The Firm · Case Selection
The Cases We Take
A selective practice means every case gets trial-level attention. These are the new matters the firm is currently prioritizing. If your matter is in one of the few areas the firm does not handle, we will tell you that right away and point you to the State Bar’s referral service.
David L. Milligan — Board Certified in Civil Trial Advocacy by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. Contingency fee — no attorney’s fee without a recovery; the client remains responsible for advanced case costs, as provided in the written fee agreement. Free, confidential consultation.
New matters the firm is currently prioritizing
The Law Offices of David L. Milligan, APC is a deliberately selective practice. The following are the matters the firm is currently seeking to accept — serious-injury cases where liability is clear, the injuries are documented, and there is an insurer or company able to pay. Other pages on this site describe the firm’s experience or existing matters and do not necessarily indicate that the firm is accepting new cases in those categories.
- •Serious motor-vehicle collisions — hard-impact crashes with diagnosed injuries and prompt treatment.
- •Commercial truck and big-rig collisions — tractor-trailers, delivery fleets, and company vehicles.
- •Motorcycle collisions caused by another driver.
- •Documented traumatic brain injury — where there was a loss of consciousness, abnormal imaging, or a physician’s concussion or TBI diagnosis.
- •Catastrophic burn injuries — burns requiring hospitalization, a burn unit, or skin grafting.
- •Severe dog attacks — maulings causing facial injury, significant scarring, nerve or tendon damage, or surgery.
- •Other catastrophic injury — spinal cord injury, amputation, and injuries requiring surgery or lifelong care.
- •Wrongful death.
- •California DMV hearings — license suspension and revocation, negligent-operator (NOTS), and medical-reexamination hearings before the DMV, statewide — pro bono, for indigent Californians who cannot afford counsel. A separate administrative practice area — not criminal defense.
Injury cases are taken from intake through jury verdict, on a contingency-fee basis. Costs remain ultimately the client’s responsibility.
The firm also reviews, case by case: premises liability and slip-and-fall, negligent security, defective products, aviation, government-entity injury claims, and injuries that happened outside California. These are not listed above because they are not automatically scheduled for a consultation — not because the firm turns them away. If your matter is one of these, contact the office and it will be reviewed.
The firm does not accept medical malpractice, dental malpractice, or claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The firm is also not accepting new institutional-abuse or institutional-accountability matters (including sexual abuse, juvenile-facility, and care-facility claims) or new environmental / toxic-exposure matters (including groundwater contamination and wildfire claims). Where a matter falls outside this practice, we say so promptly and, where we can, point you toward counsel who handles that work — the State Bar of California’s Lawyer Referral Services can be reached at (866) 442-2529.
A Separate, Pro Bono Tier
Pro bono jury trials for self-represented plaintiffs
Apart from its paying practice, the firm runs a narrow public-service program: in rare, carefully selected California civil cases, Attorney Milligan will substitute in for a plaintiff who has been representing themselves in propria persona — at no attorney’s fee — for one limited purpose: to try the case to a jury, through verdict. Every one of these must be true:
- •A California civil case set for a jury trial (not a bench trial, not an arbitration), with the jury already demanded and the jury fees already paid (CCP § 631);
- •You are the plaintiff, currently representing yourself;
- •The mandatory settlement conference has already failed, and your court’s deadline to file and serve pre-trial documents is still at least five days away (if it has passed, we will almost certainly be unable to step in);
- •Your trial subpoenas are already served — every witness, any records or materials requested for trial (duces tecum), and foundational witnesses such as records custodians. Subpoena work is, and remains, entirely your responsibility — this office does not serve subpoenas;
- •All costs are yours — we pay no costs. Jury fees already paid, and the court reporter for trial arranged and paid in advance by you;
- •The case is small — preparable in a matter of days: the pre-trial documents within five days of retention, the rest over the single weekend before trial (roughly a one-to-three-day trial with a short witness and exhibit list).
The engagement is trial only. We do no discovery and none of the earlier litigation, and nothing after the verdict — though once retained we do prepare, file, and serve the court-required pre-trial documents: at engagement you sign both the substitution bringing us in and a second substitution restoring you to self-representation, which we file promptly once the jury’s verdict is received (you return to representing yourself when it is filed). Post-trial motions, costs, and any appeal are yours. We take the case exactly as we find it — we had no control over how discovery was done, what motions were brought, or what the court has ruled — and we promise no result; if we accept the case, our commitment is to prepare it over that weekend and try it competently on the record that exists, and you will be asked to acknowledge all of this in the written limited-scope engagement. The engagement ends when the trial ends or is continued — verdict, mistrial, any other conclusion, or a continuance of the trial for any reason — at which point the substitution is filed and the entire case returns to you; a retrial or continued trial date is not included. Settlement decisions are yours alone, and adverse cost consequences (including from any Code of Civil Procedure § 998 offer you rejected) are yours as well. We appear only after every condition is met, and may decline at any time before the substitution is filed.
The engagement’s defining condition — which you confirm by written instruction — is that we do not fix cases: no continuance requests, no serving or curing subpoenas, no repairs to the record, even where those steps might have helped. If your case needs fixing rather than trying, this program is not for you. Nor is it a settlement-leverage device: applicants must state their settlement history and their intention to try the case to a verdict, and inquiries aimed at improving an offer will be declined, as will cases already close to settlement or with a pending § 998 offer — though the decision to settle any offer always remains the client’s, and if the client settles, the engagement simply ends.
Volume notice — we reply only if we are considering your case. Because of the number of people we expect to contact us about this program, we do not respond to every inquiry. If you contact us and do not hear back, we are unable to take your case, no reply is coming, and there is no need to contact us again. Inquiries are accepted in writing only, and an inquiry does not create an attorney–client relationship or affect any deadline in your case — keep preparing for trial as if this program did not exist.
Read the full program criteria and how to submit a written inquiry →
Do I have a case? An honest screen
Do I have a car accident case worth pursuing?
These are the factors the firm weighs on a motor-vehicle case. They are not eligibility rules, and no one of them decides anything — each case turns on its own facts:
- •Hard impact. Factors may include whether a vehicle was towed, declared a total loss, sustained substantial damage, or had airbags deploy. Property damage is only one consideration and does not determine whether an injury or claim is valid. Insurers may dispute whether a lower-damage collision caused the claimed injuries, so the firm evaluates the medical evidence and collision facts together.
- •Clear fault. The other driver was cited, rear-ended you, ran a light or sign, or was plainly at fault.
- •Prompt treatment and a real diagnosis. Ambulance or emergency room, or a doctor within roughly two weeks — and a physician who has actually named the injury.
- •A source of recovery. The at-fault party carries insurance or is a company, or you carry uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage.
This is general information, not legal advice, and nothing here is a promise about any result. If your situation is close to the line, call — that is what the conversation is for.
Do you handle California DMV hearings?
Yes — pro bono, for indigent Californians who cannot afford counsel: license suspension and revocation hearings, negligent-operator (NOTS) point-count hearings, and medical reexaminations, throughout California, at no attorney’s fee (all costs remain the client’s). Strict criteria and written inquiries only, and DMV deadlines run in days — protect your hearing-request deadline immediately. Acceptance covers only the hearing date then set (a continuance or rescheduling before the hearing begins ends the engagement; a new date requires a new written inquiry, screened again against the firm’s calendar), and no appeals, writs of administrative mandamus, or post-hearing motions are included. If any criminal investigation, arrest, citation, charge, prosecution, or express indication from law enforcement or a prosecutor that criminal charges may be filed arises from the same event, the firm will not accept the DMV matter unless the applicant is represented by criminal defense counsel and the firm receives that counsel’s written statement recommending both that the applicant proceed with the DMV hearing and give sworn testimony at it. This is a condition of acceptance only — not a waiver of any privilege or a promise to testify — and the testimony decision must be revisited with the applicant and criminal defense counsel when testimony is considered. The firm does not represent the applicant in the criminal matter. These are administrative civil proceedings, not criminal defense. See the firm’s California DMV hearings page for details.
Can you try my case for me if I have been representing myself?
Possibly — under a strict, limited pro bono program. If your California civil case is set for a jury trial, your mandatory settlement conference has failed, your court’s pre-trial document deadline is still at least five days away, your trial subpoenas are already served, and the case is small enough to prepare in a matter of days, the firm will consider substituting in — at no attorney’s fee — solely to prepare the court-required pre-trial documents and try the case to the jury, through verdict. We take the case as we find it, promise no result, and respond only to the inquiries we are considering: if you do not hear back, we are unable to take your case and no reply is coming. Read the full criteria on the pro bono jury trials page before contacting us.
What happens if my case is not a fit for the firm?
If your matter is in an area the firm does not handle at all — medical or dental malpractice, workers’ compensation, or adult prison/jail or police-conduct matters — we say so on the first call and point you to the State Bar of California’s Lawyer Referral Services at (866) 442-2529, so you lose no time. The firm is also not accepting new institutional-abuse or environmental-contamination matters; those inquiries are likewise referred to the State Bar’s service. Anything else goes to the office for review before any decision is made, and you should never wait on that review to protect your own rights.
Do you accept referrals from other attorneys?
Yes. The firm serves as co-counsel and trial counsel for lawyers across California and pays referral fees in compliance with Rule of Professional Conduct 1.5.1. See our For Referring Attorneys page.
“The very essence of civil liberty certainly consists in the right of every individual to claim the protection of the laws, whenever he receives an injury.”
Chief Justice John Marshall · Marbury v. Madison (1803)
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Please do not submit sensitive or unnecessary details. An inquiry does not create an attorney–client relationship; representation begins only through a signed written agreement.
Important: This page is provided for general educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Submitting an inquiry does not create an attorney–client relationship; that relationship is formed only by a written agreement signed after we evaluate the matter for conflicts and merit. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Statutory citations are illustrative; the legal framework applicable to a specific case depends on the facts. The Law Offices of David L. Milligan, APC is licensed in California.