Sam Aguiar

Bio

Sam Aguiar is a Kentucky trial lawyer who represents people injured in car and truck crashes and families dealing with the loss of a loved one. Since founding Sam Aguiar Injury Lawyers in 2010, his work has helped secure dozens of seven- and eight-figure recoveries.

A Murray State graduate, Sam began law school at Tulane before Hurricane Katrina brought him to Louisville in 2005. He earned his law degree from the University of Louisville’s Brandeis School of Law in 2007.

His approach to practicing law took shape in his clients’ living rooms. Early in his career, Sam spent a year meeting clients in roughly 1,200 homes. He saw how quickly an injury could put a working family in financial trouble, and how differently the same kind of accident could affect each person. Those conversations helped shape the firm he would build.

Sam built the firm to fix what he saw broken in personal injury law: bloated caseloads, fee percentages that rose when cases went to court, and clients who felt like a number. The result is the Bigger Share Guarantee®, a flat 35% contingency fee that never increases, even in litigation. Every client gets a dedicated team of three: an attorney, a case manager, and a legal assistant. Lower caseloads mean faster resolution, under seven months on average before litigation.

Sam stays involved in the day-to-day client experience, from greeting clients in the lobby to reviewing case strategy and making sure a family gets its questions answered the same day it calls.

Sam’s career includes substantial recoveries in commercial vehicle, catastrophic injury, and wrongful death cases. His civil rights work includes representing Breonna Taylor’s family as part of the legal team that negotiated a $12 million settlement with Louisville in 2020. The agreement also included police reforms, extending the impact of the case beyond its financial recovery. His work has also led to an overhaul of claims handling policies at one of the nation’s largest property and casualty insurers.

His cases and legal work have been featured in ABC’s 20/20, The New York Times Presents on Hulu, Vice News, Rolling Stone, and True Crime Story: It Couldn’t Happen Here. His successes have also been covered by Time, CNN, NBC, the BBC, NPR, and the Washington Post.

Over the last several years, Sam has been a speaker at national conferences like PIMCON and NTL Big Truck and Auto, and is also a frequently sought after podcast guest on topics like law firm culture and operations. He has taught lawyers nationwide on law firm culture, trucking and personal injury case strategy, civil rights litigation, and insurance bad faith.

In 2025, Forbes named Sam to its America’s Best-In-State Lawyers list. He was one of only two Kentucky attorneys, and 16 nationwide, recognized in personal injury. Prior to that, Sam served as the commencement speaker for the graduating class of Brandeis Law School, became an Amazon best-seller, and received the Courier Journal’s Community Choice award for Best Personal Injury Lawyer. He is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates and has been selected to Super Lawyers from 2017-2026. He has also been named to the National Trial Lawyers Top 100 and the Trucking Trial Lawyers Association Top 10.

Through Sam Cares, Sam’s firm has contributed more than $6 million to Kentucky families, schools, nonprofits, and community programs. That support has funded youth sports and academic programs and helped families recovering from floods and tornadoes. It has included delivering 7,000 pounds of flood relief supplies to Eastern Kentucky, providing Christmas gifts for 60 children at Chrysalis House in Lexington, partnering with UofL Athletics to feed 1,000 families at Thanksgiving, and a statewide mental health billboard campaign that drew more than 1,000 thank-you messages from Kentuckians. In 2026, his firm established a $150,000 scholarship gift at the University of Louisville’s Brandeis School of Law, funding three years of tuition support for two first-generation law students.

Sam is married to Janelle and has two sons, Evan and Owen. He and Janelle share a love of thoroughbred racing, and their 20-acre farm provides a home for rescued animals.