The American Board of Professional Liability Attorneys (ABPLA), is an organization for legal professionals in the practice of negligence law. It is the only American Bar Association-accredited organization that certifies attorneys in legal and medical malpractice. Board certification is limited to attorneys practicing legal malpractice and medical malpractice law.
The ABPLA was founded in 1972, in the wake of US Supreme Court Justice Warren Berger's observation that the United States suffered from a "low state of American trial advocacy and a consequent diminution in the quality of our entire system of justice". Chief Justice Berger believed that a system of certification of trial advocates in specialties was "imperative and long overdue". The ABPLA met this challenge and serves the country through its certification of legal specialties in two of the most complex areas of the law profession: medical and legal malpractice.
Since the ABPLA was first organized in 1972, professional negligence law has become increasingly complex. In such an environment, the need is ever greater to provide consumers with an objective standard by which to assess professional negligence attorneys. Board certification provides such a benchmark.
It is the ABPLA's continuing mission to certify attorneys according to the highest standards of experience, ethics, education, examination and excellence. Through this rigorous process, ABPLA offers consumers a clear standard of excellence for selecting medical and legal malpractice attorneys in whom they can have confidence.