W. Clayton Williford - Irvine, CA

Clayton Williford is a partner and attorney at Woods Williford Personal Injury Attorneys. He has dedicated his entire legal career to helping injured people. He has education and experience in helping patients heal and in advocating for their rights to get the compensation that they deserve when in an accident. He understands that healing is not just physical, but is emotional and psychological as well. He strives to take burdens off of clients' shoulders and stand in their shoes so that he can give them advice and lead them to a successful outcome.

An Attorney Who Understands the Medical Process

Mr. Williford's undergraduate degree from BYU was in pre-medicine and he worked for five years in multiple hospitals and outpatient physical therapy centers in North Carolina, Utah, and California. His most rewarding experience in the medical field was working to help people who had suffered spinal cord injuries, broken bones, strokes, and traumatic brain injuries. He helped people learn to walk again as a physical therapist aide and became an emotional coach for those that were going through very difficult changes in their lives. He was inspired how people were able to have positive outlooks and strength to carry on even when they were paralyzed. His schooling in anatomy, physiology, biology, and sports medicine helped him to understand the medical terminology which is important in the personal injury field. The invaluable experience at the hospitals helped him understand the medical language of the doctors, nurses, and insurance companies. He also learned that sometimes, when people are injured, they need a friend that will listen to them and help them know that someone is on their side.

An Attorney Who Understands that Insurance Companies Are Broken

The reason that Clayton Williford decided not to become a doctor or physical therapist is because he saw that the insurance companies were failing to protect and pay claims for those that needed the help.

"I was working with a patient that had been severely injured and had suffered a traumatic brain injury. Although the patient was making progress, there was still a long way to go before the person was going to be made whole by the treatment. I was informed by the office staff that we were no longer able to treat that client because the patient's insurance company only allowed 12 visits for that type of injury. This infuriated me to know that some insurance executive sitting in an office in Connecticut could send a blanket denial for needed services because the 'appropriate amount of visits' for the diagnosis were already met. How could our system be so robotic as to not allow the physical therapist, doctor, or client make the decision on what that individual's body needs in order to heal? I realized at that moment that as a doctor or a physical therapist, I would have little power to help people without having to cower to the insurance companies' wills on how much treatment a person receives.

I decided to become an attorney so that I could fight for clients that need more than 12 visits when they get run over by a 6,000-pound truck. Every person is different, each case is different, and we can't allow the insurance companies or government become too powerful to allow each individual the right to have the care and money they need to compensate them for their loses."

An Attorney Who Believes in the Constitution

After graduating high school in 1998, Clayton Williford served as a missionary for 2 years in Venezuela where he learned to fluently speak Spanish and learned that serving fellow human beings was more important than anything else he could do in his life. He also saw what a corrupt government and diminished rights could do to a people and a country. He saw that people did not have an avenue for criminal or civil justice that was efficient and working. The police and civil leaders would openly threaten to do nothing to help unless they were paid a bribe. The "extra processing fees" created a system where only the wealthy could have their grievances heard or resolved. The constitution which was previously modeled around the U.S. Constitution was altered so that the President had more control than the courts. This concentration of power removed the protections to life, liberty, and property from the individual for the "good of the whole." The failed experiment continues to starve the people of Venezuela to this day.

Mr. Williford is grateful that our country has a constitution that gives the right to both criminal and civil jury trials. The right to a civil jury trial was established by the 7th Amendment in the United States Constitution and also by Article 1, Section 16 by the California Constitution. Mr. Williford believes that every person injured by the negligence of another should have the right to a civil jury trial in order to hold people responsible for ruining other's lives. It is not about revenge, it is about being responsible and paying for what you break. The most valuable property that one holds is in their mind and body and damage done to mind and body should be compensated accordingly.