Pagel Hager Law Firm

Where the firm works and who it represents

This is a two-attorney practice based in Bismarck, North Dakota. Its work covers Western North Dakota, and the firm names Burleigh and Morton counties as part of the area it serves. Between them, the two attorneys carry more than 50 years of combined legal experience.

The firm's cases have reached several levels of the court system. Its attorneys have appeared in North Dakota state courts, before the North Dakota Supreme Court, and in the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. That mix points to trial work and appellate work under one roof, which is worth noting for a practice of this size.

The range of practice areas

Five areas of law sit at the center of the work: personal injury, family law, criminal defense, contract matters, and estate planning. That is a wide spread for a small firm. In my opinion, it reads as a general practice that aims to keep local clients from having to look elsewhere for common legal needs.

Personal injury and accident claims

Personal injury is the most detailed part of the firm's stated work. It handles car, truck, and other motor vehicle claims, along with pedestrian and recreational vehicle cases. The list also covers oil field injuries, which carry real weight in this part of the state.

Beyond road and workplace accidents, the firm takes slip and fall injuries, dog bites, and claims over defective products. It also handles wrongful death and medical negligence. Those are among the harder injury cases to bring, and their place on the list tells you the firm is willing to take them on rather than pass them along.

Family law and estate planning

On the family side, the firm handles divorce, including high-asset divorce, plus child custody and visitation, adoption, and guardianship. High-asset divorce is called out on its own, which suggests some comfort with property and financial questions inside a family case.

Estate planning rounds out the civil work. The firm prepares wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and living wills, and it handles guardianships. Criminal defense and contract drafting and disputes complete the roster. Taken together, these areas cover a lot of what a household or a small business in the region is likely to need over time.

The attorneys named on the firm

The practice is built around its two founding partners, Rodney Pagel and Scott Hager. The firm carries both their names, and the site presents them as the people doing the work.

Rodney Pagel

Pagel earned his B.S. from the University of Minnesota, Morris, in 1990, where he majored in education and psychology. He then attended the University of North Dakota School of Law and earned his J.D. with distinction in 1993. He was admitted to practice in both North Dakota and Minnesota that same year.

His early career took him to the LaBine Law Firm in Grand Forks, where he worked as an associate for four years. He moved to Bismarck in 1997 and started the Pagel Weikum Law Firm. He later formed Pagel Hager Law Firm in partnership with Scott Hager.

One detail stands out. Pagel has argued more than 35 appellate cases before the North Dakota Supreme Court and the Eighth Circuit. As a reviewer, I read that as a genuine appellate history, not a line added for effect.

Scott Hager

Scott Andrew Hager attended the University of North Dakota School of Law, the same school as his partner. His stated work includes general business matters, personal injury defense, and powers of attorney. The firm does not publish his law school graduation year or his admission date, so I will not put a number on either.

What the courtroom record shows

The clearest measure the firm offers is that appellate count. Arguing over 35 cases to a state Supreme Court and a federal circuit court is not something most general practitioners do. It means at least one partner has spent real time on the written brief and the oral argument, where the standards are different from a first hearing.

Set that against the firm's trial-level work in state courts, and you get a practice that can follow a case through its later stages. For a client whose matter might not end at the first ruling, that continuity is a practical point. It also fits the picture of a firm that has been in the same city since the late 1990s.

How this reads for a prospective client

What you have here is a small Bismarck firm with a wide civil and criminal practice and a founding partner who has spent years in front of appellate judges. The two-lawyer size means clients are likely to deal with a named partner rather than a rotating cast. For many people, that direct contact is the reason to choose a firm this size in the first place.

The firm also keeps its claims plain on its own pages. It states its years of experience, lists its practice areas, and names the courts it has appeared in. In my opinion, that restraint counts in its favor for anyone who would rather read what a firm actually does than wade through slogans. A prospective client can weigh the record on its own terms and decide from there.