Well yes and no to your thoughts above. Russ Brown and others like him operate on a volume basis. None of them actually work on your case. They have associates in every state who do the work on a percentage of total fee basis. My wife works for lawyers. Has her whole life. She's worked for every kind. Criminal, Probate, Corporate, Insurance defense and Personal Injury. In my estimation, some of the most decent ones were ambulance chasers to use your expression. Small one and two lawyer offices where they took cases on a contingency basis and worked their asses off hoping for a big score. So my advice would be to look around for a small general practice office. Sign a straight contingency contract. Be sure the contract is not for contingency plus out of pocket expenses or you could end up owing the lawyer money. In most situations you agree to share the settlement with the lawyer based on how far he goes. 33.3% if you settle out of court. 40% if you settle as a result of court and 50% or more if you win on appeal. Do you homework and you can come out of whatever your situation is OK. Not all lawyers are crooks, just like not all doctors are incompetant.
B B
I hesitated before responding to this post but in our world the possibility of personal injury or death and the resulting hardships on our families is something we should all consider and possibly make contingency plans for in the event that it happens.
I agree with BB. Though I do not know either of the lawyers named, most who advertise nationally do in fact refer their cases out and do not become involved in the actual case and the needs of the family. BB is also right in that most of the lawyers who handle (and I am not referring to those who refer the cases out) personal injury cases are decent people who care about their clients. If they didn't care they would not be in the personal injury business because the stress level is high, the hours long and every case is a big risk. Unlike the lawyers who are hired by the insurance companies, the personal injury attorney only gets paid if they win. Unlike the insurance attorneys the personal injury attornies have the future of their clients resting on their back and that is an extremely large burden. If they lose lives may be shattered whereas if an insuance attorney loses someone merely writes a check. The one point that I disagree with BB on is hiring an attorney from a general practice. With all respect to BB, imho you really need someone who specializes in personal injury. Many of the general practitioners are not used to going against the best the insurance company can buy and get overwhelmed, outgunned or outsmarted. Years ago I may have agreed with BB on this issue but not now as the laws have become more complicated and the pace, with the addition of computers and the internet, much faster. You need an attorney who knows insurance as well if not better than the defense attorney. You also need an attorney who understands " numbers" as personal injury cases are about insurance, money and the law (procedure, evidence, exceptions, etc). All things being equal if you can hire an attorney who rides then that is what you should do, but do not hesitate to hire one who doesn't if you are comfortable with him and he has the previously stated requirements. Though expertise in bikes may be necessary, cases always require that the attorney be or become an expert in various areas. For the attornies that practice strictly personal injury becoming an expert in various fields is second nature. Every personal injury case involves medical issues so one day you may have the need to be an expert in backs or necks or brain injuries or quadraplegia or decubitus ulcers ... and the list goes on. The attorney may need to become an expert on road design and constuction procedures, marine vessels and the job requirements thereon. There could be a requirement that they understand the trucking industry and the related regs, not to mention stopping distances, driver perception, or many other variables. Just noticed that this post is starting to get rather long, so I will end it for now. However I guess since I have made these statements and someone may, though hopefully not, need a personal injury attorney and wonder whether or not they should heed my advise, I should provide at least some basis for my opinion. I graduated from college with a degree in accounting. Worked 3 years in a CPA firm (obtained my cpa) before going to work for a regional insurance brokerage firm that also owned a couple of insurance companies. While there I worked as their chief finacial officer being involved in all aspects of the insurance business and while with them also obtained several insurance licenses as well as a series 7 license ( which allowed me to sale stocks and bonds, someone had to become licensed for the financial services company my employers were starting). I finally became disgusted with the insurance business where everything was about money and no one considered or cared about the people, went to LSU Law School and now handle nothing but cases against insurance companies. I started riding about 2 1/2 years ago as a way to relieve some stress and relax. Now I ride for only one reason, I love it and everything about it. jj
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Topic: Russ Brown or Ralp C Buss (Read 2442 times)