Common Personal Injury Accidents
Auto Accident
Construction Zone Injury
Truck / Big Rig Accident

Catastrophic Injuries Caused by Accidents
Amputations
Back & Neck Injury
Brain Damage
Paralysis
Paraplegia
RSD
Quadriplegia
Whiplash Injury
Wrongful Death

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Hawkins * Caputo - Personal Injury Attorney's

Paul Caputo, 2005 Consumer Attorney of the Year
Paul Caputo is the 2005 California Consumer Attorney of the Year, as selected by Consumer Attorneys of California.  Paul Caputo has a long and successful history in the Santa Clara Valley and Northern California of fighting for injured victims against insurance companies and their clients.

As a trial lawyer who represents injured victims without the means to pay for legal representation, it is not unusual for Caputo to expend monetary resources to hire experts, get medical opinions and reports on behalf of his clients, and then have to wait two to three years for injured victims to get what is legally due to them from insurance companies and their clients.

It is not unusual for Caputo to go up against large defense firms operating out of opulent spacious offices representing the interests of insurance companies and their corporate clients. Caputo recalls taking on Foster Farms in a case out of the San Joaquin Valley. As a company with a large employment base and favorable image in that area, Foster Farms offered a Caputo client zero dollars in a case that involved a laborer developing respiratory complications following exposure to anhydrous ammonia fumes that leaked from a Foster Farms facility. Following nearly three years of unsuccessful negotiations, tens of thousands of dollars spent on behalf of the client, Caputo took the case before a jury in Stanislaus County and received a verdict totaling $225,000. “When you represent clients that are clearly injured by someone’s negligence, juries are capable of awarding damages that are equitable and just despite the favorable image of a company”, states Caputo.

Caputo has also successfully taken on the San Jose Police Department, auto manufacturers and major insurance carriers. Following a rear-end auto accident, Caputo settled a case against an auto manufacturer for $5.825 million in representing a client left with quadriplegia from injuries caused largely because the seat installed in her car was defective. And he settled a case against the San Jose Police Department for $1.13 million for a client left with Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD), now commonly referred to as Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), after she was rear-ended by a SJPD officer.

Caputo was born and raised in San Jose, and after receiving his Doctorate of Jurisprudence (J.D.) Degree from Santa Clara University and passing the Bar, Paul joined his father at the law firm of Caputo, Liccardo, Rossi, Sturges & McNeil. In 1992, Paul and his father, Richard P. Caputo, split off from that firm to form the law firm of Caputo & Caputo.

Paul follows in the footsteps of his father Richard, considered by many as one of the nations elite trial lawyers of his era. “Watching my father, I learned how to maintain a professional and high ethical standard while still negotiating in good faith on behalf of my clients.”

Since 1989, Paul has either tried or handled cases as a personal injury lawyer in 23 counties, mainly encompassing cities within the Bay Area and Northern California. His cases have encompassed matters involving Personal Injury, Car Accidents, Toxic Exposure, Products Liability, Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, Insurance, Employment, Business and Contracts.

In addition to his work as an advocate for victims of personal injury, Paul has served as past-president of the Santa Clara County Trial Lawyers Association, been a guest lecturer for numerous organizations and has written several published articles for area newspapers encompassing a spectrum of insurance-related matters and on recent developments in the law that are of interest to the public. He has also taught at Lincoln University Law School for eight years. Currently, Paul serves on the Santa Clara University Board of Fellows.

Caputo has also been honored in Who's Who of Rising Young Americans, and has been rated by Martindale-Hubbell (a legal publication) as "an attorney of exemplary reputation who has a significant client base and high professional standing." This rating was the result of "an extensive, confidential review conducted among the legal professionals in the community."