Angotti & Straface Attorneys at Law L.C.

A practice rooted in Morgantown since 1952

Angotti & Straface Attorneys at Law L.C. works out of Morgantown, West Virginia. The firm's own materials trace its service back to 1952, which places it among the longer-running practices in the area. That start date is one of the first things the site puts in front of a visitor.

The firm frames its work around two broad groups: people who have been injured and people who have been accused. In my opinion, that framing is a useful signal. It tells you the practice leans toward personal injury and criminal defense, rather than trying to cover every corner of the law.

For a directory built on evidence over advertising, a stated history that long is worth pausing on. It doesn't prove any single outcome. It does suggest the practice has kept its doors open in one community across many years.

Focus and practice areas

The range listed on the site is wide for a firm of this size. On the injury side, it covers motor vehicle accidents, and it breaks those out into car, truck, and motorcycle collisions. It also lists medical malpractice, product liability, slip and fall, dog bites, workplace injury, and nursing home matters. Wrongful death claims are handled as well.

Criminal defense is the other main pillar. The firm lists DUI work alongside other felony and misdemeanor charges. There's also a college student defense category, which fits a town built around West Virginia University.

Family law rounds out the core. The site names divorce, child custody, child support, and adoption. Past those areas, it lists insurance matters such as bad faith and coverage disputes, plus home and property damage and construction litigation.

Reading the list

A long practice list can mean different things. Here it tracks closely with the kinds of disputes common to a mid-sized West Virginia city: road crashes, criminal charges, family breakdowns, and fights with insurers. As a reviewer, I'd read the spread as a general civil and criminal practice with an injury emphasis, not a boutique built around one narrow issue.

How the team is built

The site names three attorneys, and each one carries a different role. That structure tells you something about how the work is shared and who carries what.

John R. Angotti

John R. Angotti is listed as a Member of the firm. His stated practice areas are personal injury, criminal defense, and family law. Those three line up with the firm's main pillars, so he appears to sit across its core work rather than in one lane.

Chad C. Groome

Chad C. Groome is an attorney at the firm. He earned his law degree from the West Virginia University College of Law in 2003. His practice is described as litigation, personal injury, criminal defense, medical malpractice, and appellate matters. The appellate piece is worth noting, since not every injury or defense practice keeps that work in house.

David J. Straface

David J. Straface is listed as Of Counsel. He holds a Bachelor of Science from West Virginia University, earned in 1976, and a Juris Doctor from the same university's College of Law in 1981. His work covers personal injury, family law and divorce, criminal defense, medical malpractice, and wrongful death. An Of Counsel role often points to a seasoned lawyer who stays involved without the day-to-day load of a partner.

Read together, the three profiles share a clear thread. All of them touch personal injury and criminal defense, and most touch family law. Two of the three studied at the West Virginia University College of Law, which keeps the firm's training close to the state it serves.

What the site makes clear, and what it leaves open

The public pages are steady on the basics. You learn the location, the founding year, the practice areas, and the names and roles of three attorneys. Two of them list a law school and a graduation year, which lets a reader check the credential against a public record.

Some things the site does not spell out. There are no case results or settlement figures on the pages our research reviewed. Bar admission years are not given for every lawyer, and law school details are missing for one. None of that counts against the firm. It's simply the line between what's published and what a prospective client would need to ask about in person.

Who might find this a fit

In my opinion, this practice reads as a sensible match for West Virginia residents facing a handful of common problems. Think a serious car or truck crash, a DUI or other criminal charge, a divorce or custody question, or a bad faith dispute with an insurer. The mix of injury and defense work under one roof is the firm's clearest feature.

Anyone weighing the firm should treat the website as a starting point rather than a full picture. It sets out what the attorneys do and who they are, with names, roles, and two sets of law school details a reader can verify. The specifics of a given matter, along with questions of cost and approach, are things to raise directly in a first conversation.