Referring Attorneys

Garmer & Prather, PLLC, is a highly respected, AV®-rated, Lexington, Kentucky, litigation firm with a statewide practice in personal injury, wage and hour, and class action litigation. In addition to our core practice, in recent years we have served as local counsel in cases ranging from medical malpractice to airplane crashes to Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) collective actions.

We devote our practice to representing plaintiffs who have suffered catastrophic injury or death, or serious economic harm. We have earned a reputation for achieving excellent results for those clients. Among our areas of practice are medical negligence, products liability, nursing home abuse, truck crashes, aviation disasters, and wage theft. But we have the experience and resources to take on almost any tort action involving severe injury or death. We have been class counsel in nearly a dozen class or collective actions since 2012, and were among the lead counsel in the Comair 5191 commercial air disaster. Our experience ranges from single-victim acts of negligence to mass torts and federal multi-district litigation.

Our attorneys are active trial lawyers and appellate advocates. Our philosophy is to prepare every case under the assumption that it will ultimately be decided by a jury, and the lawyers of Garmer & Prather are always prepared to stand before the court and say, "The Plaintiff is ready, Your Honor." We take a comprehensive approach to every case, and handle each one from investigation to verdict, through the last appeal.

Our founding partner, Bill Garmer, was an innovator and trendsetter in Kentucky law for more than three decades. He has successfully represented clients in cases like Hilen v. Hays, 673 S.W.2d 713 (Ky. 1984), which led the Kentucky Supreme Court to adopt comparative negligence, and was later named the #1 civil jury verdict of all time by the Kentucky Trial Court Review, and Williams v. St. Claire Medical Center, 657 S.W.2d 590 (Ky. App. 1983), in which the Court adopted the doctrine of ostensible agency, holding hospitals liable for the acts of physicians acting as independent contractors. Today, the tradition of excellence is carried on by Jay Prather and his colleagues. Jay has been listed on SuperLawyer's "Top 50" list for the State of Kentucky since 2024, one of only a handful of lawyers with a Plaintiff-focused litigation practice to achieve that distinction. His recent accomplishments include Gonzalez v. Johnson, 581 S.W.3d 529 (Ky. 2019), securing the reversal of more than 70 years of established law relating to police chases, so that juries can consider the fault of the responsible law enforcement officers in cases where bystanders are injured or killed by fleeing suspects. Among them, our attorneys have more than forty published appellate decisions and have handled more than 150 cases before state and federal appellate courts. We have also been called on to file amicus curiae briefs on behalf of groups including the Kentucky Justice Association and Teamsters Local 783.

We practice in every state and federal court in the Commonwealth. Whether your client's cause of action occurred in Lexington, Louisville, Covington, or anywhere else from the Big Sandy to the Mississippi, we stand ready to help.

Major personal injury cases require an enormous expenditure of time and money, and it may take years to achieve a return on this substantial investment. It can be a risky proposition and heavy financial burden for a lawyer to take on a single plaintiff's case. If you are an attorney or a firm that does not routinely handle contingency cases, or if you simply do not have the time or inclination to give a catastrophic injury case the attention it demands, please contact Garmer & Prather. Catastrophic injury cases are all we do. We have the experience and the resources to evaluate your case, and then work with you through final resolution.

Sometimes a resident of another state is hurt while in Kentucky. Other times, a Kentucky resident seeks counsel from an out-of-state attorney who has particular experience fitting the client's personalized legal needs, but who is not licensed to practice in Kentucky. Or, there may be times when it would be beneficial to file your case in a Kentucky state or federal court when your client has a choice among several proper venues.

We are always glad to discuss these legal issues with other attorneys, and to provide our analysis to help you decide where to file your case. Should you decide to file in Kentucky, we will support your motion for admission pro hac vice and work closely with you throughout the case. Or, if you prefer, we will take full responsibility for the case, relieving you of worry about idiosyncratic rules of procedure and foreign law, as well as the burden of frequent travel to a far-off venue.

Kentucky's Statute of Limitations, generally found at KRS §§ 413.010-340, is often just one year in personal injury cases. If you are an out-of-state attorney with a possible cause of action in Kentucky, contact us or another Kentucky lawyer as soon as possible.

We are never a "silent partner." At Garmer & Prather, if we put our name on a case, we will be actively involved in every stage of the litigation. Our fee-sharing arrangements are negotiated on a case-by-case basis, and reflect the high level of involvement and experience we bring to the case. Agreements are based on many factors, including the relative participation of each firm in the day-to-day conduct of the case, provision of administrative support services, and division of expenses. If you prefer not to remain actively involved, we will take full responsibility for the case.

All fee-sharing agreements are designed to be in full compliance with the Kentucky Rules of Professional Conduct. We take our professional reputation seriously, and strive to conduct our practice in accordance with the highest ethical standards of our profession and society; we expect that our co-counsel will always do the same.