Before you hire your personal injury lawyer:
- Ask them what percentage of their practice is devoted to personal injury cases.
- Ask them how long they have been practicing personal injury law.
- Ask them how many cases they have filed.
- Ask them the last time they tried a case to a jury.
- Ask them for details about their fee structure, do they charge more for filing a lawsuit or if you want to go to court? Do they charge for recovering your medical expenses?
Trial Verdicts are the only way to tell if the personal injury lawyer has what it takes to get you what you deserve.
You can't buy jury verdicts and you can't fake trial verdicts.
A good example of why you need a personal injury attorney who files cases and is prepared for trial, a recent case of mine where an injured client was blamed for the accident and initially offered a bit less than $100,000, after trial the jury verdict awarded my client over $4 million.
In six of my recent trials, the offers before trial totaled approximately $240,000. But after trial, the juries awarded a combined total of over $5.8 million in verdicts.
This illustrates that if my clients had hired a lawyer who did not try their case, they would have lost a combined total of around $5.5 million dollars.
Very few lawyers have what it takes to take your case to trial and get a big jury verdict.
Any attorney can buy membership in organizations or have their friends review them online.
An attorney can buy their way into legal associations and law magazines, but the only way to get good trial verdicts is through skill and hard work.
Insurance companies do not give money away, you have to take it from them and the only way to do this is with large jury verdicts or the threat of a large jury verdict.
Beware of personal injury lawyers who take their fee "off the top," before your medical bills are paid.
Most personal injury lawyers base their fee on the entire settlement amount.
This does not seem fair to me.
If your medical bills are $66,666 and your settlement is $100,000,
their attorney fee at 33% is $33,333 and you get nothing.
I base my attorney fees on what is left after your medical bills are paid which puts more money into your monetary recovery.
In the above example, my attorney fees would be after your medical bills were paid, so you would get 2/3 of that remaining $33,333 which is $22,222 and my fees would be $11,111 not the $33,333 from the 33% attorney fee charged against the entire settlement recovery before that is substantially reduced by paid medical bills.
I do not know how other lawyers justify taking their fees from your entire settlement before your medical bills are paid, but most lawyers do this significantly reducing how much money their clients get for their settlement.
Recently I had Mike Colbach represent my wife in an auto accident [...]
Because of the accident my wife was in the ICU at OHSU and wasn't able to talk so I worked with him.
Right away Mike took control and told me to concentrate on taking care of my wife and he would handle all the insurance issues, court filings, hospital bills etc.Also,
Mike was not one bit intimidated by one of the largest auto insurance companies in the country and in fact looked forward to the challenge of meeting them in court.......I guess they didn't like the odds and settled out of court for the full amount he demanded.
Arnie Mulick
Google Review
Insurance companies judge your lawyer and your case by what your lawyer has done in the past.
I have had a number of insurance defense attorneys tell me that they have to pay my clients more because they know I will go to trial if they don't pay a fair amount.
Would you want a surgeon who had never performed as successful surgery? Why would you hire a lawyer who had never had a six-figure jury verdict?
Do you want your case to be the one your lawyer learns on?
Do you want to hire a lawyer who has not tried a case in years?
Insurance companies know the best predictor of future performance is past performance.
If you hire a lawyer who does not go to trial, you will probably get less money and less respect from the insurance company.
If a lawyer tells you that filing a lawsuit is a bad idea, they either do not have faith in your case or do not want to work for their money.
Time and time again, I have heard other personal injury lawyers tell me that negotiating is the only way to resolve cases.
That is just what the insurance companies want to hear.
These lawyers always take what the insurance company offers them.
Why hire a lawyer if all they are willing to do is write a letter and make a few phone calls?
Many, many times, I have seen insurance companies significantly increase their offer because a lawsuit was filed. If they know you are serious, they are more likely to pay a fair amount.
Personal injury lawyers charge a big percentage - shouldn't you make them earn it?
If all your personal injury lawyer is willing to do is write a letter, why not just do that yourself?
Most of the time I spend on my cases is preparing them for trial.
Filing lawsuits takes time and money, and many lawyers do not want to commit either to your case.
I believe I earn my money by preparing your case for trial. I spend many hours talking to doctors, expert witnesses, my investigator, and others, to make sure I can prove your case. Preparing a case for trial is a lot of work and expense, but if I don't do it, my clients are stuck taking whatever the insurance company offers.
Beware of legal "mills" where your case is handled by paralegals and inexperienced lawyers.
There are a number of personal injury lawyers in Oregon who run high volume, low quality personal injury practices. Their goal is to get you sign up and then to get your case settled with the least amount of effort.
A lawyer at one of these firms once told me that, "we don't get the most for our cases, but the insurance adjusters sure like us."
Insurance adjusters and insurance lawyers know who these lawyers are and pay their clients less.
My practice is based around a low volume of higher quality cases. I personally do the intake for every client. I keep my caseload low, so I can maximize what every client gets.
There are many Oregon personal injury attorneys out there, some are very good, but many are just in it for money and don't put their clients first.
Many injury lawyers want to put in the least amount of effort in on your case and don't want to put their time and money into it. Some try hard and do their best, but don't have what it takes to make sure their clients get what they deserve. Many care more about marketing and running a "business" than taking care of their clients.
Check to see if a lawyer has been disciplined by the Oregon State Bar.
You can and should check any lawyer's discipline history at: Oregon State Bar Member Research before hiring them for your Oregon personal injury attorney.
