When looking for legal help after a serious car accident in Western New York, you will probably want to conduct an internet search to find the best law firm available. That is the only way to separate the lawyers with real qualifications from those who merely make empty claims on television and radio. Two key qualifications you will want to look for are ratings from the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and Martindale-Hubbell.

Better Business Bureau’s A+ rating

According to its website, BBB bases its ratings on how it believes the business is likely to treat its customers. It uses several factors to reach its grade for a particular business, including:

• The number of complaints made to BBB about the business, if any
• How long the company has been in business
• The transparency of its business practices
• Whether the business has used misleading advertising and/or falsely claimed a certain BBB rating

The BBB formula gives each business a score out of 100. We are honored to have received an A+ rating, the highest that BBB gives, which indicates a score of 97-100, for over ten consecutive years.

Martindale-Hubbell’s peer-review ratings

Unlike BBB, Martindale-Hubbell focuses its reviews on lawyers. It partly bases its ratings on reviews from other attorneys of the subject attorney’s ethical standards and legal ability. If they receive high marks from their peers, the firm gets a “V.” Martindale-Hubbell then adds an A, B or C based on the following:

• A firm (or attorney) gets an “A” if their peers rate them “very high” in legal ability, and the attorney has practiced for at least 10 years
• A “B” rating means the lawyer is considered to have a “high” level of legal ability and has practiced for at least five years
• A “C” rating translates to a “fair” ability rating, with no minimum years of practice experience

An “AV” rating means that the lawyer has achieved the highest standards of professionalism, legal skill and personal integrity. An AV Preeminent rating — which Martindale-Hubbell has consistently awarded our lead attorney, Colin Campbell — is the very highest one it presents.

We do not practice personal injury law to win awards. But it is gratifying that our hard work has earned this level of recognition in the Western New York legal community.