Everybody hates dealing with lawyers. Everybody. Even me. I’m an experienced lawyer and I hate dealing with other lawyers. Why do we hate lawyers so much?
Bad Circumstances
Unfortunately, when we’ve had a situation that required us speaking with an attorney, its usually under bad circumstances. If you’ve had a divorce, car accident, death in the family, bankruptcy, or a criminal complaint brought against you, you’ve probably had to deal with an attorney. You probably weren’t in the best of moods and didn’t want to talk to somebody who was charging you to speak with them. It’s completely normal to associate lawyers with bad events.
Bad Communication
Every year that I’ve checked, the number 1 complaint that the Arizona State Bar receives is some form of ‘my lawyer won’t return my calls or emails.’ I actually remember hearing about this when I was in law school and vowed to ‘not be that guy.’ It is true that many lawyers are very busy. Emergencies and issues that need to be addressed immediately occur all the time. But that doesn’t mean that your lawyer should just ignore you or blow you off. I know that when I’m extra busy, I like to schedule times with my clients to speak, so that I know I’m making client communication a top priority. I tell all of my clients that I can’t guarantee that I can answer your call at any given moment, but I strive to return all phone calls, emails, and text messages within 24 hours.
Honesty
This might seem crazy, but most lawyers struggle with giving honest advice to their clients. It might be one of the reasons they’re not returning your calls. But when you hire a lawyer, you’re paying for their advice and experience. When I have to give clients honest advice, or break bad news to them, I will typically:
- Explain the situation that we’re facing with their case
- Discuss potential options
- Talk about the pros and cons of each of those options
- Give my advice as to which option I recommend
- Explain why I’m recommending the proposed option
Now, the option that I recommend may not always be what a client wants to hear, but at the end of the day, you want an attorney that is going to give you honest and concise advice about your case. Whether you choose to follow the advice is largely up to you.
Money
I’ve never worked as a lawyer with an hourly rate. It doesn’t seem pleasant to have to keep track of the amount of time you spend on each case. I work 100% on contingency, which means that I don’t get paid until you get paid. Our fee is 33.33% of any settlement we obtain on your behalf. Most people worry that their lawyer will take all or most of their money if they receive a settlement. Every case that I’ve handled, my client received more money than what my fee ended up being. My office doesn’t always charge the full 33.33% fee.
It’s important to understand that when you settle a personal injury case, your settlement amount typically has to go to pay the following:
- Medical Bills / Liens
- Health Insurance Reimbursements
- Case Costs (costs for order medical records, police reports, process servers, etc.)
- Attorney Fees
I never charge more money that we put in your pocket. A simple example I use with my clients is as follows:
- Let’s say you settled your injury case for $15,000.
- You have outstanding medical bills and health insurance costs of $10,000
- Your injury lawyer charges 33.33% of your settlement, which in this case would be $5,000 ($15,000 x ⅓ = $5,000)
- You would receive exactly $0 in this scenario ($15,000 settlement – $10,000 medical bills – $5,000 attorney fees = $0)
- This is exactly how most injury law firms work.
But we don’t operate that way. First, we would negotiate those $10,000 in medical bills and hopefully get a large reduction for you. But let’s assume that we didn’t achieve any reductions in your medical bills.
- $15,000 settlement – $10,000 medical bills = $5,000 remaining.
- We would reduce our fee to $2,499, which means that you’d receive $2,501.
This puts the burden on me to get the largest settlement possible, and to negotiate your medical bills to be as small as possible.
Conclusion
There are many legitimate reasons to hate lawyers. If you’ve been injured in an accident, don’t let those pains be multiplied by a lawyer that doesn’t return your calls or who might end up taking most, or all of your net settlement amount. Call Justice On Demand at 480-934-0676 and speak with an actual attorney.