Anita M. Garza
In May 2015, I came to Chicago to care for a 92 year-old, terminally ill father. He loved gardening, but was unable to do much of anything—just sit on his front porch, and gaze upon his beloved garden. Each year he would take my 89 year-old mother (who had Alzheimer’s) to a garden center to let her pick out annuals. Together, they would work in their garden to plant fresh flowers each year. Due to the terminal diagnosis, I knew he would never be able to do this ever again. Trying to lift my father’s spirits, I went shopping at a big box store’s garden center. While shopping, I fell and broke my arm in the garden center of that big box store. The bills from four ER visits started arriving. The first one was manageable, but the bills kept pouring in, eventually totaling near $10,000.
There have been only two times in my life when I’ve had to use a lawyer. The first lawyer, was a good lawyer and he successfully mediated my case to a resolution. But the second lawyer was Stephen Hoffman. He is beyond a “good” lawyer. Though I didn’t know it at the time, Stephen would play a crucial part in my life, not only as a lawyer, but my representative for everything I wasn’t accomplishing speaking to the company’s representative. My initial conversation was Stephen listening to my story from beginning to end. Personal problems and all. He was brutally honest as he explained in great detail, how these kinds of cases usually ended unsuccessfully. Despite that, and knowing what I was going through in my personal life, he agreed to take my case anyway. In the beginning Stephen had me get every single document relating to my fall, even the receipt for my merchandise. While I spent days in the hospital with my father, Stephen was hard at work, putting together the best possible case. He worked hard and in a timely manner, always aware and sensitive to my father’s worsening condition.
Stephen was professional, attentive, prompt, communicative, patient, thorough, and empathetic to what I was going through with my dying father. He paid close attention to all the small details—things I would never, ever have thought of. I realized that hiring Stephen was the best thing I could have done in my situation, all the way around. As he continued to fight on my behalf, I was now spending 24 hours a day at my father’s side.
I found it difficult to keep up with Stephen, as he aggressively began his fight for justice for me. He was diligent, yet always sensitive to my caring for my father. Every time he and I talked, we spent a great deal of time talking about my case. In the beginning, it was all about my case, but as time went on, Stephen began hearing me pour my heart out about my father. Eventually, my father died, but what started out as a lawyer client relationship, turned out to be a big part of my support team. His sensitivity was something completely unexpected.
After all that happened in the following months, was a call from Stephen, with the news that he had successfully brought my case to resolution, not only for damages, but above and beyond what was initially expected. A lawyer who begins a conversation with you regarding a high rate of being unsuccessful, then calls you to give you the good news that justice had been served, goes beyond the uncertainty of an initial conversation, with a lawyer who had the integrity to be honest from the beginning. If I ever need another lawyer, Stephen is certainly the once for me.