Personal Injury Lawyers

Serving Orange, Beaumont, Port Arthur, and Surrounding Areas Of Texas

Don Bush l Ken Lewis l John Smith l Chris Smith l Dale Hanks

We are trial lawyers dedicated to preserving the right to trial by jury and using the power of the law to its fullest extent to seek and gain relief for the victims of wrongs by others, especially wrongs caused by careless conduct, intentional actions, medical malpractice, environmental pollution, and defective or dangerous products.

Don Bush, Ken Lewis, John Smith, Chris Smith and Dale Hanks are specialist in personal injury and death cases. As personal injury attorneys in Texas, Ken Lewis, Don Bush, Jack Smith and Chris Smith are all Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

Our board certified lawyers are pleased to be among the two percent of Texas attorneys who have earned Board Certification by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. To be Board Certified, a lawyer must have been licensed to practice for at least five years, practiced personal injury trial law for at least three years, devoted a minimum of 25% of his or her law practice to personal injury trial law, handled a wide variety of personal injury trial law matters to demonstrate experience and involvement, attended personal injury trial law continuing education seminars regularly to keep specialized legal training current, been evaluated by fellow lawyers and judges as to both ability and character, and passed a day-long written specialized examination.

As personal injury lawyers in Texas, we are committed to a team concept in the handling of cases. The team includes the client, the lawyers' staff and the lawyers. We expect our clients to do their share of the work.

We are convinced that the best law firm is one that is greater than the sum of its individual parts. Everyone in the law firm must bring special skills to the firm and help create a firm greater than any single person or lawyer could create. Only in this way can a law firm become more than the individual lawyers and the support staff.

We are committed to hiring only employees of exceptional ability who make pleasant and talented co-workers.

We are always striving to be the best, not the biggest law firm. This means a well-managed, innovative, technologically advanced firm, with access to the best consultants and networking with the best lawyers in other locations.

We are devoted to making a difference with each client we serve, and in our community. Our clients are our highest priority and we will represent a client only if we can enthusiastically provide quality legal services in an efficient manner. It is our belief that not every personal injury or wrongful death is someone else's fault under the law. Because we know there is no substitute for integrity, we take only personal injury and wrongful death cases when we are convinced that there really is a case and the case can be handled economically for both the client and our firm.

We are convinced that being the best in our law practice requires constant pursuit of excellence and response to change. All of our lawyers and legal assistants are required to continually seek additional education to stay abreast of changes in the law, medicine and other areas important to client cases. When we commit to take your case, your cause becomes our cause. We bring all our resources and experience to focus on your case.

DON BUSH - Personal Injury Attorney in Beaumont, Texas

As I reflect on almost thirty years of practicing law in Southeast Texas, I remember people who came to me for help during a time of great crisis and need in their lives:

...a young widow and mother crushed by the unexpected drowning death of her husband who was her sole source of support;

...a beautiful couple with two daughters whose dreams for the future came to a crashing halt when they had a head-on collision which killed one daughter and caused permanently disabling injuries to the mother and surviving daughter;

...a widow and her small children grieving over the needless death of a husband and father killed because of dangerous road conditions;

...a young man battling cancer caused from chemical exposure and the depression that comes
with an uncertain future;

...a young truck driver / delivery man with his life and career ahead of him, who suddenly lost his eye because of a defective and dangerously designed product; and countless others who found help when they desperately needed it.

Standing in the gap to protect the rights of those who are hurting, helpless and less fortunate members of our society is a high calling and great responsibility -- one to be taken very seriously.

The legal profession, and especially trial attorneys, should make helping people a top priority. There are principles and standards of conduct, which have existed for centuries and form the very foundation for our legal system. The essence of these is recognition of authority and respect and concern for our fellow man and woman.

We must never shirk our responsibility to widows, orphans, disabled, and helpless victims by making corporate profits more important than the safety and welfare of individuals and families.

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KEN LEWIS - Personal Injury Attorney in Beaumont, Texas

No occupation more often tests the strength of a person's faith, ethics and honor than that of a trial lawyer. On an almost daily basis the trial lawyer makes decisions on what cases to accept, counsel to provide, disclosures to make, positions and policies to advocate, and actions to take that affect clients, opposing parties and lawyers, the disenfranchised and voiceless, the trial lawyer and associates, family, and the public. Temptation and the easy rationalization for deviation daily offer up as paths of least resistance.

Honesty and integrity fall easy victims to the compulsions to win and get along. The higher the stakes, the easier the excuse comes and more sophisticated the explanation for abandonment of the correct path. The "everybody does it" thinking becomes commonplace.

Trial lawyer advocacy does not require and must not permit acceptance of this deviation from faith, ethics and honor. The trial lawyer's commitment should be to guide the jury and judge in this evaluation and judgment as a zealous and prepared but honest and ethical advocate.

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JOHN CASH SMITH- Personal Injury Attorney in Southeast Texas

John Cash Smith graduated from Baylor University in 1961 and from the University of Texas School of Law in 1964. He was an Assistant City Attorney for the City of Austin from 1964 to 1966, and practiced law privately in Orange from 1966 until 1981, at which time his law firm in Orange merged with Mehaffy Weber, P.L.L.C. Mr. Smith became a senior litigation shareholder with that firm in 1981. He joined Bush Lewis in January 2003, and continues to specialize in personal injury trial law. Mr. Smith has been board certified in labor and employment law. He is licensed to practice by the State Bar of Texas, and is licensed to practice in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, the Fifth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court.

During his 41 years of law practice, Mr. Smith has specialized in personal injury trial law, employment law, and municipal law. Mr. Smith's practice centers around complex personal injury and civil trials involving both plaintiffs and defendants, and municipal law. He has served as City Attorney for the City of Orange since 1992. He serves as general counsel for the Nelda C. and H.J. Lutcher Stark Foundation. Mr. Smith has tried over 100 cases to a jury verdict in his career. Mr. Smith is past president of the Orange County Bar Association. He is a fellow in the Texas Bar Foundation, a member of the American Trial Lawyers Association and the Texas Trial Lawyers Association. Mr. Smith has made numerous continuing legal education presentations and has written articles on personal injury trial law.

Mr. Smith is very active in the Orange community and in his church. He is presently a member of the Orange Rotary Club, is on the Board of Directors of the Lamar State College Orange Foundation, and the Board of the Lutcher Theater. He served for eight years on the Administrative Committee of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, two years as Chairman.

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Chris Smith - Personal Injury Attorney in Southeast Texas

Chris Smith grew up in Orange, Texas, as the son of a trial lawyer who represented people injured by the wrongdoing of others and a public school teacher. He understood at an early age the importance of both education and community service. He was very active in the Boy Scouts of America, earning the rank of eagle scout in 1987. He was a member of the United States Contingent to the World Scout Jamboree in Australia and New Zealand in 1987-88.

Chris has traveled extensively and developed a world perspective from first hand experience that cannot be obtained from book study alone. His travels have taken him to the countries of Egypt, Israel, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Germany, France, Great Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, Switzerland, and Czechoslovakia.

While at Hamshire-Fannett, Chris was active in a variety of extra curricular activities and graduated with honors. After earning an undergraduate degree in Philosophy at Baylor University, he earned a degree in English at the University of Texas at Austin. At the University of Texas, he was sports editor of the Daily Texan, one of the top college newspapers in America and the nation's second largest college daily with readership of over 50,000 people. Chris ended his tenure at the Daily Texan as Associate Managing Editor, a position in which he supervised a 70 person staff.

Chris's wife Stacy, teaches English in the Little Cypress-Maurceville School District. They are the parents of a daughter and a son.

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Dale Hanks - Personal Injury Attorney in Southeast Texas

Dale Hanks grew up camping in the Piney Woods and fishing in the lakes, bayous and bays of Southeast Texas. From an early age, he realized the irreplaceable value of nature's gifts - clean air and water - and the importance of keeping our environment free of toxic pollutants, safe for humans, wildlife, and plant life. He also realized that not all of our corporate neighbors in this area share that view, but instead seem content to put their chemical wastes into our community's air and water.

Dale has pursued his environmental concerns in his law career. After graduating from the University of Texas Law School in 1984, he immediately began to represent workers and community members who contracted cancer and other diseases caused by exposure to toxic chemicals. Although he has handled and will continue to handle all types of serious personal injury cases, Dale has concentrated his practice on the representation of victims of toxic exposures.

Dale is a member of the adjunct faculty of the University of Texas Medical School at Galveston, in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health, where he has participated in teaching the legal aspect of occupational medicine to medical students.

Dale and his wife Karen, have two children.

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