Del Hardy
Email: Del@HardyLawGroup.com
Phone: 775-786-5800
I have been a life long native of Northern Nevada growing up in Carson City. I was the middle child of a family of 9 kids. My school years were filled with play and then work. I learned early that you can get a lot farther with a kind word and joke than with trying to force or trick your way into something. I watched my father try and support his large family and at age 10 watched as he lost most of his money in a financial venture. His own brother and others sued him for the loans he had taken out. It seemed to be all about lawyers and money. My two brothers and I worked paper routes to help the family out. Later in high school I worked at a gas station and as a grocery stocker at night to buy my own clothes and things. I even drove a school bus my senior year to help out in making money. That year I also worked at a gas station on the graveyard shift and would prop my chair against the door so if anyone tried to come in I would wake up. Earlier in the night I worked as a grocery stocker for Safeway and then drove a school bus during the morning and afternoon drop off. I also had a part time janitor job at the high school I attended. It seemed like I was always working and was thankful school was easy for me. I had good times too. I played football and ran track. I was student body vice president. An old girlfriend later asked me if I was "embarrassed" that I had to work as a janitor. I truthfully never thought about it, but obviously others did, but not to my discredit or my families. There is nothing wrong with not having a lot of money but there was something very wrong with having it taken from you. I tell you this because I want the reader to know why I became a lawyer. I knew by the time I was 12 that I would be a lawyer and would tell my friends and family I was going to be one. I didn't know the word then for the feeling I had and I called it "fair." Now I know that word and feeling is called "justice." That is in the core of me.
After high school I worked for a year earning money for college. I worked as an insulation installer and did sheetrock taping. It was hard work but paid well and I needed that money to go to school so that I could get into law school. I had pretty good grades and good SAT and ACT scores. I had actually gotten accepted to Annapolis and thought long and hard about going. It was during the Vietnam War and they wanted to make me a pilot. My mother was against it and I listened to her and had this feeling that if I went there I was going to die. It was an odd feeling but one I trusted and wondered about what my history would now be if I had gone. I started college a year behind everyone else but I took extra credits and did summer school too, so I graduated in 3 years with a double major in business and speech. On top of that, I worked 40 hours per week on swing shift parking cars at Harrah's in Reno. My senior year in college I also went to Harrah’s dealer school and learned how to deal craps and 21. I worked another year after college to make enough to go to law school. I was afraid of student loans, after all I watched my parents get sued for loans and watched them struggle with lawyers and bills. I knew that would never be me. While attending McGeorge School of Law I went to both night and day classes. It was the finest law school I could afford and I am proud that I attended there. Charles Luther taught my torts (personal Injury) class and he was known as a "The King of Torts" and had even written the textbook on it. He was also a first rate trial attorney in his own right. Judge Anthony Kennedy was my constitutional law teacher and now is a United States Supreme Court Justice. Claude Rowyer taught contracts and was the national authority on the subject. I excelled in school and I was able to work weekends and still incur no debt. I had to take many classes and was going to summer school as well but I finished all my classes and took the Nevada Bar Exam before I graduated and completed school a whole half year before my classmates.
I interviewed and got my first job with the Nevada Attorney General's office. I told them I wanted to try cases. They assigned me to the Department of Transportation in their litigation department. I started my first jury trial 9 days after I was sworn in as a lawyer. I wanted to win and was encouraged to at any cost. I had sold my soul. I wasn't working for the good guys I was being told "Not a dollar for tribute and millions for defense." People who had been hurt by negligently signed construction sites were being beaten by us because we hired the big gun experts who were "creative" in their testimony. I am ashamed of the lack of justice I brought into the courtroom. I started drinking pretty heavily. I didn't realize what I had become, I just felt mad all the time. I would tear into witnesses on the stand. I worked closely with the insurance company adjusters and their lawyers. We would make our plans on how to pay as little as possible. We would dig up any little piece of dirt we could to beat down a plaintiff. We would pour through old medical records and find some medical history to blame that neck injury on what happened in the now car wreck and claim "well look here she had a history of this 10 years ago." I was getting really good at it too. My mother had said to me once she didn't like who I had become. I thought how dare she, she should be proud of her son. Here was this lady who worked in a factory in Carson making pistons for cars. It was hard labor, she should be proud that I don't have to do that right? Then within a few months of that statement she got sick all of a sudden --- within 2 weeks she was dead from stomach cancer. She didn't drink or smoke and she was only 54. I knew in my heart it was that damn factory she worked in with all that toxic stuff she had been exposed to. I wanted to look into it. The factory attorneys stonewalled me. I had no standing to investigate. I had no rights and now they were doing to me what I was doing to all these plaintiffs and their attorneys.
Then my brother Stephen died in a car accident a year later. He was driving and hit a culvert. It was a bad design where it was placed. I was torn now here I had always said to juries, “we feel bad about that death but no money was going to bring them back, this is just greed and someone wants to blame it on someone else.” But now I thought this is not right. The family did not file suit and his death passed and because it happened on the 4th of July I am reminded of what I didn't do and should have done. It was shortly after his death that I left the AG's office and began interviewing with various law firms. It just felt wrong. I turned down a few offers and decided to start my own office and build my own law firm. I had done a little soul searching, and yeah my mom was right, I wasn't a very nice person anymore. I couldn't change history but I could change who I had become and what I was doing.
So I had a little savings and decided I would only take cases I believed in and would do the right thing. It felt really good. I felt like I was making a difference. I turned down some cases that had potential but were not the case I wanted to be a lawyer for. I began getting some pretty good verdicts. I cared about my clients as people and over the years many have become my personal friends. Caring is contagious and juries care about people to. They know in their heart what is right. I have lost some cases that I really believed in and it is very painful.
I have watched the insurance company attorneys use the same tricks I used to use. Pointing to the defendant and saying how can Mr. X afford this claim, he is just a working man when the truth is that Mr. X has insurance and that's who is going to pay the judgment. It is frustrating to watch it happen and you can't tell the jury the truth that: “there is insurance. There is always insurance, why would we ever go after Mr. X for his pay check he could just bankrupt it and walk away." I can't tell you how many times I have wanted to say just that to the jury.
I have had the great opportunity of attending Trial Lawyers College where I have worked with many of the greatest trial attorneys in America. We all learn and teach each other as a large tribe of warriors. I have written for the Warrior Magazine, the magazine for the Trial Lawyer's College. I have written exclusively about jury trial practices. These are not teaching tricks but learning how to find justice by honestly telling the whole story: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Taking those cases with merit and that reach true justice. Can I represent a dishonest man, honestly? No I can't. I can help him if he wants to admit his wrongs but if he is lying I am not his attorney.
I am so proud of the people I work with. We are a small office of 14 people, which mean 14 families in this community. From our receptionists (who are the most talented I have had the pleasure of working with) to our top trial attorney, everyone pulls together, we work on each other’s cases, and we bounce ideas off each other. It is an environment of growth and happy comfortable people. Most have been here for over a decade. It is a great place to do good work and to represent people that need help. If you are looking at this to decide if we are a fit, feel free to call me. I am happy to talk to you about my experience and what I can bring to the table. If you are looking for help and I take your case you have the following promise from me: you will get my best, I will tell you what I actually candidly believe, not what you might want to hear. I like my work, I like the people I represent many of whom have become good friends. It doesn't get any better than this. Signed Del Hardy
Email: Del@HardyLawGroup.com
Phone: 775-786-5800
Phone: 775-786-5800
I have been a life long native of Northern Nevada growing up in Carson City. I was the middle child of a family of 9 kids. My school years were filled with play and then work. I learned early that you can get a lot farther with a kind word and joke than with trying to force or trick your way into something. I watched my father try and support his large family and at age 10 watched as he lost most of his money in a financial venture. His own brother and others sued him for the loans he had taken out. It seemed to be all about lawyers and money. My two brothers and I worked paper routes to help the family out. Later in high school I worked at a gas station and as a grocery stocker at night to buy my own clothes and things. I even drove a school bus my senior year to help out in making money. That year I also worked at a gas station on the graveyard shift and would prop my chair against the door so if anyone tried to come in I would wake up. Earlier in the night I worked as a grocery stocker for Safeway and then drove a school bus during the morning and afternoon drop off. I also had a part time janitor job at the high school I attended. It seemed like I was always working and was thankful school was easy for me. I had good times too. I played football and ran track. I was student body vice president. An old girlfriend later asked me if I was "embarrassed" that I had to work as a janitor. I truthfully never thought about it, but obviously others did, but not to my discredit or my families. There is nothing wrong with not having a lot of money but there was something very wrong with having it taken from you. I tell you this because I want the reader to know why I became a lawyer. I knew by the time I was 12 that I would be a lawyer and would tell my friends and family I was going to be one. I didn't know the word then for the feeling I had and I called it "fair." Now I know that word and feeling is called "justice." That is in the core of me.
After high school I worked for a year earning money for college. I worked as an insulation installer and did sheetrock taping. It was hard work but paid well and I needed that money to go to school so that I could get into law school. I had pretty good grades and good SAT and ACT scores. I had actually gotten accepted to Annapolis and thought long and hard about going. It was during the Vietnam War and they wanted to make me a pilot. My mother was against it and I listened to her and had this feeling that if I went there I was going to die. It was an odd feeling but one I trusted and wondered about what my history would now be if I had gone. I started college a year behind everyone else but I took extra credits and did summer school too, so I graduated in 3 years with a double major in business and speech. On top of that, I worked 40 hours per week on swing shift parking cars at Harrah's in Reno. My senior year in college I also went to Harrah’s dealer school and learned how to deal craps and 21. I worked another year after college to make enough to go to law school. I was afraid of student loans, after all I watched my parents get sued for loans and watched them struggle with lawyers and bills. I knew that would never be me. While attending McGeorge School of Law I went to both night and day classes. It was the finest law school I could afford and I am proud that I attended there. Charles Luther taught my torts (personal Injury) class and he was known as a "The King of Torts" and had even written the textbook on it. He was also a first rate trial attorney in his own right. Judge Anthony Kennedy was my constitutional law teacher and now is a United States Supreme Court Justice. Claude Rowyer taught contracts and was the national authority on the subject. I excelled in school and I was able to work weekends and still incur no debt. I had to take many classes and was going to summer school as well but I finished all my classes and took the Nevada Bar Exam before I graduated and completed school a whole half year before my classmates.
I interviewed and got my first job with the Nevada Attorney General's office. I told them I wanted to try cases. They assigned me to the Department of Transportation in their litigation department. I started my first jury trial 9 days after I was sworn in as a lawyer. I wanted to win and was encouraged to at any cost. I had sold my soul. I wasn't working for the good guys I was being told "Not a dollar for tribute and millions for defense." People who had been hurt by negligently signed construction sites were being beaten by us because we hired the big gun experts who were "creative" in their testimony. I am ashamed of the lack of justice I brought into the courtroom. I started drinking pretty heavily. I didn't realize what I had become, I just felt mad all the time. I would tear into witnesses on the stand. I worked closely with the insurance company adjusters and their lawyers. We would make our plans on how to pay as little as possible. We would dig up any little piece of dirt we could to beat down a plaintiff. We would pour through old medical records and find some medical history to blame that neck injury on what happened in the now car wreck and claim "well look here she had a history of this 10 years ago." I was getting really good at it too. My mother had said to me once she didn't like who I had become. I thought how dare she, she should be proud of her son. Here was this lady who worked in a factory in Carson making pistons for cars. It was hard labor, she should be proud that I don't have to do that right? Then within a few months of that statement she got sick all of a sudden --- within 2 weeks she was dead from stomach cancer. She didn't drink or smoke and she was only 54. I knew in my heart it was that damn factory she worked in with all that toxic stuff she had been exposed to. I wanted to look into it. The factory attorneys stonewalled me. I had no standing to investigate. I had no rights and now they were doing to me what I was doing to all these plaintiffs and their attorneys.
Then my brother Stephen died in a car accident a year later. He was driving and hit a culvert. It was a bad design where it was placed. I was torn now here I had always said to juries, “we feel bad about that death but no money was going to bring them back, this is just greed and someone wants to blame it on someone else.” But now I thought this is not right. The family did not file suit and his death passed and because it happened on the 4th of July I am reminded of what I didn't do and should have done. It was shortly after his death that I left the AG's office and began interviewing with various law firms. It just felt wrong. I turned down a few offers and decided to start my own office and build my own law firm. I had done a little soul searching, and yeah my mom was right, I wasn't a very nice person anymore. I couldn't change history but I could change who I had become and what I was doing.
So I had a little savings and decided I would only take cases I believed in and would do the right thing. It felt really good. I felt like I was making a difference. I turned down some cases that had potential but were not the case I wanted to be a lawyer for. I began getting some pretty good verdicts. I cared about my clients as people and over the years many have become my personal friends. Caring is contagious and juries care about people to. They know in their heart what is right. I have lost some cases that I really believed in and it is very painful.
I have watched the insurance company attorneys use the same tricks I used to use. Pointing to the defendant and saying how can Mr. X afford this claim, he is just a working man when the truth is that Mr. X has insurance and that's who is going to pay the judgment. It is frustrating to watch it happen and you can't tell the jury the truth that: “there is insurance. There is always insurance, why would we ever go after Mr. X for his pay check he could just bankrupt it and walk away." I can't tell you how many times I have wanted to say just that to the jury.
I have had the great opportunity of attending Trial Lawyers College where I have worked with many of the greatest trial attorneys in America. We all learn and teach each other as a large tribe of warriors. I have written for the Warrior Magazine, the magazine for the Trial Lawyer's College. I have written exclusively about jury trial practices. These are not teaching tricks but learning how to find justice by honestly telling the whole story: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Taking those cases with merit and that reach true justice. Can I represent a dishonest man, honestly? No I can't. I can help him if he wants to admit his wrongs but if he is lying I am not his attorney.
I am so proud of the people I work with. We are a small office of 14 people, which mean 14 families in this community. From our receptionists (who are the most talented I have had the pleasure of working with) to our top trial attorney, everyone pulls together, we work on each other’s cases, and we bounce ideas off each other. It is an environment of growth and happy comfortable people. Most have been here for over a decade. It is a great place to do good work and to represent people that need help. If you are looking at this to decide if we are a fit, feel free to call me. I am happy to talk to you about my experience and what I can bring to the table. If you are looking for help and I take your case you have the following promise from me: you will get my best, I will tell you what I actually candidly believe, not what you might want to hear. I like my work, I like the people I represent many of whom have become good friends. It doesn't get any better than this. Signed Del Hardy
Email: Del@HardyLawGroup.com
Phone: 775-786-5800
