Legal Services & Lawyers

I am a third generation attorney, raised in a family that values hard work. Throughout my 23 years of personal injury law experience, my goal for every case is to get the best results possible for my clients. I have handled seven figure wrongful death and serious personal injury claims, premises and products liability cases, all types of motor vehicle accidents, and construction site injury cases. I have been a solo and/or lead attorney on more than 40 jury and bench (judge) trials and more than 150 arbitrations and mediations. I have served as an Arbitrator and Settlement Guardian Ad Litem in King County.
The Seattle personal injury and wrongful death attorneys at Brett Murphy help people throughout the Seattle metropolitan area recover their financial losses. Our injury lawyers provide our personal injury and wrongful death clients with care and support through the difficult insurance claims process. We will accept nothing less than full compensation.

Roy Martin is a divorce and family law attorney in Bellingham, Washington.

His practice is devoted to domestic relations issues such as divorce; legal separation; paternity; child custody, including the establishment and modification of parenting plans; relocation; non-parental custody; child support; spousal maintenance, prenuptial, postnuptial and cohabitation agreements; domestic partnerships; protective orders and the rights of grandparents.

Mr. Martin believes his job is to thoroughly address legal issues in the most efficient manner possible. For this reason, he is committed to alternative dispute resolution techniques, such as Mediation and Collaborative Divorce, with their emphasis on negotiated resolutions. These approaches can lead to the highest quality settlements while avoiding the conflict, expense and stress of litigation. With experience in Collaborative Divorce and Mediation dating to 2001, Mr. Martin is a seasoned mediator and one of the most experienced Collaborative Divorce attorneys in Bellingham.

Neli Espe assists emerging and established businesses in finding both in commonsense resolution of immediate issues and in the broader cultivation of strategies for long-term success.

Neli Espe focuses on comprehensive, creative, and cost-effective solutions for a wide variety of business organizations, government agencies, homeowner's associations and individuals.

She provides outstanding legal representation based on expertise, experience, and integrity.

General Counsel

I was born in an army hospital in Fort Knox, Kentucky. My father was in the army, and before I was a year old and my older brother two years old, my father had died in Vietnam. A widow at 24 years of age with two babies in diapers, my mother felt that the best education she could give my brother and me was real world experience. So for a year, when I was a junior in high school, we backpacked around the world. I traveled through numerous countries and regions (China, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, India, Nepal, Europe), and often we would stay for several weeks in one spot, so we could really get to know the area.

With the help of VA benefits and working evening jobs, I put myself through school. In 1992, I graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a dual degree in Philosophy and Legal Studies. Upon graduation I began working for three attorneys, and within the year I knew I wanted to be an attorney. I attended Gonzaga School of Law in Spokane and graduated in 1996.

I love the law because it lets me solve problems. The law lets me meet and work with so many interesting people with fascinating stories and histories. The law allows me to discuss legal issues from a layman's perspective, a lawyer's perspective, a judge's perspective, and a philosopher's perspective. I get to ask, answer, and think about the tough questions.

I grew up on Badger Mountain, in Eastern Washington, on a dry land dirt farm in an area the locals refer to as "Poverty Point." No TV. No electricity. No inside plumbing. But we did have books -- lots of books. I talked before I could walk, and carried a book everywhere, so my dad used to pat me on the head and say "This one's going to be a lawyer." He knew what kind of a lawyer I would be: a lawyer for real people, not a lawyer for big corporations -- a lawyer for the little guy with a big case.

The administrators at Whitman College couldn't understand how a kid from Poverty Point could score so well on the college entrance exams, so they offered me a scholarship. Moving to Whitman in Walla Walla was a move to a bigger town for me, and like many kids my age, I wanted to move to an even bigger city. That took me to Stanford Law School near San Francisco, where most of my graduating class went on to large firms in New York, L.A., Seattle, or D.C. But by then I had realized I wanted to move back to the Pacific Northwest.

As an injury lawyer I started out in 1972 doing whatever came in the door, mostly trial work, and soon found that helping people who had been injured through no fault of their own and who were stuck dealing with a heartless insurance company was the perfect place to accomplish my three goals in life: to do good, to do well, and to have fun doing it.

My family has a long history in horse racing -- my Uncle Lloyd raced as a jockey for 25 years. You build a law practice just like you build a career as a jockey. At first you get only horses no one else wants to ride. If you can get a few of those horses to finish better than next to last, you get a mount that has a chance to finish in the money. And if you can ride a few of those horses into Win, Place or Show, eventually stables with fast horses looking for successful jockeys find you. So it has been with my personal injury law practice: good results in small personal injury cases brought larger claims, and eventually, after winning a few million dollar settlements and verdicts, I got the opportunity to choose exactly who I wanted to represent.

Ironically, it turned out to be the same people my dad thought I should fight for: the little guy with the big case. Real people who are in the wrong place at the wrong time and get injured because someone isn't being careful -- and who are stuck dealing with an insurance company that refuses to honor their injury claim.

If you'd like to talk to me about your personal injury claim, give me a call - (800) 925-1875.