About Charles Schierer

Personal Injury & Criminal Defense Attorney — Peoria, Illinois

Early in his career, Charles Schierer was good at working against people like you.

Fresh out of one of the top law schools in the country, he landed at a 100-attorney corporate defense firm in St. Louis. Researching, writing, building cases for insurance companies, auto manufacturers, hospitals, and retailers. His work was precise. His clients were powerful. And somewhere along the way, he realized that every hour he put in was another spent making sure the little guy walked away with less. That didn’t sit right.

His life didn’t change overnight. But something inside him did.

“His patience, understanding, and legal knowledge were beyond my expectations. No question was deemed “stupid”. He responds calmly and quickly to what I deemed emergencies. Cool and collected in the courtroom, Mr Schierer is a force to be reckoned with.”– Kathy

Charles grew up in Central Illinois with two older brothers, a younger sister, and an opinion on everything. If he thought something was unfair, he said so. That instinct found a better outlet when he earned his law degree from Washington University in St. Louis and did what top graduates do: took the prestigious job at a large firm defending the companies with the deepest pockets.

Five years in, his perspective shifted, and he couldn’t unsee it. Real people were filing those claims he was defending against. For these families, a lost case meant a lost paycheck, a missed bill, and potentially no food on the table.

He left. A brief stop at another firm gave him his first taste of representing injury victims instead of corporations. A glimpse of where he was headed, but not quite yet.

He’d always wanted a stint in the military, so he and his wife, Tiffany, packed up for San Diego, and he did it. Four years in the Navy JAG Corps, first as a prosecutor, then as a legal advisor to the base commander. He’s glad he did it, but he’s just as glad it’s over. Life is hard, people make choices, and he didn’t enjoy being the one to end someone’s career over them. When his service ended, they came home to Central Illinois and built Schierer & Ritchie from the ground up. The mission was clear, built on a slow-burn reckoning.

Now Charles represents individuals in criminal defense and personal injury cases across the greater Peoria area. In criminal defense, his goal is to make sure every client gets a fair outcome given the full picture of who they are and what they’re facing. In personal injury, he does what he once worked to prevent: level the playing field between an individual and the institution with every resource imaginable.

Even with over a thousand clients behind him, one case that has stayed with Charles involved a teacher charged with five counts of sexual assault. A woman who maintained her innocence through every offer, every pressure point, every moment of doubt, even when she was staring 20 years in the face. She was found not guilty. After that verdict, her words, “You just saved my life,” felt like tangible evidence that he made the right move.

Away from the office, Charles is a devoted family man. He and Tiffany have two kids and a dog, and they all travel together as often as possible. Japan, Iceland, New Zealand, Norway, and beyond. He enjoys baseball, suiting up each year at St. Louis Cardinals fantasy camp alongside former players.

Charles started out in the big leagues, doing exactly what you’re supposed to do with a degree from a top law school. But the kid who never let an unfair call go had an inner voice that, deep down, wasn’t cheering for his big, untouchable clients.

Education

• Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, J.D., 1999
• University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, B.S. Accountancy, 1995
• Illinois Central College, 1990–1993

Bar Admissions

• Illinois
• Missouri
• New York