It began with a $63,000 debt. Our geologist client performed environmental tests, and then testified as an expert witness in
a successful toxics pollution case. His testimony won the case, but the lawyers for the winning side refused to pay the fee
they had agreed to.

After he had not been paid for nearly a year, our client reluctantly threatened legal action. He was stunned when the lawyers
baldly announced that they had never intended to pay, and would harass him with so many expensive legal cross-actions
that he would rue the day he had tried to collect his debt.

We filed suit on our client's behalf, and successfully defeated every legal roadblock the lawyers--and their national law
firm--tried to erect. Three years later our persistence paid off.

"But for the courage of one lawyer," said Alameda County Superior Court Judge Jacqueline Taber, referring to attorney
Jelinek, "this case would have gone down the drain." She announced her decision: the debt paid in full, with interest, all
attorneys' fees and court costs, damages for the fraudulent promise to pay, and $4 million in punitive damages--over $5
million in all. Since then the verdict has been upheld all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.