Joel Hamner

Joel had to work to “pay his way” through school. Although it was discouraged by his law school professors, Joel worked at two of the most prestigious personal injury law firms in Alabama, Pittman, Hooks, Marsh, Dutton & Hollis and Emond & Vines. While working for these law firms, Joel saw first-hand how big corporations and insurance companies take advantage of the less fortunate and people who are injured.

While at Emond & Vines, Joel worked on two cases that would set him on the path to becoming a personal injury lawyer. First, Joel worked with hundreds of Alabama families who had been swindled by an unscrupulous insurance company. These families, most who were elderly and poor, had purchased burial insurance and were told that the policy they purchased would cover the “complete cost of their funeral”. Of course, as the cost of funeral services increased, the insurance company refused to pay for the “complete cost of the funeral” but instead would only pay a small amount toward the funeral costs leaving most of the costs to be borne by the family. Second, Joel worked with a family whose husband and father had been crushed in an industrial accident. This man’s life was tragically and needlessly ended because his employer refused to follow the most basic safety rules. Witnessing the complete lack of concern and indifference by the insurance company and the employer for the people they had wronged and the man that had been killed, Joel devoted himself to seeking justice for those who were wronged, cheated, or injured through no fault of their own.