Jennifer and Monica showed with everything was great. I couldn't have really done anything without them. They were guiding me the whole time.
Heather (Client): He was a man of high integrity. I knew that he was a philanthropist. He had given much to a lot of our hospice patients.
John (Client): I was treated very professionally. I did not have a big claim, but I don't care how large it could have been, I was well pleased with the way it was handled.
Paul: The rule that we have in the office, in all matters, is this: how would we ourselves want to be treated if the roles were reversed? It's not complex.
Heather: I was met with support and kindness and I was able to put this behind me.
Paul: What I enjoy most about practicing law is helping people solve a problem. It's very satisfying to me to take a case from the very beginning, all the way through the very, very end, and sometimes that's actually a trial, and resolving a problem that someone has and to the extent that I can, putting them back on the right track, trying to set them straight, trying to give them something or return something to them that they've lost. I really enjoy that part of the practice. It is very, very satisfying, and I've been blessed with many, many clients who have expressed that to me, and it's, I think, the most satisfying thing that I do here.