Q: I was involved in an accident and the other driver was insured by Allstate.  I have received a letter from Allstate telling me that I don’t need a lawyer.  Is this true?

A: Make no mistake about it, Allstate is not looking out for your interests.  The insurance industry’s own statistics demonstrate that it costs the insurance company an average of $9,000 more per claim when an attorney is involved for the injured person.  The truth is that you should never settle a personal injury claim without consulting with an attorney.

To learn more about this topic, check out the full FAQ here.

Q: How do you know if you need a lawyer?  I was in a car accident in Northern Virginia.  There were injuries and damage to the vehicles, but the other driver is claiming liability.  I was thinking about trying to settle with the insurance company without an attorney’s help.

A: If you were the one injured in the Virginia auto accident and your injuries are pretty serious, it is probably not a good idea to try to settle on your own.

To learn more about this topic, check out the full FAQ here.

Q: I visited a lawyer who had a stack of business cards for doctors.  He told me he could set me up on referral and I wouldn’t need to pay anything up front.  Is this a good idea?

A: RUN AWAY as fast as you can from that lawyer.  Beware of any lawyer who has a stable of doctors to refer you to.  This is a scam.

To learn more, read the full FAQ here.

Click here to view the embedded video.

How to find the right lawyer for your case’ in an interview.

Most personal injury lawyers offer a free consultation. I think as we discussed earlier, there are lots and lots of lawyers who advertise that they handle personal injury claims. I can tell you that not all of them do. So some of the things that we talk about and the truth about lawyer advertising, you want to find a nationally board certified specialist. Virginia doesn’t certify lawyers, but there is a national board certification. You want to find a lawyer who has an established track record of being involved in big cases, so you want to ask them, show me your verdicts. Show me your settlements. Now look, every lawyer who has been practicing for any length of time has lost cases. We’ve all lost cases, but you want to find someone who has been in the game, who actually goes to trial and get them to show you the papers that say they’ve been there and not just tell you about it.

I have a small practice and so I’ve limited myself to personally injury cases, mainly car accident cases, medical malpractice cases and to helping people who are seeking to recover disability benefits. Grace, when you get sick and you can no longer work. Typically, you’ll have a disability policy through your employer, those cases are tough. I help people get those benefits paid as well. Lots of cases that can be settled without a lawyer and that’s not something that you’ll hear most lawyers tell you. Small case, you get hurt, you see a doctor once, maybe a couple of times, you go get some physical therapy, you’re going to do better settling that case on your own. You should get my book and you should read it so that you can know what the process is about. And where lawyers help is when the case gets more complicated. If you have a herniated disk, you have a broken bone. You’ve got lots of medical bills. There are a lot of stuff that needs to be sorted out and that’s where an experienced personal injury attorney can really add value to your case, help you maximize your recovery from the insurance company.

Talked to a very nice gentleman this week who had a very interesting story to tell.

Seems he was injured in an accident and was taken by ambulance to the hospital. He was admitted to the hospital and stayed overnight.

While there he was visited by a man who told him he had been sent by the hospital to provide him with post discharge care instructions and legal help. The instructions were really a referal to a chiropractor and the the legal help was a blatant in person solicitation by the law firm.

Here’s the deal: no one called this lawyer or his “runner” to the hospital. The man I was talking to said “I guess this is what they mean by ambulance chasers.

He eventually fired this law firm when he figured out that what they had done was blatantly unethical.

Our recomendation: NEVER hire an attorney who send someone to visit you BEFORE you have asked them to visit you. Unfortunately, this stuff goes on all the time and its a scam. The attorney and the chiropractor are in a joint venture to enrich themselves.

Gives everyone a bad name.

What happens when the lawyer you hire to handle your personal injury case is not licensed in the state where a claim must be brought?

Recently our office was contacted by a potential client who had been “fired” by his former lawyer. The lawyer was not licensed to handle cases in Virginia.

The client’s “offense?” The lawyer couldn’t get the case settled so now he was jumping ship! In other words, the client didn’t do anything wrong EXCEPT not realize that the lawyer he hired wasn’t even legally able to help him file his lawsuit.

To make matters worse, we didn’t accept the case BECAUSE TOO MUCH TIME HAD PASSED.  The out of state lawyer had left the client in a real bind.

Lesson: if you have a personal injury case you should only be working with an experienced and LICENSED attorney in the state in which the claim will be filed.