Every word on this page was written by a client, not by us. The Vertanous Firm has recovered more than $60 Million for injured Californians, including a $22.6 Million jury verdict against the City of Los Angeles, but a verdict sheet does not tell you what it feels like to be represented. Reviews do. We publish ours exactly as our clients wrote them, and we publish nothing else.
Why This Page Exists
Any firm can buy a billboard on the 210. Any firm can call itself aggressive, dedicated, and relentless on a website its own marketing company wrote. None of that costs anything, and none of it tells you what happened to the last person who signed a retainer.
A review does. It is written after the case is over, by someone with no reason to be generous, on a platform the firm does not control. That is why the reviews on this page are reproduced word for word, with nothing trimmed and nothing polished. If a sentence in one of them sounds a little rough, that is because a real client wrote it, and we would rather show you the real thing than a version we improved.
Read them on Yelp and Google yourself. Then read the sections below, which explain the legal work behind what those clients experienced, because every review is describing something specific that happened in a file.
Ani A., Glendale
Ani's review describes a driver with what she calls "a low max coverage," and a recovery that came in at more than the at-fault driver's policy limit. That is not magic, whatever the review says. It is the part of a crash case most people never learn about: the at-fault driver's liability policy is often not the only money on the table.
When the driver who hit you carries a minimum policy, the case turns into a coverage investigation. Does your own policy include uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage under Insurance Code section 11580.2? Was the driver working at the time, which can reach an employer's commercial policy? Was there a vehicle owner separate from the driver? Was a business serving alcohol, a property owner, or a public entity responsible for the roadway also part of the story? Each answer is a separate policy, and each one is found by asking early, not by hoping the adjuster volunteers it.
The other half of the work is proving the injuries well enough that every available policy pays its limit rather than a discount. That is documentation: consistent treatment, the imaging, the treating physician's opinion on future care, and a demand the carrier can see is trial ready. The full explanation lives on our Pasadena car accident lawyer page, and the honest breakdown of case value is here: what your car accident case is worth. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome, and no two coverage pictures are alike.
Tony K., Burbank
Tony's review says something we work hard to earn: after one meeting, Tom understood the medicine behind his condition and found the right doctors. That sentence describes the difference between a claim and a case.
Insurance carriers do not discount injury claims by arguing about negligence. They discount them by arguing about medicine: the gap in treatment, the degenerative finding on the MRI, the symptom nobody wrote down, the specialist nobody sent you to. A lawyer who cannot read the records cannot answer any of that, so the file gets valued on the carrier's version of your body.
Tom came to law from medicine, publishes on the science behind these injuries, and works directly with treating physicians, neurologists, neuropsychologists, and life-care planners. It matters most in the cases the defense likes to dismiss: concussions and post-concussive symptoms, disc injuries with modest property damage, and the slow, unglamorous injuries that reshape a life without ever showing up on an X-ray. Our approach to those cases is set out on the California traumatic brain injury lawyer page, and Tom's background is on the attorney page.
Bobby S., Los Angeles
Bobby's review uses two words that belong together: straight shooter. Clients hear a great deal of comfortable vagueness from lawyers, and almost none of it survives contact with a defense verdict.
We tell clients what their case actually looks like, including the parts they do not want to hear: the comparative fault the defense will argue, the treatment gap that will be used against them, the coverage limit that caps a claim no matter how badly they were hurt. Then we tell them what we intend to do about each one. A client who understands the weaknesses in their own case makes better decisions at mediation, and a client who was told only good news feels ambushed when the first offer arrives.
The other half of that review is access. This is a small firm on purpose. The attorney you meet is the attorney who reads your records, writes your demand, takes your deposition calls, and stands up at the hearing. That structure is also why we take a limited number of serious cases at a time rather than a warehouse full of files.
Want to talk to the attorney, not an intake screen?
Free Case ReviewLeave a Review
The next person reading this page is scared, hurt, and trying to decide whether to trust a stranger with the worst year of their life. Two minutes of your honesty is worth more to them than anything we could write.
Write what actually happened. If something frustrated you, say that too. We would rather read an honest three-star review and fix the problem than collect compliments that teach us nothing. And please do not include details about your settlement terms if your resolution was confidential.
Honest Limits
Reviews measure the experience of being represented. They do not predict outcomes, and any firm that presents them that way is selling something. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome, because your case will be decided by your facts: who was at fault, what the medicine shows, what insurance exists, and how well the file is built.
So use reviews for what they are good at, and use these questions for the rest. Ask any lawyer you are considering, including us:
You can also verify any California lawyer's license and discipline history through the State Bar of California. Tom Vertanous is State Bar number 330760.
How We Work
The reviews describe it in their own words. Here it is in ours.
Call, text, or send the form. Consultations are free, and we return calls on evenings and weekends because injuries do not keep business hours.
Preservation letters for surveillance footage, event data recorder downloads, witness statements, and the records the other side hopes nobody asks for. Footage is overwritten in days. We move in the first week.
Treating physicians, the right specialists, imaging where it is warranted, and life-care planning when the injury is permanent. The demand the carrier receives is the case they would face at trial.
Every offer comes to you with our recommendation and our reasoning. Settling is your call, and so is trying the case.
We work on contingency and advance the costs. If there is no recovery, you owe no attorney fee.
And we do all of it in English, Armenian, and Farsi, which for many of our clients in Glendale, Pasadena, and the San Gabriel Valley is the difference between explaining their injury and having a relative attempt to translate it.
Behind the Reviews
Reviews tell you how the work felt. Results tell you what the work produced. Ours include a $22.6 Million jury verdict against the City of Los Angeles after a fourteen day trial, a $17.4 Million settlement for catastrophic injuries from an explosion at an illegally operated marijuana dispensary, a $6.8 Million settlement on negligent security and premises liability theories, and a $2.5 Million settlement for a catastrophic injury from a motor vehicle collision, resolved at mediation. Each one is set out in full, with its rankings and its limits, on our case results page.
If you are deciding what kind of case you have, start with the practice pages: Pasadena personal injury lawyer, premises liability, dangerous condition of public property, and wrongful death. If you are a lawyer with a case that needs trial counsel, our referral page explains how we co-counsel.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
If we don't win, you don't pay.
The consultation is free. The representation is on contingency. If there is no recovery, you owe no attorney fee.
Questions We Hear Every Week
Yes. Every review published here was written by a client on a public platform and is reproduced word for word, with the reviewer's name shown as the platform shows it. We do not write reviews, edit them, or publish anything a client did not say. You can read them on Yelp and Google yourself, and we link to both profiles on this page.
On our Yelp profile and our Google Business Profile. Both are linked on this page and in the footer of every page on this site. Read them there rather than here if you want the unfiltered version, including the dates, the reviewer histories, and anything posted after this page was last updated.
Use our direct Google review link at g.page/r/CS9mss3FriawEBM/review, or post on our Yelp profile. Both take about two minutes. Write what actually happened, including anything we could have done better. A review that reads like a real person wrote it helps the next injured person far more than a perfect one.
No. Every case is decided on its own facts: liability, the medicine, the available insurance coverage, and how the case is built. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. What reviews can tell you is how a firm communicates, how hard it works a file, and whether clients felt represented. That is worth knowing before you sign anything.
With Tom. This is a small firm by design, and the attorney whose name is on the door is the attorney who works your file, takes your calls, argues your motions, and sits in the mediation. Clients notice the difference, and it is the theme that shows up most often in our reviews.
English, Armenian, and Farsi. You can describe your injury, your treatment, and your family situation in the language you actually think in. Nothing important gets lost while a relative translates medical terms at the kitchen table.
Nothing out of pocket. We work on contingency: the consultation is free, we advance the costs, and if there is no recovery you owe no attorney fee.
Client Reviews
Ani A., Glendalevia Yelp"The guy who hit me had a low max coverage. I don't know what magic Vertanous Firm worked, but I got paid for my damages less than a year out from my accident, and was paid three times more than the policy limit."
Tony K., Burbankvia Yelp"Tom is the absolute best. He knows the law and he also knows medicine. One meeting with Tom and he was able to understand the medicine behind my condition and find the appropriate doctors."
Bobby S., Los Angelesvia Yelp"Tom is a straight shooter and he's whip-smart. He treated my case as though it were his own. He has a gift for compassion that sets him apart from other legal professionals."
Where We Work
From our office at 301 N. Lake Ave in Pasadena, we represent injured people across the San Gabriel Valley and all of Los Angeles County, in English, Armenian, and Farsi.
Contact
Call, text, email, or send a brief message. We respond the same day. Free consultation. No fee unless we win.
