Law Offices of David L. Milligan, APC
The Cases We Review
Serious injuries deserve careful attention. Tell us what happened, and use the guide below to see the matters our office handles.
No attorney’s fee without a recovery. Clients remain responsible for advanced case costs under the written fee agreement.
An inquiry does not promise a response or acceptance. Do not wait for our review to protect a legal right or deadline. Read the inquiry notice.
New matters the firm is currently prioritizing
The Law Offices of David L. Milligan, APC is a selective Fresno-based personal injury practice serving California. We review serious injuries and wrongful death with attention to liability, medical evidence, potential insurance or other collectible sources of recovery, and the work needed to pursue the case. We favor well-supported matters that fit the firm’s resources and availability. No injury label or apparent insurance limit guarantees acceptance or a result. Other pages may describe past experience or existing matters rather than categories open for new intake.
What helps us evaluate your inquiry
Start with a brief account of what happened, when and where it occurred, the injuries and their effects, any treatment, and whether a lawyer already represents you. Tell us about any approaching hearing or court date. Do not send unnecessary sensitive records with an initial inquiry.
You do not need to estimate a settlement amount, obtain an insurance limit, or satisfy a particular treatment or property-damage threshold before asking for review. We consider the facts together; unknowns require investigation.
- •Serious motor-vehicle collisions — evaluated from the collision facts, liability evidence, medical evidence and treatment timeline, functional and economic impact, available insurance or other collectible sources, and the work required. No single factor controls.
- •Commercial truck and big-rig collisions — tractor-trailers, delivery fleets, and company vehicles.
- •Motorcycle collisions caused by another driver.
- •Adult traumatic brain injury claims — evaluated from the history, examination, symptoms and function over time, clinical assessment, incident-specific causation, alternative explanations, damages, and available evidence. No loss of consciousness, imaging result, or diagnostic label controls by itself.
- •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 engagements may include investigation, negotiation, and, where warranted, trial under the written agreement, on a contingency-fee basis. Costs remain ultimately the client’s responsibility.
The firm also considers, 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. A person may submit one of these matters for review, but no response or acceptance is promised.
The firm does not accept medical malpractice, dental malpractice, workers’ compensation, claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, or adult prison, jail, or police-conduct matters. 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). The State Bar of California’s Lawyer Referral Services can be reached at (866) 442-2529. Other inquiries may be reviewed, but an inquiry does not promise a response or acceptance. Do not wait on the firm’s review to protect any right or deadline.
A Separate, Pro Bono Tier
Pro bono jury trials for self-represented plaintiffs
Earlier preliminary inquiries about the pro bono jury program are welcome. Preliminary screening is separate from accepting representation: it does not reserve a trial date, change any deadline, or transfer responsibility for the case. The engagement criteria below still apply.
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 offered scope covers the agreed pre-trial documents and accepted short jury trial. Discovery, earlier litigation, case-repair work, subpoena service and cures, continued trials, retrials, and post-trial work are outside the offered scope. The firm accepts only a matter it reasonably determines can be tried competently and diligently within that scope. Material later changes require consultation and compliance with professional duties and applicable court procedures, but do not automatically expand the engagement to a full case workup; the firm may seek withdrawal or other appropriate relief. A verdict, settlement, mistrial, or continuance does not by itself make withdrawal effective or automatically add a new trial setting. The firm remains counsel of record until the applicable substitution or relief order is filed, served, and effective, and will take reasonable steps required to avoid reasonably foreseeable prejudice. Any further representation requires a new written agreement.
The program is intended for plaintiffs prepared to try their cases, not as a device to obtain a better settlement offer. Applicants must provide their settlement history and confirm their intention to try the case. The decision whether to settle always remains the client’s. All costs remain the client’s; the firm pays and advances none. The firm may decline before signing an engagement. Sending an inquiry does not by itself create an attorney-client relationship or transfer responsibility for any deadline. Representation is accepted through a written limited-scope agreement signed by the client and the firm; the firm becomes counsel of record when its substitution is filed. The five-day interval before the applicable pre-trial-document deadline is a firm acceptance criterion, not a universal California filing deadline.
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?
The firm considers these factors together. They are not eligibility rules, and no one factor decides acceptance, liability, causation, or value:
- •Collision facts. Vehicle damage, movement, road and weather conditions, photographs, video, physical evidence, and electronic data may help explain what occurred. Impact severity does not by itself decide whether an injury or claim is valid.
- •Liability evidence. Statements, witnesses, reports, citations, records, and the conduct of each person or company may matter. A citation or collision pattern does not by itself establish civil liability.
- •Medical evidence and timeline. The history, reported symptoms, examination, diagnosis, treatment, prior health, follow-up, and clinical explanation are considered together. There is no two-week cutoff, and no diagnosis, loss of consciousness, or imaging result is required or sufficient by itself.
- •Impact and available recovery. Functional change, work and daily-life effects, claimed economic loss, available insurance or other collectible sources, and the work required to investigate and prove the case all may matter. Known coverage is useful information, not a prerequisite to asking for review.
Unknowns may require investigation. This is general information, not legal advice, and nothing here promises acceptance or a result.
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 applicants must protect the hearing-request deadline stated in their own DMV order. Acceptance is date-specific. Except for a continuance the firm alone initiated and requested, a pre-hearing continuance, rescheduling, or reset excludes the new date and starts the process of ending representation, subject to professional duties, any required permission or notice, and termination becoming effective; the calendar change does not itself end representation. A new date requires a new written inquiry and agreement. Appeals, writs of administrative mandamus, post-hearing motions, and criminal defense are outside the program. The controlling scope and criteria are on the firm’s California DMV hearings page.
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?
The firm does not accept medical or dental malpractice, workers’ compensation, claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, or adult prison, jail, or police-conduct matters. It is also not accepting new institutional-abuse, institutional-accountability, environmental, or toxic-exposure matters. The State Bar of California’s Lawyer Referral Services is available at (866) 442-2529. Other inquiries may be reviewed, but an inquiry does not promise a response or acceptance, and no one should wait on that review to protect a right or deadline.
Do you accept referrals from other attorneys?
The firm considers full referrals, co-counsel roles, and trial-focused associations depending on conflicts, fit, timing, client consent, procedural posture, and capacity. Any fee division between lawyers in different firms is matter-specific and must satisfy California Rule of Professional Conduct 1.5.1, including a written agreement between the lawyers, the client’s written consent after the required written disclosure, and no increase in the total fee solely because of the division. See the firm’s 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)
Start here
Please do not submit sensitive or unnecessary details. An inquiry does not by itself create an attorney–client relationship. The firm accepts engagements 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 by itself create an attorney–client relationship. The firm evaluates conflicts and merit before accepting an engagement through a written agreement. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Statutory citations are illustrative; the legal framework applicable to a specific case depends on the facts. David L. Milligan is licensed to practice law in California.