When you’re searching for a local personal injury attorney, there are six main criteria you should consider. These include:
- Whether they specialize in personal injuries
- Their ability to successfully get high settlements
- Their activity in trial lawyer associations
- How many credible testimonials they have
- Whether or not they work on a contingency basis
- How helpful, active, and present they are online
Let’s take a look at Andy Nguyen and see if he meets these criteria. First, though, we noticed one point of interest. Andy speaks Spanish (which is common in Texas), but he’s also fluent in Vietnamese (which is less common). Rare talents are always worth noting.
1. Specialization in Personal Injuries
According to Andy’s website, his firm represents people involved in motor vehicle accidents, including clients who may require extensive treatment. The list of covered areas is extensive and includes:
- Car Accidents
- Commercial vehicle crashes
- Motorcycle Crashes
- Pedestrian and Bicycle accidents
- Serious injuries
- Tractor-Trailer Collisions
- Wrongful death
This is excellent if you were involved in a vehicle-based personal injury case. However, Andy’s website does not claim that he specializes in personal injuries outside this area. For example, we could not find any notes on workplace injuries.
Instead, his website focuses more on issues like family law, family immigration, and bankruptcy, and family violence. It also cites work with certain aspects of business law (such as forming entities, negotiating leases, and installing a property management service).
Judging by the information available, it seems that Andy can work with personal injury cases (his profile cites that 25% of his cases are in this area) but doesn’t specialize in this field. We’ve decided not to give him the point for this criteria.
2. Ability To Get High Settlements For Clients
Andy Nguyen’s website does not list its settlements – or, at least, it doesn’t list them in any of the areas we checked. Without a list to judge by, we cannot give him the point here.
It’s worth noting that many of his practice areas do not involve significant settlements. Custody modifications, property division, protective orders, and I-601 hardship waivers are not typically associated with the ability to reach high payouts.
This does not mean Andy is unable to get large settlements in the areas that do allow them. It only says that much of his cited work is not of this type.
3. Activity In Associations For Trial Lawyers
Andy has been admitted to the bars of Texas, the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Texas, and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Eastern District of Texas. Also, he has professional memberships in:
- The Tarrant County Bar Association
- The Tarrant County Family Bar Association
- The Arlington Bar Association
He provides some pro bono services as well, mainly through:
- The Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program
- Kien Thuc Magazine (a Vietnamese publication in the Dallas-Fort Worth area)
- Several (unnamed) nonprofits in the Dallas-Fort Worth area
This is a good selection of associations, and we liked seeing that Andy is actively engaged in pro bono work. This is not required in Texas, but members are encouraged to provide at least 50 hours of pro bono work each year.
Andy has earned this point – but what about the next?
4. Credible Testimonials From Clients
We did not find any testimonies on Andy’s website. However, we did see some testimonials elsewhere on the web. Comments include:
- “Andy Nguyen is the best attorney I could ask for.” (Jessica N., via Yelp)
- “Everyone on their team did so much to help me and I am very thankful!!” (Lamanh T., via Yelp)
- “Exceptional legal firm, Andy definitely knows what he’s doing.” (Anthony G., via Facebook)
- “Excellent and would recommend to everyone.” (Mary Nguyen*, via Facebook)
We would have liked to see testimonials on his website, but the credible reviews we found for Andy trended quite positive. He’s earned this point.
*: This reviewer has no known relation to Andy. Nguyen is a particularly common surname in Vietnam, thought to be used by as much as 40% of the population.
5. Works On A Contingency Basis
We could not find information on the basis for payment. It’s worth noting that about half of Andy’s cases involve litigation, while the other half do not (and may be billed differently). Given the lack of information for this category, we cannot give Andy the point.
6. Online Presence
Andy’s website does not have a blog. However, his firm does have an active Facebook account, and it’s typically updated every 2-3 days with fresh content. Unfortunately, most of this content is of a friendly nature (thanking groups they’ve worked with, etc.) or reposted content (such as directing people to helpful news articles), so there’s little original material.
Nevertheless, they are active online – and quite reasonably so. Andy gets this point.
Overall, we feel that Andy met 3/6 of the criteria we established for a good personal injury attorney. We hesitate to recommend him for most personal injury cases. The exception here is personal injury cases arising from vehicle collisions, which he does specialize in.
