Much is not understood about Personal Injury Law and the lawyers who represent injured people. What are the most prevalent of those misperceptions? We will attempt to dispel some of those myths below:
1. The client has a significant responsibility in pursuing a “case”. In actuality, a client should only really be concerned about getting better and treating with a doctor to do so in as short a period of time as is possible. It is up to the Lawyer to build a case and do the work to ensure that a Liability (Fault) case is made out and to obtain the necessary medical records and reports to have a doctor or doctors be prepared to testify as to their opinions about the client’s medical condition as a result of the accident and the negligence of the Defendant.
2. It is expensive to pursue a case in court. In my office we forward the costs of a lawsuit so that a client does not have to do so in almost all of our personal injury cases. In a rare number of cases in is possible that we may ask a client to carry the costs of pursuing a personal injury case. That is the exception. We charge a “Contingent Fee” – that is we only get paid a fee if we are successful in obtaining a recovery for our clients. Our fee is generally 33.3% of the recovery though that also differs in the case of ‘Minors” and Workers Compensation cases.
3. The insurance companies will treat me fairly if I do not hire a lawyer and bring the case on my own. Don’t bet on it! Very simply- Insurance companies make money on the premiums they charge and save money on the claims they DON’T pay. Clients do not know the value of a case and lawyers know the appropriate value of most settled cases. The only thing a lawyer doesn’t know is what a jury may ultimately award them if a case were to go to trial.
4. People who hire lawyers are always litigious. Not the case. It is more frequent for me to meet a new client and the first thing they say to me is-“I’m not the type of person who goes around suing others”. The fact of the matter is that it happens. People get hurt and they are legitimate claims worthy of pursuing for damages. In truth, illegitimate cases will ultimately get thrown out of court and be a waste of time and effort (and money) for the lawyer as well as for the client.
5. All cases have big money value. In fact all cases are valued based on their facts and many variables such as how the accident occurred, available insurance coverage, the injuries involved, loss of wages, the age of the client, and many other less tangible characteristics of the client and the incident as well as the defendant and their characteristics. In other words, all cases stand on their own and one cannot and should not be compared to another.
6. The legal process is too slow. In fact it does take time to put all the ducks in a row to bring a case and to comply with all court rules and allow for written discovery (interrogatories) to be completed, depositions of all parties and witnesses to occur, defense exams to take place, an arbitration to be held and a myriad of other court processes to take place. These processes aim to shed light on the legal process and allow a client to be informed about the case through much of the litigation.