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Deon Goldschmidt

Deon Goldschmidt Attorneys

4350 Executive Drive #150

San Diego, CA 92121

619-931-1650

SanDiegoPersonalInjuryAttorneys.com

Overcoming significant personal and professional challenges are a sure way to enhance one’s skills in building a law firm dedicated solely to serving the legal needs of people facing the most serious challenges of their lives—personal injury. That is precisely the experience of Deon Goldschmidt, Esq., founder of San Diego Personal Injury Attorneys.

“I have always wanted to fight for the little guy. Big insurance companies have deep pockets and try and deny claims or under settle claims and try take advantage of their ability to intimidate ‘Joe Public’ into accepting low settlements. It gives me great pleasure and a sense of accomplishment in helping client’s obtain justice. We’re often in the famous David vs. Goliath situation, but we’re not intimidated. We thrive on challenges,” Goldschmidt says.

Founded in 2010, San Diego Personal Injury Attorneys focuses on car accidents, workplace accidents, trip and fall, product liability, wrongful death, and elder abuse. Initially only based in San Diego, the firm has expanded beyond San Diego’s borders. The firm, now trading under the name Deon Goldschmidt Attorneys, employs 23 attorneys and staff and has offices in San Diego, Riverside, San Jose, and Dallas, TX, with plans for opening other office this year. The firm has recovered millions of dollars in damages for accident victims who have been injured though the negligence or carelessness of others. The firm handles every type of case from the simplest injury to tragic consequences leading to quadriplegia or even death.

From South Africa to Southern California

Perhaps the biggest challenge of his professional life was relocating from South Africa to Southern California and starting his professional career from scratch while raising a family in an entirely new environment. 

“I had three kids at home with a wife and I had to start earning a real income fast. That in itself was a challenge. But insofar as law is concerned, I knew nothing of U.S. law. So, you’ve come out of writing the bar exam, and you’re in mind that you’re ill equipped to be thrust on the public. That was the real a challenge—to learn the practice of law on my own, without very much mentorship and then start a new career in a new legal environment in a new country,” he says.

Goldschmidt is a native of Johannesburg, South Africa where he earned his law degree from the University of the Witwatersand in 1992. He had an interest in the law from an early age and often attended court sessions. He always had an interest in the law and went to court to watch cases very early on in his college years. He studied especially the power of persuasion at work and became passionate about assisting and representing consumers. Earning that law degree was the next logical step.

His selection of personal injury law as a focus of his career was something of a fortuitous example of “luck of the draw.” A friend who was a personal injury lawyer was scheduled for two trials during the same day. He asked Goldschmidt to cover one of the trials as the defense attorney. He did so well at representing the client that the other attorney offered him a job. Enthused by the challenge of representing clients in genuine dire need, he accepted. “You might say I stumbled into it, but even as a stumble, it was a major step and a new and more exciting direction for my career in the law,” he says.

He started his own practice in South Africa in 1992. Things were looking good for the success of his business and his family life. Life did not turn out that way. Goldschmidt is an avid cyclist and while in Cape Town attending a biking competition, his children (ages three, four and six) and his parents were violently carjacked in Johannesburg. His dad was assaulted and the perpetrators threatened his children by placing guns against their heads. As a result of that traumatic experience, he decided to give up his practice in South Africa and move to San Diego for a completely fresh start.

“After practicing in South Africa for some 16 years I had to come to the USA and write the bar exam notwithstanding never having been to college in America. At age 40 it was definitely a challenge to write the bar exam and start again,” he says.

Goldschmidt studied six months and passed the Bar exam. Today his Bar admissions are the State Bar of California; U.S. District Court, Southern District of California; U.S. District Court, Central District of California, The Texas State Bar, and he is still a licensed attorney in South Africa. 

Taking Up the Challenge for the Consumer

Goldschmidt believed his best avenue for finding and handling challenging personal injury cases was to start his own firm and to handle business and cases his own way. “I have always been a person who has steadfast ideas and as such I would not be a good employee. I like the challenge that goes with running a business and having the ability to run trials and practice law.”

He says, “Our tagline is Big Enough to Help, Small Enough to Care. And that’s more than just a marketing slogan. We love to provide the best representation for our clients and still have a family feel to our practice. Every client big or small is a valuable part of our practice and no one leaves our office unhappy.”

One client who left very happy was an indigent man who was injured while pushing a shopping cart across the road when he was hit by a vehicle. He had tried to get help from numerous attorneys, but no one would help him. He was not able to get proper treatment due to his indigence and had severe injuries that required treatment and surgery. When the attorneys took on his case, they immediately took him to an orthopedic surgeon whose staff helped get him emergency Medi-Cal. Once this was arranged, they transported him to the hospital where he had surgery and a fortunate recovery. The insurance company has now offered policy limits and the firm is in the process of negotiating a waiver of the Medi-Cal lien so that he can have a chance at rebuilding his life.

A random sampling of cases shows that the indigent man’s case was only one of numerous personal injury successes for the firm: $6,500,000 settlement awarded to a client involved in a car accident; $4 million for a product liability suit, $5 million for a negligent tort, $2.7 million awarded to a client involved in a dog bite accident; $2 million for medical malpractice and a $1 million settlement awarded to a client involved in a commercial vehicle accident to name a few.

A recent case illustrates the firm’s commitment to serve the needs of clients regardless of status and based solely on need. The father of a family was killed in a pedestrian accident. He left four very young kids behind. The family had no means of support, no resources and, from their perspective, no hope. Yet, the firm was able to provide the family with some means of getting through the trauma from a financial point of view.

“There are so many cases that give me the inspiration to do the work I do. People come in emotionally and physically compromised from severe accidents and are at their wits end. Slowly we work with them to ensure they get the treatment they need to heal. The satisfaction we get knowing we can help people their recovery and watching them slowly heal month after month, getting to know them as people and finally getting them compensated for their injuries leaves me and my staff with a sense of satisfaction. There is no better feeling then a hug from a client at the end of a case where we could him in his/her journey to healing,” Goldschmidt says.