Our History

Hoagland, Fitzgerald, Smith & Pranaitis

Attorneys at Law

Our History

Hoagland, Fitzgerald, Smith & Pranaitis and its predecessor firm have had a presence in Southwestern Illinois and more particularly, Madison County, for more than 75 years. The original firm was established in Alton, Illinois in 1930 and was known as Green, Verlie & Hoagland. In 1940, the firm changed its name to Green & Hoagland. In 1960, following the death of Karl K. Hoagland, Sr., a new partnership was formed by the remaining members of the firm. It was known as Hoagland, Maucker, Bernard & Almeter. In 1986, following the death of James K. Almeter and the retirement of several other partners, the remaining partners and associates in the firm took over the firm, at which time the name of the partnership was changed to Hoagland, Fitzgerald, Smith & Pranaitis. The main office of the firm has remained within several blocks of where it started in 1930 in downtown Alton, which is located about 15 miles from Edwardsville, the county seat of Madison County. Of the eight attorneys currently associated with the firm, six were born and raised in Madison County and the seventh and eighth attorneys have resided in Madison County for at least 25 years and 15 years respectively. In addition to an extensive and long-term involvement with litigation in Madison County, members of the firm have handled matters in all counties in the southern one-third of Illinois, with particular emphasis on St. Clair County, Jersey County and Greene County. More recently, the firm has regularly appeared in Missouri courts, including the City of St. Louis, St. Louis County and St. Charles County.

In addition to their professional practice, all of the attorneys in the firm are committed to the betterment of Madison County and all are involved in various local civic and charitable activities.

The focus of the firm has always been civil litigation, with specific emphasis on what is commonly referred to as insurance defense. The practice, however, has been much more extensive than representing only insurance companies. We also regularly represent local doctors, hospitals, manufacturing firms, colleges, non-profit organizations, other local attorneys, as well as various local individuals and families. We also regularly represent various national corporations and institutions. A list of our clients is provided elsewhere on this web site.

In addition to our litigation practice, we have always had a transactional practice as well, with specific emphasis on estate planning, probate, real estate, banking, domestic relations and labor relations.

In the past few years, our practice has increasingly included class action and toxic tort litigation in Madison County and St. Clair County, but we continue to have a steady volume of traditional auto liability, premises liability and product liability claims.

We take pride in the results we have achieved for our clients in these high-risk cases and we are confident that our clients concur that they get their money's worth with this firm.

The firm has always tried to be mindful about litigation costs and how litigation costs, unfortunately, can often determine how litigation is handled. As a result, we try to minimize the number of people within the firm assigned to a particular file or client and we actively strive to keep our hourly rates and fees very reasonable so that the client's decisions are not so controlled by the costs of the lawsuit. We also pride ourselves on our realism and candor about litigation here in Southwestern Illinois. If we truly believe we can get a client out of a lawsuit early at minimal cost, we will recommend that approach; if we truly believe that certain procedures and tactics would be a waste of time or money, we will say so. In other words, the fact that our fees may be adversely affected is never a factor in our recommendations.

401 Market Street, P.O. Box 130, Alton, IL 62002