Chris Ameel obtained his bachelor’s degree from Texas Tech University in 1982 and his law degree from South Texas College of Law (Houston) in 1989. He has practiced exclusively in the workers’ compensation field during his entire 20-year career.
Chris started his legal career at the Texas Attorney General’s Office as an Assistant Attorney General in the Workers’ Compensation Section of the Tort Litigation Division in February 1990. In May 1991, he accepted an Associate position with Harris & Harris, an Austin workers compensation defense firm. During his 15 years with the firm, he became a Partner and in 1997, he became head of the Litigation Section.
In September 2005, Chris changed firms to Adami, Goldman & Shuffield, a San Antonio based insurance defense firm. Chris was made a Partner and he opened the firm’s Austin branch office. In September 2007, the firm changed its name to Adami, Shuffield, Scheihing & Burns, PC.
On August 25, 2008, Chris opened his own law firm, Christopher Ameel, Attorney at Law, PLLC. His practice is devoted entirely to the representation of insurance carriers, political subdivisions and employers in workers’ compensation related disputes.
During his career, Chris has represented insurance carriers, political subdivisions, self-insured employers, and third-party administrators in all facets of workers’ compensation litigation. While Chris is primarily involved in representation of his clients at the Division of Workers’ Compensation field offices and in trial court actions seeking judicial review of final DWC decisions, he has also been involved in a variety of related adversarial matters. This has included representing clients in claims of defamation, wrongful discrimination, bad faith, medical provider billing fraud, non-subscriber negligence; compliance issues at the DWC’s central office in Austin; and appeals to the State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH). Another part of his practice involves the prosecution of 3rd party actions and suits in the name of Claimants against negligent parties in order to obtain subrogation recoveries.
Over the course of his career, Chris has served as lead counsel in 60 trials in Texas District Court and County Courts at Law resulting in favorable jury verdicts and judgments in over 70% of the cases tried. These trials have been conducted all over Texas, as far west as El Paso, east to Longview, south to Corpus Christi, and north to Lubbock. Chris has also been involved in 10 appeals filed in state appellate courts, including the Texas Supreme Court. *
Chris has been a speaker at each of his firm’s annual client seminars every year since 1991 and has written for several publications in the area of workers’ compensation law.
