Over the years my wife and I have been involved in many auto accidents and we have decided to never rush out and hire another attorney ever again! Our attorney dragged out our case for years and finally lost, simply because of his “laziness” for finding out more research about our case. These are the hidden facts, which attorneys will never tell you up front. This information is just informative suggestions, you may want to think about before hiring an attorney to represent your auto accident insurance case or claim.
Here are the 10 reasons why you should NOT hire an “Immediate” attorney:
1. A decent insurance company will try to work with you, maybe NOT fast as you like, especially if you have injuries. In most states, you have up to 2 years to settle with the insurance company before hiring an attorney. The reason why is if the insurance company fails to settle with you during this period, then you will have no choice but to file a lawsuit and you will need an attorney to do this. “Believe it or NOT” Lawsuits are filed against the other driver and NOT the insurance company, even tho, they are the ones that pay the bills! And ironically, you can not mention the two words “Insurance Company” in court!
2. After you sign an attorneys contract, they may want you to go to their chiropractor or medical doctor, (although you may NOT need this necessary treatment) and run up more bills which could possibly hurt your case, especially if it goes to court and you have to explain in front of the jury the reason why you went to these medical providers to begin with. Your attorney will not be allowed to explain this in court. These bills are also subtracted from your final settlement.
3. Attorney’s get 33-50% of your final settlement and you also have to pay all bill’s surrounding your case, such as depositions, medical bills, video tapes, court cost, stamps “Duh”? etc. “We always wondered, if we have to pay all the cost out of our settlement, then what are the attorney contingency fee’s for? Doctors depositions can cost you as much as $2500.00 per depositon! Which is subtracted from your final settlement. Even if we had won our case, we still would have ended up with nothing!
4. Over all, most attorneys will NOT handle your property damage claim. You will still have to deal with the insurance company adjuster regarding this matter and settle on your own, even if you don’t like the results, your attorney will mostly never help!
5. Attorney’s will sometimes file a lawsuit against the insurance company, or insured party, especially if it is a large sum insurance policy, just so they can get more money. In return, this will drag out your case that many more years and you will still NOT receive any money to pay your bills with over these years. (You can possibly borrow money against your case with certain companies, provided that your attorney agrees to it).
6. Some attorney’s will NOT do anything about your case for months, especially after you sign their contract. BEWARE! Getting out of these contracts is literally impossible. You also, still have to pay their cost if you “fire them” and this also looks bad to the insurance company. In other words, this could look “suspicious” to the insurance company and their attorneys, thus giving their attorneys more reasons for research and deployment regarding your case.
7. Attorneys will sometimes hire other attorneys to handle your case, and NEVER tell you! You may call your attorney one day and they will tell you your case is being handled by another law firm which is supposedly better at handling these type of injuries. The only probably with this, is this law firm may be completely “hard to get along with” and just NOT care about you at all.
8. Normally, whenever a person(s) is involved in an auto accident they are mad and upset, the only thing they can think about is “Revenge” as soon as possible. Unfortunately, insurance adjusters could care less, this is their daily job. In other words, “Revenge” can cloud your judgment about hiring the “right” attorney to handle your claim or case. Take your time when hiring an attorney.
9. You may go months sometimes without talking to your attorney and deal strictly with his or hers staff, which can really be frustrating at times, especially if their staff is “rude”. Remember, once you sign their contract, you can no longer talk to the insurance company about your personal injuries.
10. Even after you sign their contracts, you will still have to do the majority of the paper work and research surrounding your case and then you wonder what you are paying these people for? They will NOT also tell you this up front before signing their contract.
Suggestions: If you try to work with the insurance company, they may possibly work with you, if NOT, then research and search a possible “candidate” attorney with friends, family members, the yellow pages, internet, etc. I would suggest only giving the insurance adjuster only what they need to settle your claim. Keep a record of all transactions regarding this auto accident.
DO NOT volunteer a lot of unnecessary “junk” to the insurance adjuster, this could possibly hurt your claim and they can also use this against you in court, however they will need your permission to release your medical records. Do NOT sign any final settlement forms, until you are ready. Then you may want to possibly ask an attorney to review over the final contract settlement and pay them “50 bucks” for consultation fee.
If you are NOT sure about these facts and information, be sure to discuss this with your attorney before signing their contract. You can also go to the public library and look for books concerning “personal injuries” and attorneys. I hope this information has helped to relieve some of the “pain and suffering” that human beings are forced to endure after a severe auto accident. Unfortunately, this is just a daily job with attorneys and insurance adjusters.