Million Dollar & Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum

The quality of our membership is very impressive and includes many of the top trial lawyers in the country. Many of our members have achieved numerous million and multi-million dollar results (several members have won billion dollar cases). Their practice areas include most areas of litigation, including: major personal injury, products liability, malpractice, construction, environmental, employment, insurance and business litigation. The common fact is that they have each demonstrated, in an objective and tangible way, their ability to accomplish superior results in complex cases. Certification by the Million Dollar Advocates Forum provides recognition of such accomplishment and a national network of experienced colleagues for information exchange, assistance and professional referral.

Certification and membership provide a dignified and professional means by which trial lawyers may communicate (to referring attorneys, clients and others) the fact of their successful experience in handling large and complex cases. Members are authorized to hold themselves out as members of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum and/or Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum in any manner consistent with rules of professional conduct applicable in their jurisdictions.

1. Applicant must be a current member of the Bar in good standing.

2. Applicant must have acted as principal counsel in one or more of the following:

a) A in which the applicant's client(s) received a verdict and entered final judgment in the amount of one million dollars or more. Summary adjudication or default proceedings do not qualify. The case must be final and not subject to appeal or other possible modification.

b) A binding arbitration proceeding, where evidence was presented, in which the applicant's client(s) received a in the amount of one million dollars or more.

c) Negotiation of a in which the applicant's client(s) received the sum of one million dollars or more.

3. Whether by trial, arbitration or settlement, if the award was by periodic payments or structured settlement, the one million dollar amount must apply to the economic present value of the award, not the overall payout amount.

4. Applicants must provide adequate information as to case identity to allow for verification. In most cases, certification will proceed upon the declarations of the applicant attorney. It is understood that there are confidential settlements which do not allow for case identification. In such cases, the applicant may provide a general description of the case, certifying such description as true.

The term is intended to include the one or more attorneys who were primarily in charge of and responsible for the preparation, management and settlement/ arbitration/trial of a qualifying case. It is not necessarily limited to one attorney, nor is it limited to lead (i.e. "first chair") trial counsel. It is recognized that the responsibility for, and management of, a complex case often involves a team of attorneys who serve as co-principal counsel with different responsibilities. However, it is not intended to include an attorney simply because he or she worked on the case, referred the case or brought the case into the office. It is presumed that an applicant who states that he or she was "principal counsel" in a qualifying case has clarified that status (as defined herein) with any co-counsel and that there is agreement among all co-counsel that the applicant acted in the capacity of principal counsel.

Source: www.milliondollaradvocates.com