If you or someone you know has been injured in some type of accident, or is the victim of a bad result from a surgery or from some doctor’s care, it is natural to wonder whether you may have a valid case against the person causing the accident or the doctor or hospital that you think may have made a mistake. Sometimes it is hard to know whether you  do or do not have a valid claim to pursue.  What should you do?  Where should you go to get some answers?

     For those with internet access, searches uncovering blogs like this one provide an invaluable amount of information, most or all of which is free, to help you research or decide whether you need a lawyer or not, or whether you can try and handle something on your own.   Another excellent resource are your friends or coworkers.  Often, family, friends and business associates or co-workers are the first to suggest that you should “get a lawyer!”  Sometimes that is sage advice, and other times maybe less so.  But it doesn’t explain to you whether you have a valid claim or not.  So, if you indeed want to decide on your own whether you have a case, and then decide whether to talk to a lawyer, what do you look at to determine the answer?

     As lawyers working for people that have been the victims of other’s negligence, or the actions of doctors or corporations, we suggest that anytime someone has been hurt in some type of accident, you MAY have a valid case.  So, if that is all the research you wanted to do, then pick up the phone and call or send an email. It’s a free call!

     But, if you want to look even further to decide whether you have a case.  What should you look at?  We suggest you look at the FACTS of what happened.  Think carefully and objectively about what exactly were you doing at the time of the accident.  If it is an auto accident, how fast were you going?  What direction?  Were you distracted in any way?  Were you on your cell phone? Were you under the influence of alcohol or drugs?  Were you wearing your glasses or contact lenses?  Were your headlights on?  Did you blow your horn before the accident?  Did your car leave skidmarks?  Were you alone in your car?

     After you completely outline what you were doing, then turn your attention to the conditions surrounding your accident.  What was the weather like?  What were the road conditions?  Was it busy traffic?  Was there a stop sign?  Stoplight?  Streetlights? Was the road under repair?  Were certain lanes of traffic closed or narrowed because of construction? After you  place your own actions in the context of the conditions of the road and environment surrounding your accident, then you should look at the actions of the other driver or drivers.

     In terms of the actions of the other driver, what lane was he or she in?  What direction? Were their headlights on? Did you hear their horn before the accident? Are there any skidmarks from their car or truck? Was there anybody else in their car or truck?  Was their car or truck working properly?  How fast do  you think they were going?  Did they appear under the influence of drugs or alcohol after the accident?  Did the admit fault for what happened?  Did they apologize to you or offer to pay for any damage?

     After you sort through those factors, if it appears the other person is much more at fault than you, you probably have a good claim to bring.  If your own degree of fault is the same or greater than the other driver, you still have a claim, but it may not be one that many lawyers would be interested in handling.  Either way, how could it hurt  to place a free phone call or email and let a trained professional decide.

     But, what if you got hurt at work?  You were just doing your job and you threw your back out.  You think to yourself, well, my company didn’t do anything wrong.  I guess I don’t have a case.  WRONG!!  Almost anytime anyone gets injured or hurt in the course and scope of their employment, they have a valid workers’ compensation claim!!  Call the lawyer and get your rights protected!

     If you are the possible victim of medical malpractice, it is almost impossible to decide on  your own whether you have a valid claim to bring or not.  The best advice in those circumstances is to call a lawyer as soon as possible.  A trained professional lawyer that handles medical malpractice cases can tell you pretty quickly whether what happened is worth pursuing or looking into further.  Sometimes doctors make mistakes that cause a minor injury that hurts for a day or so.  You may have a case there, but the damages are so low most lawyers would not be interested in investing so much money and time because the recovery would not be large enough to justify it, even though the doctor clearly made a mistake.  Even so, call the lawyer and they can still give you advice what to do in those circumstances.  If the injury is severe or death, skilled lawyers will take the time to get all the medical records and get them reviewed by their own  medical professional to determine whether it is a good case of medical malpratice.

     So, to decide whether you have a case, you do have tools at your disposal to research and decide on your own.  Whether you think it is worth your time or not to call a lawyer is a decision you have to make.  But, injury lawyers almost always work on a contingent fee and advance all the expenses, so you really have nothing to lose by calling a trusted lawyer and getting sound advice.  Most injury lawyers work under the “NO FEE IF NO RECOVERY” rules, so it is no out of pocket money to you.

     You need legal help and you decide to contact a lawyer.  How do you know how much your lawyer is going to charge you?  How do you know if what he or she charges is a fair amount?  Additionally, most of the time someone needs a lawyer, there is a lot of emotion involved because usually something wrong has happened, which is why they need a lawyer in the first place.  Most people need lawyers because they have been arrested for DUI or some other crime, or they are getting divorced, or they have been in an accident.  People also need lawyers when they are buying their house, or getting their will or estate plan put together.  No matter why, the question becomes, HOW MUCH!!

     Lawyers generally charge clients in one of three ways:  hourly; contingent fee; or flat fee.  Most divorce lawyers charge hourly.  Most criminal defense lawyers charge hourly or flat fee depending on the situation.  Personal injury lawyers use a contingent fee, which means they do not get paid unless they get a recovery on your behalf.

     Lawyers that charge on an hourly rate will usually also require you to deposit a certain sum in advance to act as a retainer.  Make sure that any fee arrangement is in writing to protect you.  Make sure you are clear on what you want your lawyer to do, and make sure your lawyer provides you with a timely bill that itemizes exactly what tasks were done and how much time each task took.  Do NOT let your lawyer merely summarize an entire group of events or tasks they did with a lump time entry at the end.  An example of that sort of bill is as follows:  “Discuss case with opposing counsel; prepare letter to client; legal research regarding case facts; prepare memo to file; prepare notices to court and counsel; prepare docket and diary entries:  3.0 hours”.  When you get a bill like that, you have no way of knowing how much time each of those tasks took.  An example of an acceptable style of billing is as follows: “Discuss case with opposing counsel (.20); prepare letter to client (.30) legal research regarding case facts (2.20) prepare notices to court and counsel (.20) prepare docket and diary entries (.10)”.  The second example shows you in one/tenth  hour increments how much time was spent for each task, thus giving you more information into how efficient your lawyer  is.  Many legal tasks seem complicated to you, but are in fact very routine and simple to an experienced lawyer and should not be billed based upon their perceived difficulty, rather than the actual amount of time spent doing them.  In our opinion, NEVER accept a bill that reads as follows: “Legal services for client during March, 2007 (3.0)”.  With that bill, you have no real idea what your lawyer did or how efficient they were.  The legal bill in an hourly case should read like the table of contents to a book if the book were about your legal case.

     Now that you know how your hourly fee lawyer should bill you, what about your retainer?  And how much per hour is acceptable?  The hourly rate you are charged should be a competitive rate based upon the sort of work  you need done.  You want a lawyer that specializes in the sort of case that you have and is well respected.  Generally, you should interview more than one.  Call the local  bar association and ask them these sort of questions too.  Ask friends that needed that sort of help and see what they were charged.  The retainer is deposited into the lawyer’s account, and usually they lawyer will bill against the retainer and require you to refund the retainer as it runs low.  The retainer protects the lawyer from performing substantial legal work and not getting paid.  When the case is over, whatever is left in the retainer should be given back to you.

     Flat fee lawyers charge a set amount for what the legal problem is. Some examples include routine traffic cases, DUI, adoption, etc.  Check in the classified sections and you will see lawyers advertising for these sort of cases and boasting about the low rates.  Hiring the lawyer with the lowest rate may not get you the best lawyer, but the best advertiser.  Again, check with your bar association and the state agency that governs the lawyers in your state.

     Contingent fee lawyers are usually those that help victims of accidents.  The fee is a percentage of the gross recovery, plus the repayment of expenses.  The best feature of a lawyer that bills this way is that you the client usually do not have to come up with any of your own money to pay the lawyer while the case is moving along.  When the case settles, the lawyer will take a percent, usually of the gross amount of the recovery, plus whatever expenes they advanced to handle the case.  In personal injury cases, the percent charge often varies by locale and the type of case.  Most lawyers charge 1/3 as their fee.  In some cases though, we have seen lawyers charge as high as 50% for their fee!!!  That seems extravagant and greedy.  Some types of cases have the fees set, such as in workers compensation cases.  Also, in some states, the legislature has outlined the maximum fee the lawyer can charge, for instance in Illinois, the way a medical malpractice fee arrangement is defined by the legislature.

     No matter what your fee arrangement is, talk about it with your lawyer if you have any questions.  Don’t be afraid to ask questions!!!   Also, ethics guidelines usually require that lawyers only charge a reasonable fee.  Ask the bar association.  No matter what, get a lawyer that specializes in the sort of legal problem you have.  It may not be the best idea to have your divorce lawyer handle your auto accident.  But, ask your divorce lawyer who he/she would recommend!!  Good Luck!!

     A very common question people wonder about is how does their own insurance apply in the event of an auto accident.  Most people correctly assume that the at fault driver’s insurance should immediately start paying for the damage to the car, the towing cost, storage costs, rental car costs and medical bills, but the cruel reality is that most insurance companies in those positions do NOT start advancing payments to the injured person or for their property damage issues.  Does that make you mad?  Of course!   But what can you do?  Should you immediately call a lawyer?  Not necessarily!

     Let’s assume you have been in an accident, that is not your fault, and that your car has been damaged, there is a towing charge and you are  incurring medical bills.  The first thing you do after you call the police to the scene and get medical treatment, is to call your own insurance agent and report the accident.  Provide your agent with all the information they ask for.  At the same time, ask your agent again about your  own policy coverage information because it is often difficult to find a copy of your policy that you  haven’t looked at for several years.  The agent will most likely also give you the name of a separate person from  your company  that will work on your claim, and will give you their toll free number and claim number.  SAVE THAT INFORMATION!!

     Almost all auto insurance policies have the same types of coverages, although not everyone buys the same coverages.  Most people when they buy their auto insurance get the following coverages: Liability; Medical Payments; Uninsured and Under-Insured.  Some people also get collision or comprehensive, but let’s leave those coverage discussions for a separate day.  Here is how the liabilty, ”med-pay” and UM/UIM work.

     Liability protects YOU if you get sued because of the accident.  Your insurance company will hire a lawyer at their expense to defend you and they will cover you for the lawsuit or claim up to the amount of insurance you bought.  When the insurance company gets the claim or lawsuit settled, they will also get a document signed by the other side that will protect you from that person suing you again for the same accident.

     Medical payments coverage protects YOU and will pay your medical bills as a result of the accident that you incur usually within 2 years of the accident, up to the amount of protection you bought.  Most people buy $5-10,000 of medical payments protection, which seems like a lot until you start incurring medical bills. Hospital and doctor costs are very expensive, and many standard tests run on a person after an accident, like x-rays and MRI’s and CT-Scans are very expensive.  Talk to your agent and buy as much of medical payments coverage you can afford.  It is in your best interest.

     Uninsured motorists coverage protects YOU if the person that hit you doesn’t have any insurance, or their insurance lapsed because they stopped paying premiums, etc.  Uninsured motorist claims are usually very difficult for a person to do on their own without a skilled personal injury lawyer on your side fighting for you.  Underinsured coverage provides you with extra insurance if the at fault party has low levels of coverage and the value of your claim obviously exceeds those limits. Like uninsured coverage, getting money from your own insurance company for underinsured coverage is a trap for the unwary and unskilled.   Do yourself a big favor, and contact a lawyer specializing in injury cases and get the help you need.  A future posting will be a real eye-opener about who gets paid back after a settlement of your case.  

   Getting your car fixed after the accident can be difficult if you did not buy some type of collision or comprehensive insurance.  Sometimes, the at fault driver’s insurance company will pay for the damage to your car, but you drive to their facility for them to look at it.  They will usually offer you a certain amount to get it fixed.   Ask them to provide you with the name of a mechanic who will fix it for the amount they are offering.  Ask them to provide you a rental car as well.  If your car is totalled, look up its value on the internet and argue with the insurance company about its value.  Often, people who  financed their car find out that the total damage value doesn’t give them enough money to pay off the finance company.  That is a sad day indeed.  Call a lawyer you trust.    

     Did something go seriously wrong with your surgery?  Or, was the outcome not expected, yet something that was a known possible risk of the procedure?  It is not easy to know whether a doctor, hospital or other health professional made a mistake that amounts to malpractice or whether the bad outcome was a known possible risk.  One thing that is clear, however, is that many doctors make mistakes every day that shouldn’t have been made.

     Every year, over 90,000 people die in hospitals because of mistakes that amount to malpractice.  That is a figure that comes from the Institue of Medicine.  That figure also does not include people seriously injured in hospitals because of malpractice, or people dying or being seriously injured in doctor’s offices or at home because of malpractice. 

     If you or a loved one believe that the result of your care and treatment is possible malpractice, you should contact a lawyer that can competently help you figure out whether malpractice really did occur, and what can be done about it.  Often, when doctors make mistakes, they don’t want to admit that fact to their paitent or their patient’s family.  But if what happened to you or your loved one was not something that was discussed ahead of time as a known possible complication of the procedure, then you should get in touch with a lawyer that can help as soon as possible. 

You have been injured in an accident, and now the insurance company for the at fault driver is calling you and wanting to take a recorded statement from you. What should you do? Should you talk to them? If you don’t, will they still accept responsibility for the accident and reimburse you for out of pocket expenses and settle your case? If you give the statement, will they send you a copy of it? These and many other questions face injured people trying to handle their claim without the help of a skilled personal injury attorney.

Every respected personal injury lawyer will tell you that you can try and deal with the insurance company on your own, but what is it about your background or experience that leads you to believe that you are operating on the same skill level as a professional claims adjustor whose job every day is to try and cheaply resolve claims and close files paying the least amount of money possible? In other words, you may be a professional in your own chosen field or occupation, but no matter what that job is, if it isn’t related to resolving personal injury and property claims, you will not be working from the same level as a claims adjustor and the lawyers protecting the insurance company’s money.

But getting back to the question at hand, why does the insurance company want take your statement in the first place? It may seem a harmless inquiry on their part, but do NOT be mistaken or mislead. The only reason they want your recorded statement is to lock your testimony in place before you realize you need the help of a lawyer. They will ask you questions about how the accident happened, the speeds of the cars, the distances involved and however you answer those questions, questions you may not even have thought about, those answers will haunt you for the rest of the claim.

Claims adjustors asking injured people for statements are very skilled at getting you to agree with a version of events that may not be accurate, but that you end up agreeing to and that miraculously later seem to help the insurance company. You may ask how that could happen if you are just telling the truth. The answer is that the facts of the event as you saw it happen, all happen very quickly, and as most people do, we don’t spend much time analyzing every second of the event from every different angle. We believe the other person is at fault and believe if we tell the insurance company that, then they will agree with us and pay the claim. The reality is that very rarely if ever happens. Here is why.

Claims adjustors are trained professionals at asking questions in an open ended and general way, and then they restate all of your answers in a way that skews the answers in their favor and get you to agree to it. Later, they deny your claim and state that based on your voluntary recorded statement, that you agreed was under oath, they don’t believe they are responsible for your accident and deny your claim. Or they tell you that the way you explained what happened, you are also at fault or partially so and then they try and reduce how much they will pay you because of your own fault.

So, should you give a statement to the insurance company? Let’s run a simple test: Do you know how many feet per second a car moves when it is going 35 miles per hour? Do you know how much the average human head weighs? Do you know the average amount of time it takes to react to an accident about to happen and hit your brakes? Do you know how long it takes your car to stop if you slam on your brakes when you are going 30 miles per hour? Or how far it will travel? Do you know how much force your bumper can absorb? Do you know if any of the force the bumper absorbs is transferred to you in the car? And if it does, how much? Probably every claims adjustor knows the exact answers to those questions and all the similar varieties of those questions, all which focus on how an accident happens and who is at fault and what the injuries may be. If you can’t answer each of those questions correctly without researching answers to them, then NO, YOU SHOULD NOT GIVE A STATEMENT TO THE INSURANCE COMPANY!!!

Well, what should you do when they ask you for a recorded under oath statement? Play it smart and leave it to a professional to help you. Call, immediately, for a personal injury attorney you trust or you learn of from a trusted advisor and call right away. Tell the insurance company you don’t have time to talk and put them off until you talk to a good personal injury lawer. Remember, the golden rule to never forget is that the insurance company for the person that caused the accident IS NOT ON YOUR SIDE!!! Good luck!