WHEN TO HIRE A PERSONAL INJURY LAWYER


So you think you have a personal injury claim, now what? Should you hire a lawyer? The answer is - it depends.

Let's start with cases where you may not need a lawyer. If you have a small claim and if the wrongdoer has agreed to pay you, then you may not need counsel. For example, suppose you are in an auto collision and the other driver is at fault. It will cost $880 to repair your '98 Ford Escort and you have bills for a visit to the emergency room of $990. It has been a month since the collision. Your neck hurt for two weeks but now you feel fine. The insurer for the other driver has sent you a check for $800 for damage to your car. They have offered to pay $1500 for your injury claim if you sign a release. What to do?

We'll look at the property damage claim first. Insurers have an annoying tendency to tell a claimant what the damage to his or her car is worth, even if it is less than repair estimates presented to the insurer. On the other hand, insurers deal with this process daily and are very sophisticated when it comes to calculating costs of repair. Insurers have their own appraisers who can calculate the cost upon inspection, though many times this estimate is premised on use of a body shop that charges a lower than market rate, perhaps because of volume business referrals from the insurer. Insurers will also avoid telling you about a claim for diminution in value. This claim is paid for the recognition that a repaired car may be worth less than a new car which has never been damaged. The diminution claim above is minimal. The payment is $80 short in your estimation. This is not too far off the mark. Ask the claims adjuster to pay the $80. If he declines, this is probably not worth fighting about. Remember too that you need not get the car repaired if you don't want to do so. You can use the $800 however you like.

The offer on the injury claim has a $510 premium over and above the amount of medical expenses. This is in recognition of a claimant's general damages claim for pain and suffering caused by the collision. The amount of general damages on any given claim must be determined by a jury, but we know from experience what various categories of claims typically fetch. In the above example, the claimant was not hurt for long and appears to have fully recovered. It is probably prudent to wait some time to make sure you are OK, because a claim can only be made one time. The medical expenses are often paid by group health or auto insurance (medical payments coverage), though these days such insurers may try and get the claimant to pay them back from the recovery proceeds even if the claimant is not really obligated to pay the insurer back. (This is a complex topic which we'll discuss in a blog down the road.) But we'll assume that there is no pay back obligation here, so the claimant is looking at a tax free $1500 payment. Nothing too exciting but not bad. If an attorney is hired, the claimant will typically forfeit 25%-40% of the liability recovery (but none of the property damage recovery when paid voluntarily) as the contingent attorney's fee. In the above example, it is doubtful that the attorney can enhance the recovery so much that the claimant will get more after paying the attorney's fee. True, the claimant will have the benefit of an attorney handling the claim for him and making sure all is proper. This can be enormously valuable. But when prospective clients approach me about cases like this example above, I often advise that they may make out better by simply accepting the offer.

By contrast with the situation above, serious claims generally require counsel. "Serious" in this context means that a significant injury requiring medical treatment has occurred, with medical expenses exceeding say $2500, a definition including, of course, death. Some serious cases may not be captured by my definition but most will. Rape cases may elude this definition, where an apartment dweller is attacked by a criminal due in part to negligent security. The medical expenses may not be enormous, but that claim is surely serious. I once talked to a prospective client who settled a serious orthopedic case after declining to hire me. She called some months later to complain that a group health insurer was trying to take away all the money she had recovered. I was unable to help at that point. This anecdote illustrates that by hiring counsel the claimant gets assurance that he is getting fair value from the wrongdoer and that other legal issues are being considered and addressed if need be, including issues of which the claimant may be unaware.

Next up - How to Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer.

Information provided by David L. Turner, Esq., Schulten Ward & Turner, LLP. Copyright 2004, all rights reserved. For more info, contact DLT@SWTLAW.COM.

THIS ARTICLE IS PROVIDED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE LEGAL ADVICE. THERE IS NO RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE AUTHOR AND READER. FOR LEGAL ADVICE SUITED TO YOUR INDIVIDUAL NEEDS CONTACT COUNSEL OF YOUR CHOOSING.