My GF was involved in a car accident. Other drive (Idiot-Boy) was clearly at fault. No less than 8 witnesses to accident, all say Idiot-Boy was at fault.
GF’s car is totalled. She gets taken via ambulance to hospital where they discover she has a broken sternum. She is given pain meds and told this would take 8 weeks to heal, and she should not work. GF is self employed.
GF took advice from someone she probably shouldn’t have taken advice from and reached out to Lawyer. She signed the paper Lawyer gave her.
Turns out Idiot-Boy let his insurance lapse. He has no coverage. She gets this from the Lawyer. She will have to collect from her own insurance company.
NOW:
She doesn’t trust this lawyer all that much. He seems to be trying to build up for a larger settlment by sending her to ‘quacks’, including a chiropractror who wanted to a spinal adjustment on a woman with a broken chestbone.
All GF wants(aside from Idiot-Boy suffereing) is the get her car loan and medical bills paid and hopefully, a little for a downpayment on another car. In short, where she was before the accident.
SO: **(apologies for the big set up)**She wants to fire the Lawyer and deal directly with her own insurance company. If she fires said Lawyer, does she still owe him 1/3 of what she herself gets from her insurance company?
If not, will she owe him for actual hours worked? And depending how he bills, could that actually be more then 1/3 of what she would get?
Additional question: If she wanted to drop this guy in favor of another Lawyer, what rules apply? Does she still owe …yada, yada, yada?
She will owe him a reasonable amount for the time he has spent. Whether that amount is excessive would be up to the local Bar Association. In no event could it be more than the total contract (1/3) price.
The contract she signed with him is pretty important. She needs a lawyer to look over it…
If she wants a lawyer to handle this case(in my opinion she should) it doesn’t have to be that lawyer. Another firm could look over her case including said contract and make arrangements for transfer of council. The current lawyer is bound by the law and a member of the bar, while she may not personally like him he could be the one of the best lawyers for the case, he’s already got things started and she allready owes him for his time. She should get some references for him and other lawyers and pick who she is most comfortable with.
Her insurance company isn’t going to look out for her best interests. They are looking at their bottom line. They may well be responsible for getting her back to where she was but they won’t necessarily make it an easy path. Considering her insurance company may well be the only party with the funds to return her life to where is was it’s possible her insurance is who she’ll need to sue if they fail to do that.
How cynical. Even at the most cynical, the insurance company’s bottom line will be well-served by maintaining a good relationship with their customers, as said customer could recommend/recommend against a friend getting insurance through them.
I’ve been in a few accidents, and the insurance company I had at the time(s) did nothing short of getting me my repair/replace money quite quickly, and I never had to so much as look at a medical bill.
Insurance companies aren’t in the business out of the goodness of their hearts! :dubious: Of course they (like ALL successful businesses) are ALL about the Benjamins!
The revenue they might generate by giving the OP’s girlfriend lots of money is certainly outweighed by the lots of money they will be giving her.
Seriously, have you ever recommended an auto insurance company? Do you give a shit about the reputation of your auto insurance company? 99% of consumers don’t; insurance is sold on the basis of how much coverage you can offer for the smallest premium.
If she fires the attorney, his fee will probably be based on quantum meruit - the value of the work he did. If he got the insurance company to offer her $50,000 to settle, and $50,000 is what she winds up getting, he will probably be entitled to the same fee he would have gotten even if she hadn’t fired him. If there are no settlement numbers being tossed around, he will tot up the number of hours he worked on her case and multiply it by whatever the hourly rate in the locality is (plus a little to allow for negotiation, of course).
Sending her to a chiropractor is pretty standard practice. The value of a personal injury claim is based largely on the amount of medical care. She doesn’t have to go to one if she doesn’t want to, though; if she likes the doctor she was treating with before, she can ask him for a physical therapy, physiatry, pain management, neurology or psychiatry referral, and she’ll probably get it.
This isn’t legal advice. I’m not your lawyer. I’m not even a lawyer. I will say this: if the lawyer is from a large personal injury firm, and he deals with her directly, she should probably stick with him. Most personal injury firms generally deal with clients through “case managers” nowadays.
They can determine fairly quickly if they’ll need to pay. The only question is how many hoops they make the customer jump through before actually doing it.
I absolutely have told people who ask me what insurance I use whether it’s a hassle to get claims paid or not.
Have your girlfriend read the contingency agreement she signed. Every one I’ve ever drafted or seen provides for what happens if the client wants to terminate the agreement.
I had accidents (NOT my fault) when I was insured with AAA.
They ROCKED! I did not speak with a lawyer. I told them what the other party’s insurance sent me a check for ( a paltry sum). They said "don’t cash it, send it to us. Take your car over to be fixed at our place. They will not send you a bill. You’re done. " And I was.
When my truck was totalled a few years later, the cut me a check for a full 5 grand more than I expected and then THEY went after the other guy’s insurance company.
Then they raised my rates slightly and I went somewhere else.