In your experience (or anything you heard or read), do you think it is worth the timeand effort to file a complaint about an attorney with a state’s attorney disciplinary board?
I’ve been served papers saying that I am being sued for a car accident in Louisiana but I have never in my life been in the state of Louisiana! Obviously this is a case of mistaken identity.
Twice, I have emailed the attorney that filed the lawsuit but he never responded. Two representatives from my auto life insurance called but the filing attorney never returned their calls either.
If the filing attorney won’t communicate to help clear this up, I assume I will have to travel to Louisiana to appear in court as well as spend a great deal of time gathering evidence proving that I was not in the state at the time. In addition to the air fare, hotel, and other costs, I can’t afford to take time away from my work (I’m self-employed.)
I believe the filing attorney is acting unprofessionally and unethically in not responding at all to a notice of mistaken identity when the mistake is so obvious. He’s also doing a disservice to his client by suing the wrong person.
Note: This is not a request for legal advice, blah, blah, blah. Seriously…I just want to know if I’d be wasting my time filing a complaint with a board or bar association. (If not, I may contact the local Louisiana media (as was done in a similar case to some success.)
I’m guessing that right now, the filing lawyer is waiting for some sort of official response–a filed answer, or statement of defense, for example. He or she is not looking for e-mails or phone calls from the defendant saying that it was a mistake; he or she probably gets a lot of those anyway. Many defendants claim that a mistake occurred, but they do so using the proper paperwork, filed and served in accordance with the rules of civil procedure. I think your only option here is to respond officially somehow, or you risk having a default judgment entered against you.
Before you make a bar association complaint, why not speak with a lawyer in Louisiana? He or she can tell you what needs to be done to convince the filing lawyer that a mistake has indeed occurred (and I’m pretty sure it would involve more than e-mails and phone calls). A Louisiana lawyer might have a little more “pull” with other Louisiana lawyers, besides, and may be able to elicit a response when you cannot, or arrange with the filing lawyer to extend the time period in which you can provide a proper defense. At the very least, a Louisiana lawyer may be able to handle matters for you such that you do not have to travel, take time off work, etc. I’m sure your insurance company can recommend a Louisiana lawyer who could provide efficient and effective help in this matter.
I don’t think that a bar association complaint at this point would be very effective. An official response from you would, and it would ensure that your defense of “mistake” is taken seriously by the other side.
From what I’ve seen (at least in MD) they are effective once roused and take their job seriously, but mainly deal with a lawyer seriously failing in his or her duties to their clients or behaving illegally or unethically. While frustrating, failing to return your email would probably not meet the test for being censured or disbarred.
I might suggest a registered letter, return receipt requested, outlining why he has the wrong person. The other issue is if this really your battle to fight at this point or is it your auto insurance agencies job.
I’m just frustrated that a simple communication might clear this all up but am not getting the opportunity. For example, if the two people injured in the accident decribed the other party as a 150 lb white guy and I’m a 300 lb black guy, they obviously sued the wrong party. It shouldn’t have to go to hiring lawyers, going to trial, filing papers, travelling to another state, gathering proof, etc. etc.
Yeah, another vote for notifying your insurance company. You want to do that sooner rather than later. They likely have a duty to defend the suit–ie, hire a lawyer to represent you. You have a limited amount of time to file a proper response to the lawsuit, and if you fail to do so, a default judgment may be entered against you, making things worse than they are now.
Enclose a picture of yourself and a color copy of your driver’s license in the registered letter to him. I would think that would cause him to do little more work to verify your identity.
The other issue is if (possibly) your identity has been stolen. It might pay to do a free (one time) credit check on yourself with the credit checking agencies tp see if there are any debts or credit cards floating around you have not authorized.
Out of curiosity are the names and contact addresses of the planitiffs indentified in the paperwork you received?
That is a great idea. I’ll run that idea by my insurance company.
The names of the plantiffs are identified by name but not address. It is very surprising how little info is included. They don’t have a date of the accident, only an “on or about Oct. 12, 2010” reference so obviously there wasn’t a police report (with no driver license, tag, etc. info) even though both passengers suffered spinal cord injuries. And there was no decription of the other vehicle nor tag number. It is almost as if there was no accident and they randomly searched the internet for someone to sue.
I’m in first year law school. Here in Canada they seem to take these disciplinary things very seriously, or at least that’s the impression based on our work for our legal ethics seminars so far.
I have nothing meaningful to add to this conversation, but I’m curious how they pegged you! Identity theft? Fake VIN numbers? Sounds like there’s something beneath the surface; you don’t just accidentally put an accident on an out-of-state driver, do you?
Also, not answering calls from your insurance company, either? Bizarre…
If that’s the case I absolutely take back my advice re providing your DL info or anything else till you verify this is a legitimate attorney. I thought you had a bunch of info re what the case was about.
No it is not necessarily a great idea. This is why you don’t take advice about legal tactics on message boards. You need to take proper advice from somewhere, but consider that you may want first to find out from them what they say the driver looked like, then you let them know you don’t look like that. You may not want to let them know what you look like first, because then you permit the plaintiffs to adjust their memories to say that the driver of the defendant vehicle looks like you.
But anyway, sounds to me like you should just be letting your insurance company and their lawyers handle this.
Everyone thinks that lawyers acting for opponents are acting unethically. They are probably just “sausage machine processing” dozens of claims. They would get all sorts of bullshit excuses. They won’t believe them till serious steps are taken to defend and put real evidence on the table.
Not very pleasant for you, but that’s the reality.
You need to get in touch with your insurance company and let them know that you’ve been served with a lawsuit stemming from a car accident. They should appoint counsel for this. Once they appoint counsel, the attorney’s job is to make sure that this gets cleared up. You mentioned that you’ve notified your insurance company, have they said anything about getting counsel for you?
I scanned the papers and sent them to my local agent and they passed it along to corporate. I’ve talked a few times to the corporate guys. They (non-lawyers) tried to speak to the filing attorney to clear things up but the filing attorney hasn’t returned any of their calls. My insurance company did say they would probably have to let their attorney’s handle it.
The explanation given in a previous post about the “on or about” date issue was extremely helpful. I thought “on or about” might mean I would have to account for my whereabouts for a lengthy time period which would involve a lot of time and work. It will be a lot easier to document my innocense with only one day to account for.
