Calbom & Schwab Law Group, PLLC

Our Attorneys

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  Courtney Bastian

  Attorney

  Courtney is a Moses Lake native who has returned to the area to be a voice for those who need it most. While in law school, Courtney served as a Guardian ad Litem and interned at a private practice specializing in Social Security. From a very young age, Courtney was passionate about pursuing a career in the law and has always desired to help those in the town she grew up in. In joining Calbom & Schwab Law Group, Courtney’s main focus is fighting for the rights of injured individuals to ensure they receive the compensation they are entitled to for their injuries. In her free time, Courtney enjoys spending time with her husband, her son, and her two dogs: Karma and Stella.

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  Link: Courtney Bastian

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  G. Joe Schwab

  Attorney

  I was born in October of 1950, when my father, a highly decorated Air Force officer, was flying over North Korea. Mom, like so many of spouses of service people at the front was the only parent, until Dad would return home from the front. No one in our family had ever gone to college before me, including my dad. Dad progressed to the rank of Captain, with his high school degree. Out of his desire to secure a future for his family, born out of his childhood experiences during the Great Depression, he was destined to succeed. Dad brought us up with the discipline of a military family. We respected hard work, and we were expected to work hard. Like so many children of my age at the time, as soon as I was old enough to mow lawns and deliver newspapers, as I recall, in my late pre-teens, I was working outside of home. And in addition to any outside jobs I had, every day, as the eldest child, Dad left me a written list of work around the house for that day. As both parents worked out of the home, it was my job to also work within the home. The above story is not a sad commentary of my early life, but perhaps describes why I have worked so hard to represent my clients. I simply do not know any other way to work other than to work hard. When I have a case going to trial, that simply means working at home at night and at the office on the weekends. Even when I chose to step down as the president and overall manager of Calbom and Schwab, PSC, now the Calbom & Schwab Law Group, I have, for the last three years, worked 6 days a week, often 10 plus hours. I continue as group manager and trial attorney of the personal injury section of the law firm. I really started my legal career in 1977 as a personal injury defense trial attorney for Safeco Insurance Company at its national headquarters in Seattle. I left Safeco to join John Calbom in January of 1979 in Moses Lake. It was a bit of change in careers as we did little personal injury work at the John Calbom Law Firm. Our focus was on workers compensation and social security disability claims. I tried many workers compensation cases before juries when I was not trying cases before the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals. I took the law firm over in the mid 1980s. In the late 1980s, I started the office down a pioneering trail of paperless operations. As the technology improved so that we were more mobile, I used the electronic access to documents, via the early internet, to open several successive offices in eastern Washington. Today, we are fully paperless. We do much of our work via Zoom, a bonus to our clients all over the state of Washington. Our primary offices are Moses Lake, Wenatchee, and the Tri-Cities area. We also have an office arrangement in Seattle. We in fact serve all of Washington state. As of the last few years, I litigate as many cases in western Washington as in eastern Washington. As time marched on, I wanted to do more of the jury trial work I had started with Safeco. I had worked the defense side of litigation, so why not move to the plaintiff’s side, representing the people against insurers and large companies who caused them injuries. Today, while I supervise one paralegal that does L&I work, I spend 98% of my time working on cases representing those wrongfully injured or killed by dangerous truckers and bad products that burn, kill, or otherwise maim people. I also do injury litigation involving auto accidents and premises injuries and other areas. You might say the pendulum has returned to my beginnings as a trial attorney in the late 1970s. People ask me, when are you going to retire. Well, my wife, who fortunately loves me dearly, still does not want me around the home that much, and you can only play golf so much at 70 years of age before the body aches too much. As I say to those that ask me when are you going to retire, I, in response ask them, what hobby do you have that you enjoy for hours on end? Then I ask them, how does that hobby help people? Like so many doctors that I know, even when they retire, they do not retire, they just replace the old job with a new job helping people. Perhaps the new job by the senior professionals has a little more freedom in regard to their having to be at the office every minute, but like doctors, the new job allows me to learn, remain vibrant and to continue to help people. The success of our team lifts people up from economic and physical difficulties. As a recent example, this year I continue to represent a badly brain damage young person even after his case has settled. Brain damage cases are an unfortunate injury to many of my clients. But with his financial recovery brought about by so many depositions, days and days of developing the case with experts, and long and tough mediations, we were able to recover sufficient funds to supplement his other income resources that had been inadequate before we represented him.

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  Link: G. Joe Schwab

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  Jeffrey Schwab

  Attorney

  Jeff began working for Calbom & Schwab in 1989, first as a paralegal while attending Gonzaga Law School, then as an attorney. His work experience has always involved helping others. He has carried this desire to help other people into the practice of law. Since joining the law firm, Jeff has focused his practice on helping injured and disabled people. Jeff knows from personal experience what it is like to be disabled, having been limited to a wheelchair and a hospital bed for six consecutive months, and unable to take his first steps without a walking support device for another three months after that. Jeff understands what it is like to depend on others for just about everything from this experience as a temporarily disabled person. His passion for helping his clients is further impassioned by this experience. Jeff has litigated worker’s compensation cases all the way up to the Washington State Supreme Court. In fact, you may have even seen his oral argument at the Washington State Supreme Court when it was broadcasted on CSPAN-2. He has also litigated Social Security Disability/SSI cases from the hearing level up to the United States District Courts in Washington State. Jeff speaks English and Spanish and has recently undertaken to learn Russian. Outside of the practice of law, Jeff enjoys weightlifting, tennis, playing guitar, and landscape photography. But his biggest joy is always the time he spends with his two adult daughters and their families. And when the Seahawks play, his friends and relatives know not to try to interrupt him as he is glued to the TV and often wears a Seahawks jersey, convinced that this counts for some small percentage of their victories.

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  Link: Jeffrey Schwab

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  David L. Lybbert

  Attorney

  Active in litigation and representation of clients regarding Social Security disability and workers compensation claims since starting to practice law in the summer of 1986. I have handled cases involving injuries to the back, the neck, severe head injuries, shoulders, knees, hips, ankles and feet. I have represented clients regarding heart attacks that occurred at work, strokes that occurred at work. I have litigated and obtained coverage for my clients regarding major depressive disorder, aggravation of bipolar disorder, PTSD, adjustment disorders, anxiety disorders etc. I have litigated the allowance of occupational disease claims for hearing loss, carpal tunnel syndrome, and lung disease. I have represented clients whose claims are being adjudicated by the Department of Labor and Industries, or by way of hearings presented to the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals, as well as, appeals to Superior Court, regional Courts of Appeals, and the Washington State Supreme Court. I have tried cases to juries and to Judges in multiple counties in the state of Washington, including, but not limited to, Grant County, Adams County, Lincoln County, Stevens County, Okanogan County, Chelan County, Douglas County, Spokane County, Walla Walla County, Columbia County, Garfield County, Franklin County, Benton County, Yakima County, Snohomish County, and King County. My representation of a client at the Washington state Supreme Court led to a landmark decision regarding how time loss benefits are to be calculated when dealing with wages for farmworkers. The ruling made in my case have been followed, and cited as the law of the state, by other courts for decades. I love languages. Having served a full-time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in France and Switzerland, I am fluent in French. I have conversational abilities in Spanish. I also understand some German. When not practicing law, my time is absorbed with hobbies that include fishing, golfing, and raising grandchildren.

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  Link: David L. Lybbert

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  Ashley Grout

  Attorney

  Ashley believes that the foundation of being the best advocate for her clients requires passion, trust, honesty, and hardwork. An Eastern Washington native, Ashley started with Calbom & Schwab in 2012 and found that her own past of suffering a significant injury helped her connect and better understand her client’s point of view and damages. Now as a shareholder in the firm, Ashley continues to fight for the sick and injured, and not shy away from a difficult case. Ashley limits her practice to workers’ compensation and personal injury including car crashes, premises liability, construction site incidents and insurance disputes. Outside of the office Ashley enjoys traveling with her husband Steve and rooting on their favorite teams: WSU Cougars and the Vegas Golden Knights.

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  Link: Ashley Grout