We Know More Than Law
Medical Malpractice
Recover from careless healthcare.
We trust doctors to make the right decisions when it comes to our medical care. Unfortunately, a small percentage abuse this trust. Inattention, lack of knowledge, and greed cause many serious injuries and deaths every year. If you or your family are victims of bad care, we can help. These lawsuits are highly technical and complex, and our relationships with medical experts give us an advantage when we fight against care that does more harm than good.
Entrepreneurship
From our local business to yours.
Owning a business is incredibly difficult. Let us help. As local business owners ourselves, we understand the challenges you face in operating your own enterprise here in Arizona. All of our attorneys have worked in other industries and we help you weigh the legal implications of your business decisions so you can balance risks and maximize your long-term returns.
Consumer Protection
Protecting you from abusive companies.
The individual consumer is often at a disadvantage when dealing with large companies, and some unscrupulous businesses take advantage of this. Poulton & Noroian can help level your playing field by enforcing the state and federal laws that protect you from bad business. Whether your credit is ruined by false reports or your bank refuses to give you your money, we have your back.
DIFFICULT LITIGATION
Complex issues require smart counsel.
Waging a successful lawsuit against a powerful defendant requires strategic planning, detailed legal analysis, persuasive writing, and eloquent spoken argument. Every move must be meticulously calculated. We love this. Our team approach to litigation allows us each to focus on our strengths to outmaneuver the opponents. We select only substantial cases we believe are winners, and keep our docket light to focus our efforts for maximum effect.
Our Firm
Poulton & Noroian serves the legal needs of individuals and businesses in Arizona. With three attorneys from diverse professional backgrounds, our firm offers legal representation in a variety of areas. We advise clients and resolve disputes involving consumer protection, employment law, construction, real estate, landlord-tenant, employment-based immigration, local business ownership and management, contracts, and business disputes.
Our Attorneys
Senior Partner Karen Poulton was born and raised in the Akron, Ohio area. She graduated from The Ohio State University with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in special education and a Master of Arts degree in Speech Language Pathology. She earned a Ph.D. in special education from the University of Florida, and became a professor at the University of Nebraska before attending law school. Karen is licensed to practice law in seven states. She is a career litigator who has represented clients ranging from national banks and mining companies to rural farmers and municipalities.Read More
Managing Partner Mike Poulton holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Nebraska College of Engineering, majoring in Construction Management with minors in Physics and Business. While at UNL, he worked as a physics research technician designing and building lab apparatus for the Polarized Electron Group, including lasers, electronic instrumentation, and high vacuum electron beam equipment.
Before attending law school he worked as Project Engineer for a national commercial construction contractor here in Phoenix. Mike is a metalworker, ham radio operator, and outdoorsman in his spare time. As a professional pyrotechnician, he conducts public fireworks displays several times each year, including the City of Chandler’s annual July Fourth show. Read More
Partner Nisha Noroian was born and raised in the small Southern California town of Blythe. She graduated from California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Agriculture Business with an emphasis in agricultural policy and law. Nisha is a third-generation farmer. In addition to her law practice, she is the assistant manager of her family’s Nish Noroian Farms in Blythe. Read More
Frequently Asked Questions
These are some of the more common questions and concerns people have about hiring an attorney and navigating the legal system. Answering questions is a lawyer’s job, so if you do not find the information you need on our site, please give us a call.
- Poulton & Noroian is a small firm, and young. Why not pay more for a large, old firm?
- We focus on quality over quantity. More attorneys and more clients does not equal better legal representation, just as a department store does not sell better clothing than a boutique. Our senior partner has over 23 years of litigation experience, and our younger attorneys are some of the sharpest minds in the Valley. All of us have unique backgrounds outside of law which enhance their ability to understand and address your legal issues. In our experience litigating against firms of all sizes here in Phoenix, there is no discernible difference in the quality of legal work produced by large firms versus small ones. We are not intimidated whatsoever by opposing the biggest firms in the city – we do it all the time.
- Do I really need an attorney to start a small business?
- No, not necessarily. If you are knowledgeable and experienced in Arizona business law and administration, you can handle this process yourself. Many small business owners do this, and some owners with advanced business education or corporate management experience are well-equipped to do so. However, many owners learn years later that they have created expensive legal problems due to inadequate understanding of the implications of business entity types, Corporation Commission filings, operating agreements, and bylaws. It is always more expensive to solve these problems later, and it can be financially devastating to end up in litigation over ownership disputes. We believe it is always worthwhile to consult with an attorney to plan the best structure for your business, even if you choose to handle the actual filings yourself. Successful enterprises are built with legal strategy in mind, with input from attorneys.
- How much will it cost to hire an attorney?
- Most of our clients are plaintiffs (the ones doing the suing) pursuing cases against large companies. These cases are usually handled on a contingent-fee basis: our firm invests in the case, paying all the expenses and working in exchange for a percentage of the final outcome. This reduces our clients’ risks and encourages us to obtain the best possible result. For cases where a contingent fee is not appropriate, we bill hourly. There is no question that litigation on an hourly basis is expensive. At every step of the way, our job is to give our clients the best advice possible on how to manage the legal process. We always inform clients of the risks versus benefits of litigation, and how legal expenses affect those decisions. We never advise a client to pay us to litigate when it would be less expensive to choose an alternate solution.
Good legal representation is not cheap, and anyone who tells you otherwise is making a sales pitch. But that does not mean having an attorney is unaffordable. In fact, the reason an attorney’s work is valuable is because legal advice saves money. Making the wrong legal decisions in business or failing to handle a lawsuit properly can be financially devastating. Your attorney’s job is to provide knowledgeable, rational, and candid advice on how to best address your legal needs to ensure the most positive financial outcome. That’s what we do.
- How long does a lawsuit take?
- The American legal system is focused on quality, not speed. Courts are slow, and there is little that can be done to move a case along more quickly. Unless the parties agree to settlement early on, most cases take a year or more to resolve from start to finish. Large and complex cases may take years. No attorney can “fast-track” a case or expedite the courts. The lengthy process is a result of rigid scheduling procedures established by law, and the busy schedules of the courts themselves.
- I was just served with a lawsuit. What should I do?
- You need to meet with an attorney immediately. You generally have 20 days to respond to the lawsuit (file an “answer”), and the answer itself requires a substantial amount of work to produce. The answer is a carefully prepared legal document which must address the allegations of the lawsuit in a very specific and technical way. The answer is critical – errors at this stage could cost you the entire suit, and may be unfixable. Unless the value of the dispute is low enough that losing is of little consequence, it is inadvisable to attempt to answer it yourself. Consult an attorney at the earliest opportunity so your lawyer can begin strategizing your defense.