Angelo Joseph Patane

Let me take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Angelo Patane, and I like helping people. I am in my 17th year as an attorney in Arizona.

In 2004, along with my partner, Lawrence Koplow, I left my job as a trial attorney at one of the largest insurance companies in America. I worked there almost five years. At this insurance company, I handled hundreds and hundreds of injury cases. I met many injured people. I took the statements of doctors and experts. I arbitrated and tried hundreds of cases. I learned the ins and outs of injury cases. I learned how insurance companies hire doctors to say that people weren’t injured. I saw how insurance companies hired “experts” to say that an injury was not caused by any wrongdoing.

I learned exactly how an insurance company picks apart and destroys injury claims. I know how they do it, because I did it. In the year 2000, the insurance company named me their Trial Attorney of the Year. People shook my hand, others said “congratulations,” and I received a nice plaque. I was proud of the award. The job was decent, and I became quite good at it. The insurance company provided a lot of resources to learn and hone the craft of lawyering, trying cases, and handling injury cases. They sent me to a special week long Trial College to learn how to win injury cases.

Many of the cases I handled were indeed “questionable,” and I didn’t mind fighting against those types of claims. But all too often a case crossed my desk where a person had a serious and legitimate injury. All insurance companies fight these claims just the same as the “questionable” ones. Most times they eventually pay what they should, but not after putting the injured person through the ringer.

Many times an insurance company attorney who wants to settle a claim might not be given authority to do so. The insurance company holds all the money, all the cards, and all the power.

All of that began to leave a bad taste in my mouth. But, what began to really open my eyes were times where I went to arbitration or trial and I defeated the claim of someone who I thought really might have been injured. I had evidence and arguments to legitimately contend otherwise. Had the injured person’s attorney done his or her job, the result may have been different. What I saw time after time were injured people being let down by their attorneys – attorneys who did not do what they should have, who did not work the case up properly, who did not make the right arguments to defeat what I was doing.

After years of fighting to save the insurance company money, I realized that my heart was not into helping a billion dollar company defeat the claims of decent, hard working folks who were injured. I realized that injured people were being let down by attorneys who did not know how to beat the insurance companies at their game, who had no idea what was coming, no idea how to plan for it, no idea how to counter-attack, and no idea how to properly advise their clients on whether or not to go to trial.

So, with all that in mind, I left the insurance company behind to put my knowledge of how insurance companies defend cases to help people who are hurt.

If you would like to know more about why I especially like helping victims of medical malpractice, click here. It’s personal.