This is a question that we get several times a month. Someone will have ordered our free book on Virginia Car Accidents read it but hire another lawyer. Sometimes they read it after hiring another lawyer.

Then they want to switch lawyers.

We have a strict criteria. We will not accept any case where you have already hired another lawyer to represent you.

Why?

1. We like to do things “our way.” In the past, when we did accept these sort of cases, we usually had to clean up a mess.

2. It’s a headache. Usually the lawyer you are firing wants to charge you some sort of a “lien” for her time. That’s fair, but its a headache. People were expecting that we would reduce our fee to account for the money to be paid the fired lawyer.

3. We don’t need to. Each day we field inquiries from many people who want to read our books, find out more about us, or hire us. We like to get cases when they are ‘fresh.’ Taking over someone else’s case is just not something that we need to do.

What’s the exception? We do accept cases that have been referred by other lawyers. The other lawyer may have done some work collecting records, etc, or that lawyer may be from out of state. The exception to this rule is that we don’t accept any cases last minute. If the reason for the referral is that the lawyer can’t settle the case and is panicking all of a sudden because Virginia’s 2-year statute of limitations is upon them, we don’t get involved.

Question: I visited a Virginia personal injury attorney near Tyson’s Corner for a free consultation recently about my car accident case. I had not seen a doctor as the accident only happened recently.

This lawyer had a huge wall of business cards of doctors, physical therapists and chiropractors on his conference room table. He told me he could set me up on referral and I wouldn’t need to pay anything up front to visit one of these health care professionals, the money would come out of my settlement later.

What do you think about this idea?

Response:

Beware of any lawyer who has a stable of chiropractors, doctors or therapists to refer you to. This is a recipe for disaster.

Local Fairfax judges call this “service” the kiss of death to a claim. (One long-time attorney was disbarred because he referred clients to a chiropractor and then told his clients to lie about the referral when asked in deposition.) He got caught big time.

The problem with a lawyer to doctor referral is that jurors are highly suspicious of lawyers and doctors who have a referral relationship. While the client may not know how many of that lawyer’s clients have been referred in the last 12 months to a particular doctor, you can bet that the insurance company knows it or will find out about it. How credible do you think that doctor’s testimony will be when the jury finds out that he treated 50 patients from the same lawyer last year?

Are there exceptions to this rule? Yes, there are.

You may have a very special need for a doctor with a special expertise. It is perfectly legitimate for the attorney to make that suggestion/recommendation. If every client, though, is getting referred to the same chiropractor or the same orthopedist, then that is a huge problem. (So beware of the attorney who has a stack of doctor/chiropractor cards in his office. You need to ask the right questions and fully understand the business relationship, if any, between that attorney and the doctor.)

The Washington Post is reporting today on the aftermath of a tragic car/truck accident that took place here in Fairfax County in January, 2007. Three people were killed when a gasoline tanker truck struck the rear of a car that was sitting in the middle of the Beltway in the middle of the night, apparently without hazard lights. According to the Post, no one knows why the car was stopped in the middle of the road.

The trial in the traffic accident case took place this week. The truck driver had been charged with a mideamenor but he jury found him guilty only of a traffice infraction and set his fine at $500.00

The families of the victims were understandably upset and questioned “why only $500 for the loss of life?”

The answer is that after any accident involvling injury or death, there may come two cases. One is brought by the state prosecutor for vilation of laws. The other is a civil case brought for recovery of damages for death or injury.

They are different and usually the one has nothing to do with the other.

The case that just finished is the “punish” the defendant for any violation of law. A civil case, on the other hand, is to compensate victims.

So there may be a civil case that arises out of this case. It seem that it will be very difficult as Virginia allows for no recovery if you, yourself, caused the accident in any way.

So this is how this may shape out. The driver of the car sitting in the dark on the Beltway may not be able to recover from the truckdriver. If there were passengers in the cars that were struck, their families may have a claim against the driver of the car who stopped without lights on. Still, a tough case since we don’t know how long the car had been there or what caused it to be stopped.

A real tragedy all around.

Choosing an attorney to represent you is an important but daunting task. The decision certainly should not be made on the basis of advertising alone. The Yellow Pages are filled with ads—all of which say basically the same thing. You should not hire based solely on advertising—anyone can buy a slick commercial. Heck, you shouldn’t even hire my law firm until you trust that we can do a good job for you.

I’ll discuss this over the next few posts.

You definitely do not need an attorney for every small injury case. In fact, our office does not even accept cases where there’s little or no property damage or the injuries are minor. Why not? Simple. In the small case, the attorney fee and costs might leave little or nothing for you after your medical bills are paid, and we don’t believe that would be fair to you. If your case is small and you would like to try to handle the case yourself, with our advice, we do charge a small consulting fee. This may save you thousands!

The law does not require compensation for every injury. You must prove that someone else was negligent or careless and that it was their negligence or carelessness which caused your injury. If you have suffered an unfortunate accident that is no one else’s fault, or if you do not sue the right person, then the law says that you will not win your case. If you have a preexisting injury the law does not require the person who hit you to pay you except to the extent that your condition was demonstrably worsened because of the accident.

In Virginia there is one more factor that we must prove: You cannot have been at fault in any way for your injury. This is known as the law of Contributory Negligence. This means that if the “other guy” was 99 percent at fault and you were 1 percent at fault, then you cannot recover anything. Sound fair? Hardly! (Again, thank the insurance companies. Virginia is one of only three states in the country that have this silly rule.) Before we accept your case, we must be confident that you were not at fault in any way.