Her pastor once told her, “Be accountable. Give service. Share your time, talent, and treasures.” Deborah will be the first to say she doesn’t have treasure to spare, but she gives her time and talent without hesitation.

That life — active, generous, and rooted in community — is the backdrop against which three separate accidents unfolded over several years, each one leaving its mark.

The first came without warning, as accidents tend to do. Deborah was struck by another driver while walking and suffered significant knee damage. She was entirely without fault, but the injury was hers to live with — inflammation, pain, and a long road of recovery that stretched over the following year. It was during this time that a trusted coworker pointed her toward attorney Alan, telling her that “No really good lawyer has to advertise on TV,” when she said she’d never heard of him. She made the call and went in for a free consultation. From that first conversation, she could already see the wheels turning — Alan listening carefully, thinking strategically, laying out what the road ahead would look like. She left feeling not like a case number, but like someone whose situation genuinely mattered.

Just as she was finding her footing again, and back behind the wheel for about a year, moving through her days with renewed confidence, the second accident happened. She was coming home from church when another driver blew a stop sign and T-boned her car. Her knees struck the dashboard, and the injury she’d worked so hard to recover from was set back significantly.

Then, incredibly, came a third accident. A driver ran a red light and hit her from the side. For many people, one serious accident is enough to reshape a life. Deborah has navigated three. Through each one, the knee damage accumulated, and with it, arthritis that now limits what she can do.

Throughout all three cases, Alan and his assistant Molly remained steady advisors. Deborah describes the office as a place where she has always felt genuine concern — not transactional interest, but real investment in her outcome. Molly, she says, is consistently warm, knowledgeable, and on top of every detail. When navigating the unfamiliar process of reimbursing Medicare as part of one settlement, it was Molly who stayed on top of every complicated step, ensuring Deborah received her full settlement and that Medicare was properly paid. 

Alan, she notes, has a way of preparing his clients for the moments they don’t see coming. Early on, he coached her on something as seemingly small as how to answer the phone if an insurance company called. Don’t say “I’m fine,” he told her, even in response to “How are you doing today?” because those words can be used against you. It was the kind of detail that signaled to Deborah she was working with someone who understood not just the law, but the human experience of being caught in it.

There were other complications that the team also handled with ease. In one instance, Deborah was struck by a driver who claimed to carry no insurance. Alan and Molly didn’t accept that answer at face value and dug deeper to find that coverage did, in fact, exist. She says this was the difference between walking away empty-handed and receiving the compensation she deserved to help her recover.

When asked what she’d say to someone hesitant to hire an attorney who is worried about complexity, cost, or being just another file in a drawer, Deborah doesn’t hesitate.

“Decency seems to be a vanishing trait,” she says. “Alan is extremely decent. As an attorney and as a person, it’s nice to be able to say that.”

She speaks of the Shafner Injury Law team’s trustworthiness and compassion alongside competence, as though the three are inseparable, because for her, they have been. Knowing Alan was handling things, she says, brought instant relief. Not because the cases were simple, but because she knew he would pursue every avenue available to her, and do it with integrity.

Her hope is simple: that people who’ve been through what she has can find their way to Shafner Injury Law. And that their clients, like her, are out there spreading their name.

Deborah continues to volunteer with her parish, support Opening Act, and cheer on her granddaughter — from the sidelines and everywhere else life takes her.