Any personal injury case starts with the initial client conference. The purpose of the conference is for the injury victim to meet the lawyer, learn about his or her credentials, and have their questions answered. The attorney also has an opportunity to take a history from the client, obtain other pertinent information, and make an initial evaluation of the case.
For the attorney, the process is not new, in fact it is part of his job. On the other hand, for the client, the process is typically new. It is not uncommon for the client to have some reservations about retaining an attorney. Sometimes, they state “but I am not the kind of person who sues…”. These preconceived notions about the “kind of person who sues” are misguided. Each year, the insurance industry spends large sums of money in an attempt to poison the general public’s opinion of injury victims and their attorneys. Unfortunately, whenever a potential client states that he is not the “kind of person who sues”, it shows that the insurance industry’s smear tactics are working.
Attorneys who represent injury victims due so on a contingency basis. This means that they do not get paid until, and unless, a settlement is reached or an award is made in court. The attorney not only invests his time into the case, he also invests his money in order to prosecute the action. Much like his time, he will not get him money back either unless there is a successful recovery. In the event a case proceeds into litigation, there also may be financial risks to the client. As a result, attorneys must be careful in their case selection. For obvious ethical reasons, we do not handle frivolous cases. Moreover, it simply makes no sense for an attorney, or his client, to risk their time, and money, to proceed with a claim that does not have merit.
So, who is the “kind of person who sues”? Generally, it is an innocent victim whose life has been forever altered due to the fault of another. It may be a person on their way to church who was hit by a drunk driver. It may be a person who lost a limb due to a product that was defectively manufactured because a company was trying to save a few pennies. It may be an elderly person who died in a nursing home because the staff did not care enough to make sure that the resident obtained enough liquids to prevent death by dehydration. It may be a young man, who was deprived of oxygen in the hospital, and rendered brain dead, because the staff failed to monitor him. It may be a mother whose young child was tragically killed because a shopping center did not care enough, for the very customers they relied upon to make a living, to have security in place. These are the kinds of people who sue – innocent victims, whose lives have been forever tragically altered, due to the neglect or outright recklessness of another.
Which of these victims files a lawsuit? Those that continue to be victimized, long after the underlying trauma, by the actions of insurance carriers. We are able to resolve many of our clients’ claims without the necessity of filing a lawsuit. Often, we reach a fair and just resolution of our clients’ claims by negotiating directly with the insurance carriers. Unfortunately, some companies choose to play hard ball. When this occurs, we will file a lawsuit and aggressive prosecute the claim to protect our clients’ rights. These are the type of people who sue.
