Paoli & Geerhart LLP

Was given Charles O. Geerhart’s contact through the Lawyer Referral and Information Service of The Bar Association of San Francisco, and couldn’t be happier. I showed up for my 30 minute consultation with all of my paper work and had my questions ready. He was very helpful and gave me the advice I was looking for in regards to my personal injury. Have referred him to friends and would again. Charles is friendly and super knowledgeable.

I was hit by a car in an intersection and was referred to Chuck Geerhart by a family member. This was my first ever experience with a law suit. I felt very well taken care of, Chuck did a great job of breaking it down for me. All of my phone calls /​texts /​emails were promptly returned, And I am very happy with my settlement. I will be recommending them to all my friends and cannot speak highly enough of my experience.
Thank you.

The patience needed for a person who has never been involved with a court case before is great. I worked with Tom Paoli from a referral because I never had any experience like this before. Tom was calm, kind, and patient with me. When asking questions about the incident, he did so in a non embarrassing manner. When I didn’t understand the way the business worked, or the terms used, he explained them over and over again without making me feel unintelligent.
I certainly learned a lot from Tom Paoli in the past three years! I feel smarter and better equipped to handle myself if any incident ever happens again. I will recommend this firm to anybody and everybody who has been hurt by a product which is not performing in the way it was manufactured to. If any person is hurt at work or in an accident I would recommend them as well. I think this duo of lawyers work with facts and their hearts. What could anybody else wish for when looking for justice?
KJ Landis

Being involved in a lawsuit can be confusing and stressful. Whenever I spoke with Chuck Geerhart, I felt reassured that everything would be OK. He is an excellent lawyer who always provided sound advice. He is very thorough and an intelligent guy. In the end everything worked out great for me.

I highly recommend Tom Paoli he was very patient and very personable. If you want an attorney to respond to your calls, emails and concerns, Tom Paoli is the one. He represented me far above my expectations.

Chuck goes the extra mile to win. Chuck leaves no rock unturned when looking for ways to get the best results to get the highest awards.

Chuck is truly the best! I can’t thank him enough for all his hard work. Chuck is a very caring and kind hearted person. He did a great job helping me feel comfortable during my depositing and during mediation. I could not have asked for a better attorney! I would highly recommend him to anyone.

Chuck and Tom are excellent, experienced personal injury trial attorneys. I have known them for years and they are some of the most knowledgeable injury attorneys around. They are also wonderful people. I give them the highest possible rating for skill, ethics and fearlessness.

Top notch personal injury lawyers. I’ve known both Tom and Chuck for decades. I’ve seen their good work first hand. Each is highly skilled and of the highest ethical caliber. As a fellow attorney, I would never hesitate to refer a serious PI matter to this firm.

i am not used to getting lawyers and fighting people but it was important to me both Tom and Chuck helped me in a case where i owed a lot in medical bills for an injury that happened thru no fault of my own. They were thoughtful and caring put the work in and made sure i didnt feel intimidated when my health was poor they accepted my limitations and fought hard to win the case. If you have any doubts that they will work for you too put your mind at rest these guys are my troupers and i recommend them without hesitation.

Chuck Geerhart and Tom Paoli really care about the people they help. I have worked closely with them on many projects. They are as thorough and as polished as you will ever see. And they have the courage to try their clients’ cases when they need to.
You will not find any better.

I just want to say my experience with Tom Paoli as my personal injury attorney, was a blessing. Very nervous about the whole experience, while Mr. Paoli, professional and knowledgeable, was a gift! He saved me half the amount on the hospital bill, and was very honest about the ending amount abtained. I’m so pleased with the outcome and the overall experience, I consider Tom Paoli a new friend.

This 5 star review is really a no brainer. Chuck Geerhart represented me in two personal injury cases, both motorcycle accidents. Now Im a Biker and a theatre person. Im not a big legal guy. Im not familiar with legal terms, or all the steps involved in preparing any kind of a case. But both of these accidents resulted in me having to be hospitalized, and in a cast. Chuck was from the beginning to the end transparent, informative, available and best of all compassionate. There was never a point where I was wondering what was going on. I was told all the ins and outs of every step and in both cases I was awarded the best possible settlement and in a timely fashion. I have recommended them to my friends and I will use them again if I unfortunately ever have to.

Excellent legal service. Outstanding legal planning and attainment of mutually agreed-​upon goals. This was my experience of Paoli & Geerhart, LLP, this and so much more.
I called Chuck Geerhart while I was still in the hospital. He came to visit me while I was recovering at home. From the beginning, through discovery, mediation, the rigors of trial, and defendant-​resisted collection of a multimillion-​dollar jury award, Chuck Geerhart and Tom Paoli showed again and again that they are experienced, skillful attorneys-​with hearts. My advice is: don’t go back in the closet to find attorneys who will take the «big guys» to the mat on your behalf-​we didn’t have to.
I am a lesbian married to a lesbian, I am a retired paralegal and my wife, a retired attorney. My injury occurred as a result of food-​preparation negligence by Foster Farms Poultry and Round Table Pizza (see Felicity vs Foster Poultry Farms, et al, litigated in Contra Costa County, jury trial in the Martinez, CA court in the Spring of 2012). I was in the hospital initially for 33 days, and underwent 13 operations during that time, and 3 major ones since (I still have one to go). My medical bills pre-​mediation were in the neighborhood of three-​quarters of a million dollars. Every doctor, every nurse who helped me get well, asked if I had contacted an attorney to help me with the case they were certain should be litigated.
When I could barely speak, I spoke to Chuck Geerhart. While I was still attached to a feeding tube, a wound vacuum, and dangerously ill, I also contacted four other San Francisco plaintiff’s attorney firms with «big reps» per their internet ads and recommendations from other people. I also interviewed «out» queer attorneys. Other attorneys pointed out that the defense would have defenses, argued these probable defenses to me on the phone, and told me I should not even sue. Other attorneys, including queer attorneys, told me that my wife and family would have to go back in the closet, or that the likely award would be minimal. Other attorneys decided that it would be too expensive to litigate my case, and therefore the award would not be worth it (to them), and regretfully informed me they couldn’t take the case. But Chuck and Tom listened from the beginning, kept costs low and manageable, and still litigated the case to a nearly overwhelming jury conclusion in our favor-​the jury awarded MORE than we had originally requested as our last attempt to offer a settlement proposal to the «big guys».
AND my wife may be the first-​ever lesbian in California to win her related loss of consortium case.
From the beginning of the case, the «big guys» sneered at us: two married lesbians, one of us injured terribly through their negligence (I swallowed a chicken bone on a Round Table pizza containing «boneless» chicken strips from Foster Farms Poultry). The «big guys» thought we would give up. They argued that it was MY negligence that caused me to swallow that bone. They argued that I deliberately waited to go to the emergency room until the injury was so heinous it was even MORE life-​threatening that it had been at first. They argued that any fool (like me) should know that «chickens have bones» and chew boneless chicken strips (on a pizza) accordingly. The «big guys» argued that their food prep is the best in the universe, and therefore they couldn’t have been negligent. But they were negligent, as Chuck and Tom argued, and the jury agreed.
It is everywhere out there in the u-​verse: plaintiff’s attorneys are seen as the «bad guys» of the legal world. Well, that simply isn’t true, at least it isn’t true of these two marvelous legal warriors. Not only did they win the day and our respect, they also won the respect of the jury, the judge, the court clerks, my treating doctors, and the witnesses who spoke against us in court. Chuck and Tom gave us an incredible gift: to listen and hear us completely, to believe us implicitly, to respect us entirely, and then to enjoin on our behalf in the complexities of legal battle, and WIN!
If I could endorse this firm, Paoli & Geerhart, any more thoroughly in person that I have here, in print, I will be glad to do so. You are welcome to contact me personally for that endorsement: Calla Felicity, at
. I will be only too happy to tell you that if these guys take on your case, you are in for an experience like no other I ever imagined: outstanding legal representation by attorneys with heart, who treat plaintiffs as though each case is the MOST important case in the world (which it is, to each of us who ever has to go through this process in order to seek justice).
WE WON!

I really didn’t want to sue, I really didn’t. But when I realized I had no choice because 1) I was not going to be able to work for a few months, and 2) the party responsible for my injuries was actually trying to blame me for the accident, I called Chuck Geerhart. He was listed on some bicycle advocacy site, so I thought he might be familier with cases like mine. Having worked with Attorneys in the past, I was wary of hiring some sleazy PI attorney.
Chuck was extremely down-​to-​earth, forthright and ethical, which was reassuring to me that I was doing the right thing when I had to reluctantly sue to get my injuries – and some of the the fallout from them – taken care of. He is highly informed about bicycle law in the city of San Francisco, but has expertise in other liability issues as well.
In the end, the compensation I received did not even closely make up for the negative impact this accident has had on my life – and I will have to manage pain the rest of my life as a result of it – but he got me more than if I had tried to fight this battle alone. If you are at all wondering if hiring an attorney might be right for you, give them a call. He can tell you over the phone if it’s worth your time and theirs, to pursue a case.