Paul R. Shalhoub, West Palm Beach injury attorney
Paul R. Shalhoub began his career defending insurance companies. He now represents the people they insure against, and he is the only attorney at this firm, which means the lawyer who evaluates your claim is the one who negotiates it and, if it comes to it, tries it.
He has practiced in Palm Beach County since 2011. Before opening Shalhoub Law Injury & Accident in 2024 he worked at a Florida insurance-defense firm, then at plaintiff-side injury firms in this county. Over that period, including the matters he handled before founding this firm, he has recovered tens of millions of dollars for injured clients.
The defense years are the part that still matters to a case. He sat in the meetings where claims are assigned a value, watched which facts moved that number and which ones adjusters quietly discount, and learned what a file has to look like before a carrier treats trial as the worse option. Most plaintiff lawyers infer that from the outside. He does not have to.
The practice
Shalhoub Law Injury & Accident is a one-attorney injury practice in downtown West Palm Beach. Injury law is all it does, and Paul handles every case himself, from the first call through trial. There is no case manager between you and the lawyer, and no department the file gets passed to.
Credentials, with the body that issued each one
Every item here is checkable with the organization that granted it. That matters more than the badge: a credential a person cannot verify is decoration.
| License | The Florida Bar, number 88300, admitted 22 March 2011. Verify on The Florida Bar | ||||||||||||||
| Federal court | United States District Court, Southern District of Florida | ||||||||||||||
| Law school | Juris Doctor, New England School of Law, 2010. During law school he interned with a Massachusetts district attorney’s office and with Greater Boston Legal Services | ||||||||||||||
| University | Bachelor of Science in finance, University of Florida | ||||||||||||||
| Martindale-Hubbell | AV Preeminent, the highest peer rating for legal ability and ethical standards, held since 2015 | ||||||||||||||
| Florida Super Lawyers | Personal injury, 2023 to the present. Previously named a Rising Star in personal injury, 2017 through 2021 | ||||||||||||||
| National Trial Lawyers | Top 40 Under 40 in 2020, and Top 100 Trial Lawyers in 2026. Member profile | ||||||||||||||
| Palm Beach Illustrated | Top Lawyers in personal injury, 2024, 2025 and 2026 | ||||||||||||||
| Daily Business Review | Top Lawyers of South Florida, 2015 | ||||||||||||||
| Teaching | Coverage is the one that
surprises people: a claim is worth what can actually be collected, and that ceiling is set by
policies written long before the crash. Many people have more coverage available than they realize,
through their own uninsured and underinsured motorist provisions.
The mistake he sees mostWaiting. Florida’s personal injury protection benefits are available only if you are treated within 14 days of a crash. Surveillance video overwrites itself in days. A claim that would have been straightforward becomes an argument about why there was a gap. When he files suitOnly when filing raises what the client recovers. Usually that means putting an undervalued file in front of a defense lawyer and a new adjuster with real authority, which changes who is making the decision about the claim. Who handles your caseHe does. There are no other attorneys at the firm and no case managers between you and him. Korina Malone, the firm’s lead trial paralegal, takes most first calls and puts you through. Clients get his direct line, and when he cannot pick up, someone at the firm answers and he returns the call. Public service and communityFew lawyers in this county have a public record like this one, and none of it was built for a website. Paul was elected to the Lake Clarke Shores town council in 2017 and served three terms, including two years as Vice Mayor and two years as Mayor, in 2022 and 2023. Sitting on a town council means reading the ordinances, hearing the residents who show up about a bad intersection, and voting on what gets fixed. It is a different view of a road than the one you get from a police report, and it is why road design, lighting, policing and property maintenance come up early when he looks at an injury claim. They are not abstractions to him.
Organization names appear here as service history. Nothing on this page is an endorsement of the firm by any organization. Public service is not a legal credential and is not offered as one. It is offered as the reason he knows the roads, the agencies and the people in this county, and as the record of someone who intends to still be here in twenty years. ResultsA $245,000 jury verdict against a driver insured by State Farm, sixteen times the last offer made before trial. A verdict against Walmart in a slip and fall at six times the offer made shortly before trial. $750,000 recovered three months after suit was filed in a box-truck rear-end. Policy-limit settlements of $500,000 and $250,000. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Results from 2017 onward include matters handled before this firm was founded in 2024. Away from the officePaul lives in Lake Clarke Shores with his wife and their three children. With his father and the rest of the family he owns and runs Smokin’ Gator BBQ. When he is not working he is usually watching football or fishing. The barbecue team turns up at local events more often than he will admit in writing. Common questions about PaulIs this a one-attorney firm?Yes, by design. Paul is the only attorney, and he handles every case from the first call through trial. Korina Malone, the lead trial paralegal, works the files alongside him. What kinds of cases does the firm take?Injury cases only — crashes, falls, negligent security, nursing home neglect and wrongful death in Palm Beach County. No real estate, no family law, no criminal defense. The full list. Was Paul really the mayor of Lake Clarke Shores?Yes. He was mayor in 2022 and 2023, after being elected to the town council in 2017 and serving three terms, including two years as Vice Mayor. Does community work affect how cases are handled?It affects what he notices. Years of voting on road design, lighting and property maintenance means those questions come up early in a file. It is not a legal credential and is not offered as one. Can Paul speak at a local event?Often, yes. He speaks to community groups and professional associations in Palm Beach County. Ask through the contact page. Will Paul handle my case himself, or will I be passed to someone else?Himself. He is the only attorney at the firm, and the same person who answers your first call is the person who files the suit, takes the depositions and tries the case if it comes to that. There are no case managers and no settlement department. What does it mean that he used to defend insurance companies?He spent the first part of his career at a Florida insurance-defense firm, working for the carriers. He knows how a claim is evaluated internally, which arguments adjusters are trained to make, and what a file has to contain before a carrier moves. That is the view most plaintiff lawyers never get. How can I verify he is licensed and in good standing?The Florida Bar publishes it. He is Bar number 88300, admitted 22 March 2011. You can check the record yourself at floridabar.org, and every award shown on this site links to the organization that issued it. Where does he meet clients?At the office at 1011 N Olive Ave in West Palm Beach, or at your home, in the hospital, by phone or by video — whichever is easiest. People with serious injuries should not have to travel to hire a lawyer. What does it cost to hire a lawyer?Nothing. The consultation is free and confidential. The firm advances case costs, and you owe no attorney’s fee and no reimbursement of those costs unless it recovers compensation for you. What happens if you callYou speak to Paul, not an intake screener. The consultation is free, and he will tell you honestly whether you need a lawyer at all — some claims do not. If he takes the case, the preservation letters and the notices to the insurers go out that day, and the calls to you stop. You treat; he deals with the other side. Nothing is settled without your decision, and you see the net figure before you sign anything. 
Talk to Paul directlyThe consultation is free and confidential, at the office, at your home, in the hospital, by phone or by video. The firm advances case costs, and you owe no attorney’s fee and no reimbursement of those costs unless it recovers compensation for you. Free consultation with attorney Paul ShalhoubConsultations are free and confidential. We advance case costs, and you owe no attorney’s fees or reimbursement of those costs unless we recover compensation for you. |