Anyone experiencing a personal injury has already been touched. First during the collision, the strike, the fall to the ground, etc., that caused the injury. Then by the paramedics, the doctors and nurses, the physical therapists, and more, who are trying to help the injured party through the discomfort.

But to attorney Michael Humphries, it’s the personal touch that matters. No, he won’t change a bandage or adjust a splint, but he will provide a client with the round-the-clock care that helps to ease the kind of pain that’s not always physical.

“You call, you get me, and you get my cell phone number,” he says. “I’ll take late-night calls and calls early in the morning. They can text me. I’ll even come to the client’s house if that is easiest for them. However the client wants to communicate, is how I like to communicate.”

Humphries says it’s the attention he lavishes on his clients that sets him apart in an extremely competitive market.

“There’s a lot of talented attorneys in Jacksonville, and personal injury is very well represented,” Humphries says. “I try to stand out in three ways – being overprepared, having the resolve to take a case to trial, and offering more personal service and attention than some of the larger firms.”

He describes the typical large firm as one that receives a potential client’s inquiries through a call center and passes the file to a paralegal or case manager. He says the client who hires an attorney at a large firm, even with multiple calls, rarely gets to speak with the one handling the case.

This practice, Humphries says, leaves out the most critical element to winning a case: building the relationship with the suffering client.