The case for hiring someone who has done this a long time.
Practicing in Bakersfield since 1989
Experience is easy to claim and hard to describe. In personal injury work it comes down to something narrow and practical: knowing what a case is worth before the insurer tells you, and being unbothered when the first number is low.
There is a version of this work that runs on volume — sign the case, send the demand, take what the carrier offers, move on. It is a real business model and it produces predictable, mediocre results for clients who never learn what else was possible.
The alternative requires having seen enough of these files to recognize when an offer is a real evaluation and when it is an opening position. That recognition is not a talent. It is accumulated repetition — thousands of claims, over three decades, in the same courts, against many of the same carriers and defense firms.
The career, in order.
J. Reuben Clark Law School
Earned his law degree at Brigham Young University and passed the California Bar the same year.
Admitted to the California Bar
Licensed to practice law in California, active and in good standing ever since.
Borton, Petrini & Conron
Began his career at one of California’s oldest law firms, founded in Bakersfield in 1899, handling large-loss oil and gas matters, energy litigation, and mass casualty claims.
Opened his own practice
Left to found the Law Offices of Craig E. Johnson and narrowed the practice to representing injured plaintiffs. He has not taken a defense case since.
Still the lawyer on your file
More than three decades later, the practice remains small by choice. The attorney who evaluates a case is the one who negotiates it and the one who would try it.
Three things, specifically.
A credible threat to try the case
Settlement value tracks trial risk. An insurer that believes a lawyer will not file, will not take depositions, and will not pick a jury has very little reason to pay full value. The willingness to go the distance is worth money even in cases that never get near a courtroom.
Knowing how the defense builds its file
Three years spent on large-loss defense work at the start of a career is an odd credential for a plaintiff's lawyer. It is also the reason the weaknesses a carrier will eventually raise get addressed early, while there is still time to address them.
A straight answer about your case
Including, sometimes, that it is not worth what you hope, or is not worth bringing at all. Clients are entitled to a real evaluation rather than an encouraging one, and they are entitled to hear it in the language they actually speak.