Our Experience And Results

Our History

For years, downtown Tampa knew when a Wagner, Vaughan & McLaughlin client had won a substantial verdict. We signaled the occasion with the loud blow of a train whistle mounted atop our three-story office building. While the whistle was removed during a renovation, our enthusiasm for client victories has not waned.

When Bill Wagner and Roger Vaughan opened the firm in 1967, the modest storefront at 412 Pierce Street gave little hint of its rich heritage. Both partners had practiced with a law firm in Miami headed by the legendary Perry Nichols, the pioneer of personal injury law and the first attorney to win a $100,000 verdict in Florida. The legal legacy and brotherhood of the Perry Nichols firm has helped to produce virtually all of the state's most widely-known personal injury trial attorneys, including presidents of the American Bar Association, Association of Trial Lawyers of America, and The Florida Bar, as well as federal and state judges and the first attorneys in the state to win a million dollar verdict.

In search of additional space, the partners soon bought a nearby boarding house and a two-story building that had seen earlier service as a bicycle manufacturing plant, gas station and plumbing parts store. The boarding house site now serves as the firm's parking lot, and the building -- renovated in 1976 -- remains as the downtown office. Growth of the firm led to the opening of a second office on Bayshore Boulevard in 1992, with both offices equal in the number and strength of attorneys and staff.

Today, Wagner, Vaughan & McLaughlin is proud to have eight experienced trial lawyers, all well-respected by their colleagues and in the field, as well as a strong team of legal assistants, paralegals, and investigators, ready to fight for you.

Our Awards and Honors

With so many lawyers today claiming personal injury expertise, it's wise to ask for credentials. You want an attorney that knows his or her stuff and can professionally handle your case.

Four of our firm's senior partners have been recognized as Civil Trial Advocates by the National Board of Trial Advocacy (www.nblsc.us/) and are board certified as civil trial lawyers by the Florida Bar, the highest level of evaluation by the Bar of a lawyer’s competency and experience within an area of law. Bill Wagner, Roger Vaughan, John McLaughlin, and Alan Wagner have also been recognized as board certified Civil Trial Lawyers by The Florida Bar. In addition, Bill Wagner is a board certified Aviation Attorney and Roger Vaughan is board certified in Admiralty. Board certification is an accomplishment by fewer than 2% of attorneys in Florida (see Consumer Services at www.flabar.org). John McLaughlin is a degreed engineer.

Bill Wagner, Roger Vaughan, John McLaughlin and Alan Wagner have been honored repeatedly with listings in The Best Lawyers in America (www.bestlawyers.com). This annual law directory rates the nation's attorneys on their experience, professional reliability and legal qualifications within their specialized areas of practice and compiles its ratings from attorneys' and judges' opinions, written questionnaires and personal interviews.

The firm’s four senior members have also earned election to the American College of Trial Lawyers (www.ACTL.com), an honor limited to fewer than 1% of the nation’s lawyers. The College is composed of the best of the trial bar from the United States and Canada and is widely considered to be the premier professional trial organization in America. Two are also invited members of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers (www.IATL.net), honors reserved for only a limited number of trial attorneys. In addition, they have held important leadership positions in local, state and national professional organizations.

Among these distinctions have been the presidencies of both the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA - www.ATLA.org) and the Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers (AFTL - www.AFTL.org), and chairmanships of The Florida Bar's and ATLA's Admiralty and Maritime Law Section.

Wagner, Vaughan & McLaughlin attorneys were instrumental in founding the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, a public interest law firm based in Washington, D.C., which today litigates consumer issues of national importance.

The firm has earned an "AV" rating, a designation of "very high to preeminent." This rating is the highest available from the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory.

Isn't this the team you want on your side?