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Meet Carter Mario: Personal Injury Lawyer

He focuses on customer service, and even has a free smartphone app that gets tipsy drivers off the road.

Carter Mario believes in running his law firm like a business, which most people might associate with his high-profile advertisements on television, billboards and local transit buses.

But to Mario, 53, a Milford resident, it means focusing on customer service and developing a personal relationship with his clients.

"We’re a service business," he said. "Our commodity is legal services."

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Specifically, the Carter Mario law firm specializes in personal injury cases, which he described as any legal matter involving an injury to a person. That could be from a fall, a workplace injury, a Social Security disability claim or a product liability complaint.

Mario said there are plenty of personal injury lawyers and they all can read law books. "We understand you have a choice," he said. That’s why he requires his associate lawyers to tend to customer service issues, such as always returning phone calls the same day, to enhance client satisfaction.

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"Lack of timely communication is the leading cause for grievances against lawyers in the state of Connecticut," he said.

The firm’s focus on customer service even got him mentioned in the book "What’s The Secret: To Providing a World-Class Customer Experience" by customer service consultant John R. DiJulius III.

Mario said he grew up near the beach in Milford and still lives on the same property. He attended prep schools in Massachusetts, selected for their interscholastic wrestling teams.

He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on a wrestling scholarship, and was the team captain, winning both the individual and team championships for the Atlantic Coast Conference in the 1979-80 competition.

He met his wife, Cynthia, at college, and returned to Connecticut after receiving his law degree from Stetson University in Florida. Mario opened his law firm in 1989, and now it has over 16 lawyers in six offices, and he is planning on opening a seventh office soon.

One innovation he developed to make his firm more visible is a free app for iPhones and Android smartphones. The app is programmed to answer legal questions, such as what should you do if you are involved in an automobile accident.

Lately, he adapted his advertising for transit buses and billboards to carry public service messages aimed at raising awareness about distracted driving. One shows a driver using a phone behind the wheel with the caption: "She blabs, you break."

"It puts our name out there in a non-transactional way," he said.

He said he has been using transit-bus advertisements for 15 years, and currently has them on about 250 commuter buses across the state.

Mario also advertises another safe driving service through his free smartphone app. Anyone who has been drinking and is over the legal limit can use the app to call a cab to take him home, and Mario said he will pay the fare.

"We’ve delivered people safely home," he said.

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