1. Discrete by default
Most personal injury and maritime claims can be handled without filing a lawsuit. We start with the discreet path: a demand letter, a phone call, a quiet negotiation with the carrier or employer. Settlement communications are protected by FRE 408 and WA ER 408 and are not part of the public record. There is no court docket, no Google search trail, no LinkedIn discovery, no defendant’s deposition that surfaces years later. For people whose careers, families, or licenses depend on a low public profile — especially mariners and longshore workers who have to keep working in a small industry — that discretion is often the difference between using a lawyer and not.
If discretion fails and the matter has to escalate, we’ll say so and we’ll quote the next step. You’re never forced into litigation by inertia.
2. Fast because AI does the slow parts
Most of what costs money in legal work is time: hours of associates summarizing records, looking up statutes, drafting first passes of letters and motions. AI does that work in minutes — and an attorney reviews and signs the output before it leaves the office, consistent with WSBA guidance and ABA Formal Opinion 512 (2024) on generative AI, and with Washington RPCs 1.1, 1.4, 1.6, and 5.3.
What this means for you in practice:
- Demand letter drafts back to you in 3–5 business days, not 4–6 weeks
- Document analysis returned in 1–3 business days, not “by end of next month”
- Email responses in hours, not days
- Initial AI case assessment in 5 minutes, results delivered within 24–48 hours after attorney review
Speed is the practical effect of the AI hybrid model. So is the price.
3. Flat-fee where it makes sense, contingency where it doesn’t
Hourly billing rewards inefficiency — the slower we work, the more we make. Pure contingency rewards taking only the biggest cases — and pricing them at 33–40% even when the file would have settled for a $250 letter. We don’t use either model exclusively.
- Flat fees for documents, demand letters, reviews, and consultations — you know the price before you start, and the fee doesn’t come out of any settlement
- Reduced contingency (25–30%) for full personal injury and maritime injury representation when a lawsuit becomes necessary — below typical contingency rates because AI handles the prep work
- $75 / 30 minutes for pure-advice consultations, credited toward any subsequent engagement — effectively free if you decide to retain
4. AI-assisted, attorney-reviewed, AI-disclosed
We use AI throughout the practice — for intake, research, document summarization, first-draft generation, and case evaluation. We tell you that we use it. We tell the courts and opposing counsel that we use it, where required. And every piece of AI-generated work product is reviewed and signed by a licensed Washington State attorney before it’s relied on for anything.
We follow the framework set out in WSBA guidance and ABA Formal Opinion 512 (2024) on generative AI, applying the relevant Rules of Professional Conduct: RPC 1.1 (competence), RPC 1.4 (communication), RPC 1.6 (confidentiality), RPC 5.3 (responsibility for nonlawyer assistance, which includes AI tools), and RPC 5.5 (unauthorized practice). Your case file is handled inside an enterprise AI environment configured to not train on your inputs, and a licensed attorney is in the loop on every output that leaves the office.
Not every law firm using AI tells you about it. Many bill you for hours that AI actually performed in seconds. The economic incentive to keep AI invisible is large. We’ve gone the opposite way: AI is the explicit reason our prices are lower, and disclosing it is what lets us charge accordingly.
5. Direct attorney access
If you hire us, the attorney handling your case is the person you communicate with directly — no paralegal gatekeeper, no phone tree, no “intake specialist” whose job is to get you off the phone.
Email is the default channel, and we aim to respond to case communications within 1–2 business days. Phone and video calls are scheduled when needed. Most clients don’t need or want frequent calls — they want a clear written update, in plain English, when there’s something to update. That’s what they get.
6. Triage first, escalation only when needed
The first thing we do with every case is figure out how big it actually is. Some matters need a $250 letter and nothing else. Some need a $75 consultation and a referral to a different specialty. Some need full litigation. Most are smaller than the client expected.
We’ll tell you which one you’re in, and we’ll recommend the smallest competent intervention. If that’s “you don’t need a lawyer”, that’s what we’ll say. If it’s “you need full representation, file suit immediately”, that’s what we’ll say. The triage itself is included in the free AI assessment and the $75 consultation.
7. Honest case evaluation — including when you doubt yourself
The single most common reason people don’t pursue a legitimate claim is that someone — an adjuster, a friend, an employer, sometimes another lawyer — told them they didn’t have one. Many of those assessments are wrong. Insurance adjusters are paid to tell you that. Friends repeat what they’ve heard. Maritime employers and their P&I clubs have a financial interest in convincing injured seamen that maintenance and cure ended at maximum medical improvement when in fact it didn’t.
The free AI assessment runs your facts against the actual law and tells you what you’re looking at — without the conflict of interest of the people you’ve been talking to. Sometimes the answer confirms the bad news. Sometimes it doesn’t. Either way, you find out for sure in five minutes, at no cost.
What this looks like in practice
Personal injury client (illustrative example)
Imagine you were rear-ended in Seattle. The other driver’s carrier offers $4,500 to close the file. You run the AI assessment and learn that your medical specials alone justify $8,000 and that lost wages plus general damages put fair value in the high teens. We send a flat-fee demand letter on attorney letterhead. After back-and-forth, the carrier comes up to a number well above the original offer. Total out-of-pocket: the flat fee. A traditional contingency firm would have taken roughly a third of the gross. Illustrative only — not a guarantee of any specific result.
Maritime client (illustrative example)
Imagine you’re a deckhand who hurt your back lifting gear. Your employer pays maintenance for two months, then cuts it off when their company doctor declares you fit for duty — over your treating physician’s objection. You run the AI assessment and learn that maintenance and cure continues until maximum medical improvement regardless of fitness-for-duty determinations. We send a flat-fee demand letter to the vessel owner’s P&I club. Maintenance resumes, with back pay, on a relatively short timeline. Total cost: a single flat fee. No lawsuit, no public record, no need to find a new boat for next season. Illustrative only — outcomes vary based on facts and the carrier or employer involved.
The case we turn away
You called about a contract dispute with a contractor who didn’t finish your bathroom remodel. We told you we don’t handle that — not our specialty — and recommended two firms in Seattle that do, plus the WSBA referral line. The 15-minute conversation was free. We’d rather refer you to the right place than half-do something outside our wheelhouse.
What we’re not going to do
- Pretend a small case is a big case to bill more. If a demand letter resolves it, that’s the engagement.
- Push you into a contingency relationship you don’t need. Flat-fee work stays flat-fee.
- Hide our use of AI. It’s the reason you’re paying less.
- Tell you what you want to hear. If your case is weak, we’ll explain why before you spend any money.
- Take cases outside personal injury, business / corporate transactional, or maritime. Specialization is what lets us be fast and accurate.
- Auto-escalate. Each engagement is a single deliverable. Lawsuits, follow-up letters, and additional services require your written approval.