Lawyers wonder why they get a bad rep..

So, yesterday I was involved in a pretty serious car accident. Rear ended by a semi going 45 mph (I was stopped in traffic!) and got pushed into another car. I made it out ok, sore and a little banged up, but otherwise fine. My car took the worst of it, it's totaled.

The most annoying part of the last 24 hours? My phone has been ringing non stop with calls from lawyers and "medical referral" services. 11 calls from lawyers, 3 from chiropractors, 3 from the "referral" services I spoke of, and in the mail today I got a letter from another lawyer. They all mention I need protection from the evil insurance companies, which is ironic because the insurance company has been great, I think it's the ambulance chasing freak show I think I need protection from. :lol: They must hang out at the police station and buy copies of all the accident reports for the day or something. Ridiculous!

Glad you are ok.

Well if you don't need their services, you can just ignore them. They will move on to newer prey (i.e. the next batch of accident reports they get.) If you do need their services at least you can shop around and find out who charges the least. Did you have any medical damage/doctor visits? Feel free to PM me if you need any advice on this. I'm in the medical field but I work with law offices on this stuff all the time. Hope you are doing OK.

The day after sucked pretty bad, I am pretty much back to normal now. The biggest downside, I am hyper paraniod driving now, looking in the rear view mirror constantly.

Well, and the $18k damage to the car. :(

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Originally Posted by Reds4Life

The day after sucked pretty bad, I am pretty much back to normal now. The biggest downside, I am hyper paraniod driving now, looking in the rear view mirror constantly.

Well, and the $18k damage to the car. :(

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I know what you mean. I recently sold my motorcycle because I was constantly seeing people drive while talking/texting and had 2 really close calls at speeds of 55-60 mph. If gas weren't nearly $4/gal I'd drive a Humvee. H1, military type.

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Originally Posted by Reds4Life

So, yesterday I was involved in a pretty serious car accident. Rear ended by a semi going 45 mph (I was stopped in traffic!) and got pushed into another car. I made it out ok, sore and a little banged up, but otherwise fine. My car took the worst of it, it's totaled.

The most annoying part of the last 24 hours? My phone has been ringing non stop with calls from lawyers and "medical referral" services. 11 calls from lawyers, 3 from chiropractors, 3 from the "referral" services I spoke of, and in the mail today I got a letter from another lawyer. They all mention I need protection from the evil insurance companies, which is ironic because the insurance company has been great, I think it's the ambulance chasing freak show I think I need protection from. :lol: They must hang out at the police station and buy copies of all the accident reports for the day or something. Ridiculous!

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Glad you are OK.

As someone who has went through a very similar thing, I strongly suggest that you go to the doctor. Things happen to your back/head that you might not realize are issues at the moment.

In any event, the insurance Co. of the person at fault is going to cut you a check of some kind for personal injury/pain/suffering so that they can close the book on that part of a potential payout. It could be more. It could be less.

You don't to be on the less if it turns out that you can't bend over to tie your shoes some mornings say, 6 months from now.

Besides if nothing else, the doctor will give you a walmart bag full of muscle relaxer samples that pharm reps throw at them. Again, you might say, boo today. But they might come in very handy in a few days when your back muscles decide to all lock up.

BTW, if you got out of that and can actually make it through a whole page of text without losing your concentration (i.e even your noggin' is good to go), you probably ought to schedule an appointment with a clergyman too because your guardian angel truly was looking out for you.

"Ambulance Chaser" lawyers can seem scummy, but they've got nothing on insurance companies who try to close out cases with a quick check knowing full well that people can have issues that linger for weeks/months/years stemming from sudden-impact injuries.

I'd echo the advice above: go see a doctor and make sure you're medically alright before you do anything else.

I claimed it on my insurance. I discussed with my agent and he said insurance companies for commercial drivers are a nightmare to deal with, and slow. I only have one car, and couldn't have this drag out for a month. My insurance is going to pay for my car, then subrogate the claim back to the at fault party, and they'll deal with them.

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Originally Posted by Reds4Life

I claimed it on my insurance. I discussed with my agent and he said insurance companies for commercial drivers are a nightmare to deal with, and slow. I only have one car, and couldn't have this drag out for a month. My insurance is going to pay for my car, then subrogate the claim back to the at fault party, and they'll deal with them.

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That's one way to do it if you have a good insurance company yourself. Some insurers of at-fault parties will jump right in and immediately start processing your claim to try to keep your own insurance out of it and minimize their own losses. Once they get in, they nickel-and-dime you at every corner. And of course some auto insurers are notorious for following the "3 Ds": Deny, Defend, and Delay. If you don't sign a waiver of your legal claim right away, they do anything they can to wear you down, knowing that they have money and you don't. I had this issue when I was a law student and my wife was hit by a driver while she was 6 months pregnant and had our 3 year old son in the car. The other guy's insurance company swooped right in, pretending to be helpful, but the car got to the shop, they started questioning every repair and actually tried to claim that some of the damage must have happened before or after the accident, even though it was a brand new car that had just been driven off the lot the week before. My wife even spent the day in the hospital so they could monitor the baby. After some sage advice from some attorney mentors, I held out for a while, going back and forth with them as I got closer to passing the bar exam. I finally got them to give us a settlement we could be happy with, but it took a lot of patience and some investigation into the law.

As annoying and shady some personal injury lawyers seem, it doesn't hurt to talk to one if you're having physical issues. I hired a lawyer when I was in an accident just out of college when I was having neck and shoulder issues afterward. He got me a reasonable settlement that covered the cost of a new car and a lot more physical therapy than I would have gotten otherwise, because my health insurance at the time wasn't so great.

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Originally Posted by Reds4Life

The day after sucked pretty bad, I am pretty much back to normal now. The biggest downside, I am hyper paraniod driving now, looking in the rear view mirror constantly.

Well, and the $18k damage to the car. :(

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My drivers ed teacher at Mariemont told us to check the rearview mirror every ten seconds

Which I still do... lots of crazy behind you

45 MPH! Were you also driving a semi? That seems really fast and you're really lucky to have walked away from that.


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Where I work people park on the street across from our building. Twice idiots have run into the back of the line of cars. The first time it was a gas company straight truck in the middle of the day and that totaled 5 cars. Last year a guy who works 5 blocks east of here and drives our street twice a day barreled into the last car in the line before daylight, caught fire and might have died if not for a former firefighter who works here and heard the accident happen. People are oblivious any more. You are very lucky to have survived.

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Originally Posted by Caveat Emperor

"Ambulance Chaser" lawyers can seem scummy, but they've got nothing on insurance companies who try to close out cases with a quick check knowing full well that people can have issues that linger for weeks/months/years stemming from sudden-impact injuries.

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:thumbup: :thumbup: It takes about 5 minutes for anyone who innocently enters into the personal injury area to figure out that carriers are the ones really responsible for the state of our tort system. Their attitude is "You're not covered and if you don't like our decision, take us to court."

There is a huge body of recent bad faith case law centering on lawsuits against insurers for unreasonably failing to provide coverage and for failure to agree to "throw in" the full value of a modest auto policy even when there has been catastrophic injury.

Makes a few phone calls from a couple of dopey PI lawyers seem like milk and cookies.

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Originally Posted by Yachtzee

As annoying and shady some personal injury lawyers seem, it doesn't hurt to talk to one if you're having physical issues.

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Considering its all done on a contingency basis, I guarantee you will at least get what you pay for.

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Originally Posted by westofyou

My drivers ed teacher at Mariemont told us to check the rearview mirror every ten seconds

Which I still do... lots of crazy behind you

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My dad taught me to constantly check the mirrors too. It must've stuck with me because as my wife was leaving for a long drive to Atlanta this morning to visit a friend, I told her, "Be careful and don't forget to keep checking the mirrors!"

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Originally Posted by Mutaman

Considering its all done on a contingency basis, I guarantee you will at least get what you pay for.

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Very true.

I was driving to work on wednesday (snow) and some women ran into the snow bank, lost control and hit me front of the car and pushed us both off the highway. Thankfully no injuries to either of us, she was cited and her insurance already called to take full liability. However, prior to them calling that afternoon, my own insurance had already taken car of the first couple of steps. I was hit around 8:00, by 10:30 I had picked up a rental car, and my car was on the way to the shop to be investigated for damage (don't know yet if its going to be totaled or if they'll fix it)

Anyhoo, this weekend I got two seperate letters from different lawyers telling me of my rights. One even included that accident report. Kind of scary how easily they can obtain that information.

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Originally Posted by medford

I was driving to work on wednesday (snow) and some women ran into the snow bank, lost control and hit me front of the car and pushed us both off the highway. Thankfully no injuries to either of us, she was cited and her insurance already called to take full liability. However, prior to them calling that afternoon, my own insurance had already taken car of the first couple of steps. I was hit around 8:00, by 10:30 I had picked up a rental car, and my car was on the way to the shop to be investigated for damage (don't know yet if its going to be totaled or if they'll fix it)

Anyhoo, this weekend I got two seperate letters from different lawyers telling me of my rights. One even included that accident report. Kind of scary how easily they can obtain that information.

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Public records can be easy to search if you know what you're doing.

Glad to hear you're okay.

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Originally Posted by Yachtzee

Public records can be easy to search if you know what you're doing.

Glad to hear you're okay.

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Thanks, they did total the car, but gave me a more than fair offer for the value of the car.

Got 3 more letters from lawyers the following monday.

No one hates lawyers more than other lawyers.

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Originally Posted by Boston Red

No one hates lawyers more than other lawyers.

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Truth.

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Originally Posted by Boston Red

No one hates lawyers more than other lawyers.

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I really think they need to add practical courses on people skills and negotiation to the law school curriculum. The Negotiations course I took was one of the most useful courses I had in law school. I use those skills every day. But it never ceases to amaze me when I see some attorney walking around the courthouse acting like a self-important jerk. They don't realize that makes it less likely that judges, opposing counsel, and courthouse staff are going to do them any favors. One bad experience was all it took for me to swear off ever agreeing to provide assistance to a civil attorney handling a criminal case.

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Originally Posted by Yachtzee

I really think they need to add practical courses on people skills and negotiation to the law school curriculum. The Negotiations course I took was one of the most useful courses I had in law school. I use those skills every day. But it never ceases to amaze me when I see some attorney walking around the courthouse acting like a self-important jerk. They don't realize that makes it less likely that judges, opposing counsel, and courthouse staff are going to do them any favors. One bad experience was all it took for me to swear off ever agreeing to provide assistance to a civil attorney handling a criminal case.

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Law school attracts too many Type-A personalities -- the same type of people who annoyed me in law school are the same type of people who annoy me now as attorneys.

It's why I have very few friends who are lawyers. They're generally just boring people who don't add much to a conversation unless it's some way of patting themselves on the back.

Pardon me for being naive (I'm a lawyer), but isn't the behavior by the lawyers - peppering you with phone calls the day after the accident - illegal? I actually don't know the rule in Colorado where I practice, but in Massachusetts where I went to law school, you'll get in trouble with the bar if you make a direct solicitation to an injured victim unless you're offering yourself pro bono.

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Originally Posted by cincinnati chili

Pardon me for being naive (I'm a lawyer), but isn't the behavior by the lawyers - peppering you with phone calls the day after the accident - illegal? I actually don't know the rule in Colorado where I practice, but in Massachusetts where I went to law school, you'll get in trouble with the bar if you make a direct solicitation to an injured victim unless you're offering yourself pro bono.

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I don't know the rules in Ohio, but my guess is that like most legal instances, there are rules that can be bent to fit the need. In my case, I never recieved a phone call, however I did get 4 letters, two of which included my accident report. I didn't pay close enough attention, but IIRC the letters were worded in such a way that talked about general problems and never directly suggested that you called them for legal advice. However, they all had their numbers and email addresses attached to their letter head, so that it was easy enough to find a number can call for direct advice.

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Originally Posted by cincinnati chili

Pardon me for being naive (I'm a lawyer), but isn't the behavior by the lawyers - peppering you with phone calls the day after the accident - illegal? I actually don't know the rule in Colorado where I practice, but in Massachusetts where I went to law school, you'll get in trouble with the bar if you make a direct solicitation to an injured victim unless you're offering yourself pro bono.

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IIRC, letters should be fine as long as they are marked as "Attorney Advertising." I'm sure phone calls are problematic because they are real time communications with a prospective client (when the primary motivation is pecuniary gain).

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Originally Posted by cincinnati chili

Pardon me for being naive (I'm a lawyer), but isn't the behavior by the lawyers - peppering you with phone calls the day after the accident - illegal? I actually don't know the rule in Colorado where I practice, but in Massachusetts where I went to law school, you'll get in trouble with the bar if you make a direct solicitation to an injured victim unless you're offering yourself pro bono.

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I don't think it's illegal but it may be an ethics violation. I'm not up on the rules with regard to phone calls, but a wise professor once told me that, when it comes to ethics, as your head, your heart, and your gut. If it feels wrong, it probably is. Phone calls feel wrong to me. Unfortunately, there are some attorneys who will ratiinalize their conduct in their head and skip the part about listening to their heart and their gut.