IRVINE, CALIFORNIA — Kubota & Craig, PC has been selected by Expertise.com for its 2026 list of the Best Personal Injury Lawyers in Irvine, California. The firm is one of only 16 personal injury practices to earn a spot on the list, which was compiled after the review platform screened 158 area firms and narrowed that field to 101 candidates before naming its final selections. The Irvine list was last updated on July 30, 2026.
For the injured people and families who come to our Irvine office, third-party recognition matters for one reason: it is an outside check on the things that are hard to evaluate from a law firm’s own website. Anyone can call themselves the best. A recognition that comes out of an independent screening process (like Expertise.com) is a different kind of signal.
What Is Expertise.com and How Are Firms Selected?
Expertise.com is an independent research and review platform that evaluates local service professionals across more than 200 industries nationwide, researching over 60,000 businesses every month. Its editorial team builds each city list rather than selling placement on it, and law firms are scored against more than 25 variables spread across five evaluation categories.
Those five categories are:
- Availability — Identifying every practicing provider in the community using public databases and consumer referrals, then confirming service areas and capacity.
- Qualifications — Validating licensing and credentials. For California law firms, the State Bar of California is among the platform’s cited data sources, alongside LexisNexis.
- Reputation — Analyzing review data across multiple independent professional databases, weighing not just average score but how many separate platforms carry reviews and how stable those ratings have been over time.
- Experience — Assessing each firm’s primary practice focus, the breadth of services it offers, and its years handling those matters.
- Professionalism — Mystery shopping. Researchers call each firm posing as prospective clients to evaluate how knowledgeable, responsive, and courteous the intake experience actually is.
That last step is the one most award programs skip, and it is the one that reflects something our team genuinely cares about. How a firm treats a stranger with a question — before there is any case, any fee agreement, or any reason to impress anyone — says a great deal about how it treats clients.
Kubota & Craig did not apply for this list and paid nothing for inclusion on it. The firm was identified, screened, and selected by Expertise.com’s editorial team.
Why Kubota & Craig Was Selected
The firm earned a five-star overall Expertise.com rating, the platform’s top score, calculated through its proprietary grading system.
It also earned a perfect five-star Professionalism score — the mystery shopping category. That score comes from anonymous callers who were never identified as researchers, evaluating how quickly the firm responded, how thoroughly it answered questions, and how courteously it handled the conversation. Nobody at the firm knew those calls were being graded. That is precisely why the result is worth something.
The Expertise.com profile highlights the firm’s work in premises liability, auto accidents, and wrongful death, and notes the firm’s practice of building cases through hands-on evidence gathering at the accident stage rather than waiting to see what an insurance company offers.
On the reputation side, the platform aggregated the firm’s independent client review data across four separate sources:
| Review Platform | Rating | Reviews |
|---|---|---|
| 5.0 | 23 | |
| Avvo | 5.0 | 6 |
| Yelp | 4.8 | 4 |
| FindLaw | 5.0 | 1 |
Because Expertise.com weighs presence across multiple independent review sites — not a single high score in one place — this cross-platform record was part of the reputation analysis.
About Kubota & Craig
Kubota & Craig is a personal injury trial firm based in Irvine that represents injured people throughout Orange County and Southern California. The firm has recovered more than $200 million for clients in motor vehicle, wrongful death, and catastrophic injury cases.
Both founding partners are past presidents of the Orange County Trial Lawyers Association — a distinction the two of them share that few Orange County firms can claim across a single partnership.
Yoshi Kubota (California Bar No. 175555) is a founding partner who has practiced law in California since 1994 and has tried more than 45 cases to verdict. He served as president of the Orange County Trial Lawyers Association in 2011 and on the Board of Governors of the Consumer Attorneys of California from 2006 to 2012. He is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), where he was elected in 2023 to the National ABOTA Foundation Board of Trustees. He has been named to Super Lawyers from 2010 through 2026, to Best Lawyers in America from 2025 through 2026, and to the National Association of Distinguished Counsel’s top 1% list for 2026. He received the Consumer Attorneys of California Presidential Award of Merit multiple times between 2008 and 2011, and was inducted into the Western State College of Law Hall of Fame in 2012.
Cynthia A. Craig (California Bar No. 226318) is a founding partner with more than 20 years of litigation experience, focused on catastrophic injury, wrongful death, premises liability, and public entity claims. She is a past president of the Orange County Trial Lawyers Association, an elected member of the Consumer Attorneys of California Board of Governors, and a board member of the Banyard Inns of Court. She has been named to Super Lawyers from 2024 through 2026 and to Best Lawyers in America from 2022 through 2026. She received the CAOC Marvin E. Lewis Award in 2019, the Angelo Palmieri Civility Award in 2014, and was named OCTLA Board Member of the Year in 2013.
The firm handles motor vehicle collisions, truck and motorcycle accidents, rideshare claims, bicycle and pedestrian injuries, premises liability and slip-and-fall claims, dog bites, construction accidents, catastrophic injuries including traumatic brain and burn injuries, product liability, claims against government entities, and wrongful death. Consultations are free, cases are handled on a contingency fee basis, and the firm serves clients in both English and Spanish.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Expertise.com recognition mean a law firm is guaranteed to win my case?
No. No recognition, rating, or award can predict the outcome of an individual case. Every case turns on its own facts, evidence, and applicable law, and prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. What an independent screening does tell you is that a firm’s licensing, reputation data, experience, and client-intake conduct were reviewed by an outside party against a consistent standard.
How many personal injury firms serve Irvine?
Expertise.com identified 158 personal injury providers serving the Irvine market for its 2026 evaluation, narrowed that group to 101 curated candidates, and selected 16 as top picks.
How long do I have to file a personal injury claim in California?
Most California personal injury claims carry a two-year statute of limitations from the date of injury (Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1). Claims against a government entity are far shorter — generally six months to file an administrative claim (Government Code § 911.2). Because deadlines vary by the type of claim and the parties involved, speaking with an attorney early protects your options.
Speak With an Irvine Personal Injury Attorney
If you or a family member has been injured in Orange County, our Irvine personal injury attorneys offer free, no-obligation consultations.
Kubota & Craig, PC
16530 Bake Parkway Ste 100
Irvine, California 92618
Phone: (949) 218-5676
