The attorneys for injured people.
A Lafayette injury firm since 1974. Free consultation, no fee unless you recover, and somebody answers at any hour.
Call the officeThe courthouse is across the street.
That is the firm's own description of where it sits, on its own About page. Cooke Law Firm has worked from Columbia Street since 1974, close enough to the Tippecanoe County courthouse to walk there.
One kind of case, for over fifty years.
Jeffrey A. Cooke opened the firm in 1974. His son J. Aaron joined him in 1997. Between them they have around eighty years of it, and all of it has gone on the same thing: people who were hurt, and families of people who were killed, by somebody else's carelessness.
The first conversation costs nothing.
Call 765-340-2776. The firm states that an attorney or an experienced legal assistant is available twenty-four hours a day, and you are not committing to anything by asking a question.
The accident takes seconds. The rest of it takes months.
An adjuster rings while you are still in a sling. There are forms, a recorded statement, and a figure that sounds generous until you price out the physiotherapy. None of it is unusual and all of it moves faster than most people can think clearly. That stretch is what this firm exists for, across seven kinds of claim.
The questions people actually askWhy people call them rather than a billboard
How the firm works
01/03
One kind of case since 1974
Jeffrey A. Cooke opened this firm to do personal injury work, and it has never taken anything else. Not closings, not wills, not family law. Fifty-two years of one practice area is why a complicated brain injury file does not frighten anybody here, and why nobody is fitting your claim in around an afternoon of conveyancing.
02/03
You get told when you do not need us
The firm's own published standard is blunt: you should only hire it if it can put you in a better position than you would be in on your own. It says what it can and cannot do, it tells you what it thinks the claim is, and it only takes the case if it believes it can help. Some first calls end with a recommendation to do nothing.
03/03
No pressure, and no numbers up front
Nobody here pressures a prospective client into retaining the firm - the published position is that people should be able to come in, discuss a case and go away and think about it. And you will not be given a figure for your claim before anyone knows what your injury is. Numbers quoted that early are marketing, not assessment.
How the firm works
One kind of case since 1974
Jeffrey A. Cooke opened this firm to do personal injury work, and it has never taken anything else. Not closings, not wills, not family law. Fifty-two years of one practice area is why a complicated brain injury file does not frighten anybody here, and why nobody is fitting your claim in around an afternoon of conveyancing.
You get told when you do not need us
The firm's own published standard is blunt: you should only hire it if it can put you in a better position than you would be in on your own. It says what it can and cannot do, it tells you what it thinks the claim is, and it only takes the case if it believes it can help. Some first calls end with a recommendation to do nothing.
No pressure, and no numbers up front
Nobody here pressures a prospective client into retaining the firm - the published position is that people should be able to come in, discuss a case and go away and think about it. And you will not be given a figure for your claim before anyone knows what your injury is. Numbers quoted that early are marketing, not assessment.
01/03
Personal injury
Personal injury is not one of the things this firm does. Since 1974 it has been the only thing it does, which means nobody here is fitting your claim in between a house closing and a divorce.
Motor vehicle accidents
Collisions are the most common reason people call this office, and the ones involving trucks, tractor-trailers or motorcycles are the ones most likely to leave something permanent behind.
Brain & spinal cord injuries
These are the cases where the settlement has to be right the first time, because the consequences keep arriving for decades after the file closes.
Dog bites
Indiana does not simply make dog owners pay. Which rule applies to you depends on why you were there, and most people are surprised by the answer.
Premises liability
Property holders are meant to keep their premises reasonably safe. When they do not, the argument is rarely about whether you fell - it is about whether they should have seen it coming.
Construction accidents
OSHA puts construction among the highest accident rates of any industry in the country, and the consequences on a site are rarely mild.
Wrongful death
There is no sufficient remedy for a life taken by somebody's mistake. What is available is an answer about what happened, and a recovery that stops the loss from also becoming a financial collapse.
Awards, memberships and admissions: AV Preeminent peer-review rated by Martindale-Hubbell, the highest peer rating standard for legal ability and ethical standards. Both attorneys listed annually in Super Lawyers. Jeffrey A. Cooke - Lifetime Achievement Award, Indiana Trial Lawyers Association, April 2013. Jeffrey A. Cooke - Trial Lawyer of the Year, Indiana Trial Lawyers Association, 1998. Jeffrey A. Cooke - Indiana State Coordinator, National Board of Trial Advocacy. Jeffrey A. Cooke - City Attorney, West Lafayette, Indiana, 1976-1980. J. Aaron Cooke - member, Brain Injury Association of Indiana. J. Aaron Cooke - admitted to the U.S. District Courts for the Northern and Southern Districts of Indiana. Client Champion and Client Reviewed badges, Martindale-Hubbell.
One client, in their own words
The full register“After my family and I were hit by an intoxicated driver, we found out the person who hit us had terrible insurance, and we weren't sure how we'd be able to recover anything. But Aaron really went to bat for us. He was honest, aggressive when it mattered, and never gave up - even when things got complicated. He kept us informed every step of the way and made sure we felt supported throughout the entire process. We couldn't have asked for a better advocate. Highly recommend!”
Directory aggregates put the firm at 4.9 across 5 reviews. That is a small sample and it is shown as one. The quote above is the only review published in full anywhere, and it is reproduced complete. Everything else this firm can be judged on is on the recognition page, and the individual bar records are on the attorneys page. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
- Founded
- 1974
- Opened in Lafayette by Jeffrey A. Cooke, and doing personal injury work only ever since.
- Peer rating
- AV Preeminent
- Martindale-Hubbell's highest peer-review standard, rated by other lawyers and judges.
- Listed
- Super Lawyers
- Both attorneys, annually.
- Lifetime Achievement
- ITLA, 2013
- Awarded to Jeffrey A. Cooke by the Indiana Trial Lawyers Association in April 2013.
- Trial Lawyer of the Year
- ITLA, 1998
- The same association, fifteen years earlier.
- Bar admissions
- 1970 and 1997
- Indiana, plus the U.S. District Courts for the Northern and Southern Districts.
Two attorneys, one practice area, fifty-two years
Cooke Law Firm works from 331 Columbia Street in Lafayette, across the street from the courthouse. Jeffrey A. Cooke founded it in 1974 and his son J. Aaron joined him in 1997. Between them they hold around eighty years of experience, all of it spent representing injured people and bereaved families in trial and appellate courts throughout Indiana. The firm takes no other kind of work.
- One practice area, on purpose
- The firm has done personal injury work and nothing else since 1974. No closings, no wills, no divorces competing for the same afternoon. It is the reason a complicated brain injury file does not frighten anybody here.
- You are told what it is
- Including when the answer is that you do not need a lawyer. The firm's published standard is that you should only hire it if it can put you in a better position than you would be in on your own, and it declines cases on that basis.
- Nothing settles without you
- Every offer reaches you as it arrives, along with a straight view of whether it is fair. The decision is yours and it stays yours, which is a lower bar than it sounds and not everybody clears it.
- Local, and it matters
- Both attorneys are from Lafayette, the office is across the street from the courthouse, and the relationships that come with fifty years in one town tend to make the process move rather than stall.
Start with a clear conversation.
Describe what happened, in whatever order it comes out. You will get a straight read on whether there is something here, including when the answer is that you may not need a lawyer at all.
Contacting Cooke Law Firm or Cooke Law Firm does not create an attorney-client relationship, and nothing on this site is legal advice. Please do not send confidential information until a written engagement is in place. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.