Melissa Mosier is an attorney at Joye Law Firm who takes on tough personal injury and wrongful death cases. She often handles cases that require an extensive investment of time and resources to prove such as commercial truck accident cases, catastrophic workplace injury cases, and dram shop cases in which someone was overserved alcohol and causes harm to another. Melissa applies her legal skills to cases where fault is a matter of dispute or cases that other attorneys have declined.
Meet Melissa Mosier
Melissa’s Approach
“I find myself taking on the matters that others have turned down,” she says. “They may be matters in which police have determined that our client is at fault. We all know that a lot of times the reason why an incident happened is not black and white. I’m a problem solver.”
Melissa works out of Joye Law Firm’s Columbia office. She feels a great sense of responsibility to the injured people she represents to try to make their lives better and help them seek the full compensation they need to rebuild their lives and be financially secure.
What Is the Most Satisfying Aspect of Being a Personal Injury Lawyer?
“I feel a heavy burden because they have entrusted me with something so important to them,” she says. “Representing seriously injured people has changed my life.”
While employed at another personal injury law firm several years ago, Melissa had the chance to collaborate with attorneys from Joye Law Firm as members of the litigation team on a $17 million truck accident case. Melissa represented the parents of a young mother, who along with her husband and their infant son, died in a horrific accident caused by an 18-wheeler barreling through a construction zone on I-95 near Florence, S.C. Before the trial began, she prevailed in her efforts to keep the publicly traded parent corporation of the trucking company as a defendant in the case. The wrongful death case went to trial in the U.S. District Court’s Charleston division.
Melissa appreciated Joye Law Firm’s thoughtful and tenacious approach to the case and it was through their collaboration as trial counsel that brought Melissa to join Joye Law Firm.
Since then, Melissa has traveled around the country speaking about truck accident cases as a featured speaker at numerous legal seminars and conventions from the American Association for Justice, to the South Carolina Bar, to the New Jersey Justice Association, to the Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys.
Melissa’s Approach When Meeting a Client
When meeting with prospective clients, Melissa seeks to convey how seriously the Joye Law Firm takes the trust placed in the firm by its clients. The firm, and all of its lawyers, take that responsibility to heart. She wants the client to leave that meeting breathing a sigh of relief, knowing they can focus on getting their lives back together while the law firm investigates their case and pursues just compensation for them.
She often hears from wary clients that tell her that they are “not the kind of people who file lawsuits;” but have been pushed to contact an attorney because they are disappointed in how the insurance company has been treating them. Melissa takes satisfaction in winning the trust of these clients and proving to them realize that they made the right decision to hire an experienced and caring lawyer to help them.
“Compassion for people is what I bring to each case,” she says. “I keep in touch with many clients long after the case is over. We have forged a connection that is real.”
Melissa’s Background and Education
Melissa grew up in North Charleston in a family of Cuban immigrants. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of South Carolina Honors College in 2007 with a bachelor’s in criminal justice and criminology and a minor in Spanish. During her time at the USC Honors College, she was a part of Fred Sheheen’s public policy program and interned for Senator Phil Leventis our of Sumter, SC. Through this experience, Melissa learned the art of negotiation and the power of relationships. Reflecting on the internship she says, “it was a transformative experience that helped me understand the legislative process better.”
She received her law degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 2010.
She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, an invitation-only organization that recognizes exceptional academic achievement at a college or university.
She is a five-time winner of the CALI Award in the areas of consumer law; energy law and the environment; immigration law; issues in civil rights and legal history; and interviewing, counseling and negotiation.
Away from work, Melissa enjoys spending time with her husband and their three young children. She loves spending time outdoors in her backyard garden and has a passion for fitness, especially enjoying the challenges of Peloton and Tonal.
- $6.25 million settlement for a man who suffered multiple broken bones after being rear-ended by a semi-truck in a multi-vehicle crash on I-95.
- $2 million settlement for a marine injured at Myrtle Beach resort.
- $800,000 settlement for a woman who suffered a leg injury and spine fracture after being rear-ended by a work truck on Highway 501 in Myrtle Beach.
- $485,000 settlement in a product liability case for a Bluffton woman who suffered significant injury to her knee and eye due to a defective electric bike.
- $320,000 settlement for a woman injured when another driver ran a stop sign and t-boned her car.
- Listed as a South Carolina Super Lawyers Rising Star, 2015 – Present
- Recognized by Best Lawyers in America, Personal Injury, 2021 – Present
- Active Member, South Carolina Bar’s Professional Responsibility Committee
- Publications Editor, South Carolina Association for Justice’s Justice Bulletin, 2018 – Present
- Member, SC Association for Justice Board of Governors, 2018 – Present
- Volunteer judge through South Carolina Bar’s Law Related Education Program, which seeks to encourage students in middle school and high school to pursue law by introducing them to role models.
- Mentor, South Carolina Bar mentor for new attorneys starting to practice law
- Mentor, University of South Carolina School of Law 1L mentor program
- Member, American Association for Justice Trucking Litigation Group
- Speaker at American Association for Justice Winter Convention – “Discovering, Investigating and Prosecuting Dram Shop cases” – February 2021
- Speaker at South Carolina Bar CLE on Commercial Vehicle and Trucking Accidents – February 2021, February 2022
- Speaker at the AAJ Trucking Convention “Critical Depositions in the Commercial Motor Vehicle Case—Getting the Documents, People, and Admissions Needed,” July 2020
- Speaker at American Association Jazz Fest in April 2020
- Litigator in The Art and Science of Trial Objections sponsored by the South Carolina Bar, January 2020
- Speaker at the South Carolina Association for Justice Auto Torts Advanced Trial Lawyer College, December 2019
- Speaker at the Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys’ annual symposium, September 2019
- Advanced Issues in Underinsured Motorist Law, NBI, 2015
- Guest speaker at the AAJ Trucking College in Dallas, 2015
- Guest speaker at the New Jersey Association for Justice Trucking University
- Guest speaker at the Kentucky Justice Association, “Pursuing a Dram Shop Action,” June 2020
- Testified before the South Carolina General Assembly on proposed changes to insurance laws that affect public safety
Back in January 2021, the quiet serenity that’s typical of a late evening in Mauldin, South Carolina, was shattered by a harrowing crash that would leave an indelible mark on the lives of those involved. This case study delves into…
Objection! Overruled! Everyone is familiar with the high-drama court proceedings depicted in movies and on TV. They may leave you wondering, “What happens in a real-life personal injury trial?” While far less theatrical, real life court cases can be filled…