Two attorneys, an office across the street from the courthouse, and a practice that has been narrow on purpose since 1974.
The Tippecanoe County courthouse, on the square in downtown Lafayette. The firm’s offices are across the street from it, and have been since 1974.
01
Cooke Law Firm is not a recent arrival with a billboard. Jeffrey A. Cooke opened it in 1974, set down roots in Lafayette and raised a family here, and his son J. Aaron joined him in 1997. Between them they bring around eighty years of legal knowledge and courtroom experience to injured clients in Indiana. The office is across the street from the courthouse, which after five decades is less a convenience than a description of how the firm works.
02
Legal knowledge is essential, but the firm's own view is that its real strength is being trial attorneys dedicated to people who have suffered injury or death. It handles car and truck collisions, premises liability and wrongful death throughout Indiana, litigates when litigation is necessary, and gives clients the personal attention a case needs rather than the attention a caseload allows.
03
That experience has produced results in court and in settlements, and recognition from peers: AV Preeminent peer-review rating from Martindale-Hubbell for legal ability and high ethical standards, and annual listing in Super Lawyers for both attorneys. In April 2013 the Indiana Trial Lawyers Association gave Jeffrey its Lifetime Achievement Award, fifteen years after naming him Trial Lawyer of the Year. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
04
Clients often find their injury cases are genuinely complicated, and not only legally. Brain and back injuries need extensive medical evaluation to assess long-term impacts and necessary treatment, much of which is not apparent immediately. Determining fair compensation means estimating current and future medical bills, lost wages and non-economic damages such as pain and suffering - which is arithmetic performed on a life rather than a spreadsheet.
05
Taking a case to trial involves strategy, jury selection and the presentation of evidence, and the firm typically goes to trial against well-resourced adversaries: insurance companies and trucking lines with experienced legal teams. Those entities often employ aggressive tactics to minimise payouts, which is daunting for less experienced firms and is precisely the situation this one has spent five decades in.
06
Injured people frequently cannot work, and that causes hardship at home long before any claim resolves. Personal injury attorneys work for a percentage of the award or settlement, so there is no attorney fee unless the case is won. The initial consultation is free, and the firm also helps process health and auto medical-payment benefits at no charge while a claim is running.
07
Cooke Law Firm represents accident and personal injury victims throughout Indiana, in all trial and appellate courts in the state, including Tippecanoe, White and Benton counties, and communities such as West Lafayette and Delphi. Beyond representing individuals, its lawyers serve as co-counsel and local counsel for groups of plaintiffs in class actions against manufacturers of dangerous products.
1974
Jeffrey A. Cooke opens the firm in Lafayette. It takes personal injury work, and from the start it takes nothing else.
1976
Jeffrey becomes City Attorney for West Lafayette, a post he holds until 1980.
1997
J. Aaron Cooke, admitted to the Indiana bar that year, joins his father. The firm becomes what it still is: two attorneys, one practice area.
1998
The Indiana Trial Lawyers Association names Jeffrey its Trial Lawyer of the Year.
2013
In April, the Indiana Trial Lawyers Association gives Jeffrey its Lifetime Achievement Award.
Today
Both attorneys are listed annually in Super Lawyers, and the firm is AV Preeminent peer-review rated by Martindale-Hubbell. It still works from Columbia Street, across from the courthouse.
The individual records, with bar admissions, education and the awards in full, are on the attorneys page. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The concrete version of all of this is in the practice areas, where each type of claim is set out step by step, and in the questions people actually ask, which is largely the firm’s own answers to the things it gets asked on the phone.
Jeffrey A. Cooke opened it in 1974 and it has been in Lafayette ever since. His son J. Aaron joined in 1997. Those are the published dates; the firm's own description of the combined experience is around eighty years, and that is their figure rather than one calculated here.
Yes. The firm describes its practice as devoted exclusively to representing injured people and their families, in all trial and appellate courts in Indiana. It does not take closings, wills, family law or criminal defence.
331 Columbia Street, Lafayette, Indiana 47901. It is downtown on the courthouse square, across the street from the courthouse itself. Mail can also go to P.O. Box 188, Lafayette, IN 47902.
Yes. The firm represents accident and injury victims throughout Indiana, in all trial and appellate courts in the state, and names Tippecanoe, White and Benton counties among the areas it regularly serves.
That the fee is a percentage of the award or settlement rather than an hourly bill, and that there is no attorney fee unless the case is won. The firm also processes health and auto medical-payment benefits at no charge and negotiates health-insurer liens at no extra charge, passing the savings on.
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.