Lawyer's office called a "settlement mill"

   Anyone who watches daytime television would be hard-pressed to miss the advertisements of attorney Franklin D. Azar, who bills himself "The Strong Arm."

   The Aurora-based attorney, who also has offices in Colorado Springs and Pueblo, specializes in automobile crash claims and boasts he can get the most money from insurance companies.

   But according to Colorado Springs attorney Patric LeHouillier, who has filed lawsuits against Azar alleging negligence and false advertising, Azar's firm is a "settlement mill" that rarely takes cases to trial.

   One of those lawsuits, brought by Shawna Jimenez of Colorado Springs, came to trial Monday. She is seeking more than $500,000 in damages. Another trial is scheduled for December, and a third does not have a date yet, court records show.

   "It's just a cookie-cutter process," LeHouillier said during his opening statements Tuesday, noting that Azar spends more than $100,000 per month in advertising to gain "prospects," not clients.

   Jimenez called Azar's firm after she suffered neck injuries in a car crash in 2004. An attorney in Azar's firm, Nancy Fisher, eventually got Jimenez a $25,000 settlement from her insurance company.

   She's alleging Fisher was inexperienced, didn't investigate her case enough and pressured her to settle. Jimenez also claims she was duped by Azar's TV commercials.

   LeHouillier told jurors the firm only tries one in 500 cases and the firm's attorneys have monthly meetings where a "shark award" is given to the attorney who gets the most money in settlements.

   "The lawyers are encouraged to just crank them out," LeHouillier said. "That's what they do."

   Azar's attorney, Marc Levy, countered that Jimenez never complained about Fisher's work, willingly signed the settlement offer and even continued to use the firm for more than a year when she was involved in a second crash in 2005.

   Levy said the allegations are simply theory brought "by a competitor who doesn't like (Azar's) advertising."

   Fisher worked hard on Jimenez's case, which would not have been an easy win had the case gone to trial, Levy said.

   "Mr. Azar set his firm up more than 20 years ago to help people who have small claims who could not get a lawyer," Levy said. "That's where the advertising comes in. It enables them to do volume so they can take these smaller claims.

   "You try to get a lawyer to take a $5,000 case."

   Azar got his license to practice law in Colorado in 1983. His file with the Colorado Supreme Court's Office of Attorney Regulation shows "no public disciplinary history."

   The trial is expected to last two to three weeks.

   CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0110 or dennis.huspeni@gazette.com