J. Russell B. Pate, Esq.
Life, Health and Happiness are Precious!
When you or a family member are hurt the first step is to see a doctor. The next step is to see me, because the legal road to recovery and justice is long and difficult.
At the Pate Law Firm, I represent individuals, families and small businesses injured by corporate negligence, greed, or sheer callousness. I care about you and your family. Take a look at cases I focus on below. Get the facts. Ask questions. And let’s talk!
A lawsuit is more than just compensation for victims of wrongdoing. Unfortunately, some companies see harm to people as just collateral damage and the cost of doing business. But by holding wrongdoers accountable with money damages, a lawsuit can take the profit out of harming others. As a result, what happened to one person, will not happen again to someone else and the whole community is safer.
“Justice – the hope of all who suffer, the dread of all who do wrong.” – John Greenleaf Whittier, 1833
Quaker, poet and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society.Practice Areas
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Personal Injury
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Wrongful Death
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Smoking & Lung Cancer
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Asbestos & Lung Cancer
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Consumer Protection (Class Action)
Jury Service
Juries work. Judges who see hundreds of trials say juries get things right the vast majority of the time.
The earliest juries developed as a balance to the King’s power. It turned out that if the King had all the money and all the power, judges usually decided the King was right. Today’s kings are big corporations, and juries still serve to equal the playing field for the ordinary citizen.
If you have served on a jury, I want to thank you. Your service preserves and upholds the protections of justice, equality, and the rule of law. Those who endured many troubled years to get to a jury trial, made that stressful and demanding journey to tell you their story and to hear your important verdict. In my opinion, a fight to gain justice though the Court is heroic. Your service makes justice possible.
“I consider trial by jury as the only anchor yet devised by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its Constitution.”
–Thomas Jefferson, 1789. Third President of the United States
Justice and the Jury
Today, why are so few civil cases proceeding to trial? Getting to a jury is a lot more difficult and expensive than it used to be. Less than 1% of civil cases make it to a jury. An army of lawyers and expert witnesses may drive up litigation cost so most ordinary folks cannot afford to get their case to a jury.
Insurance companies and big corporations are spending tens of millions of dollars to distribute misinformation about our justice system, saying our system is broken. However, in front of jury is a rare place where an average citizen really can stand equal to the powerful and moneyed. Ordinary people just like you are losing access to the courts, juries, and justice. An eye opening and incredible documentary, “Hot Coffee,” tells the stories of four families whose lives were devastated by big business rules that rob the jury of delivering justice. Further, the American Association of Justice tells about how individual lawsuits and jury verdicts have made the world a safer place for our children.