But I don’t expect people here to provide it. What I’d like to get here is advice on the best way to obtain professional legal advice.
Last year, a truck belonging to a large business backed into my car, causing a sizable amount of damage. At the time, the trucking company assured me they would cover all the costs.
It’s a year later and they have not given me a cent. They have been contacted by me and by my insurance company but have mostly just ignored us. So I figure I should look at what my legal options are. And to do that I want to find a lawyer.
Unfortunately, my main source of information regarding local lawyers are the billboards I drive by. Can anyone give me some advice on how I should choose a lawyer that’s better than basing it on who has the biggest sign and funniest slogan?
My understanding is that many lawyers will also give you a free first consultation to discuss your case. Is that generally true? Are these really free or just a gimmick?
What kind of information should I bring to a consultation? The information about the accident obviously but anything else?
You insurance company should be the one chasing this with their lawyers on their nickel. Not you and your lawyers on your nickel. “Should” is always a loaded word. But in your shoes I’d be wondering why my insurer isn’t after them with both feet. Your insurer did already pay to fix your car, right?
What kind of insurance do you have? If you have collision/comprehensive, make a claim on your policy (assuming you still can) and let your insurance company chase down the trucking company. They probably will not do this if don’t make a claim - and definitely not if you have liability only. How much are the damages - I think $10,000 is the limit for small claims court in NY and it may not be worth hiring a lawyer if it’s under $10K? As far as how to find a lawyer, I would ask people I know for a recommendation.
It doesn’t matter what the other party said that they would do, you contact your own insurance company and let them take care of it. Never listen to the other parties insurance company, no matter what they say, it is not binding. That is what you pay your own insurance company for.
Exchange personal and insurance information at the time of the accident and never deal with the other party or their insurance company directly. If they refuse to provide identification or insurance call the cops. At least they will have the relevent information about the other party, a case number, and then if needed you take them to court.
Never deal with the other party or their insurance company directly, Ever.
I contacted my insurance company and filed a claim back on the day the accident occurred.
They paid for most of the cost of the repairs. I had to pay a thousand dollar deductible.
The insurance company is supposedly working on getting all of this money reimbursed (including my deductible). But it doesn’t appear to be happening.
So I’m planning on going to a lawyer to get reimbursed for my thousand dollars. What the insurance company does about getting their reimbursement is their business.
I realize the legal fees will almost certainly be greater than the one thousand dollars I’m seeking. So one of the questions I will be asking the lawyer is whether I can include the legal fees in the money I’m seeking from the trucking company.
I’m not sure you can bundle the lawyer’s fees in with your damages since you’re the plaintiff. But even if you could, there’s a chance that you’d lose and then you’d be out all the legal fees. This case is too small for a lawyer to take on contingency. They’d get 1/3rd if they won, but that’s not going to be a lot from a $1000 judgement. It wouldn’t be worth their time to take the case even if it’s a slam dunk. Your best option is to handle this yourself in small claims court.
You should call your insurance company and ask for the details of what they’ve received from the trucking company. If your damage was substantial, I’m not clear as to why they haven’t gone after the trucking company so that they get their $$$$ reimbursed that they paid to get your car fixed. How much did the repairs cost? I’m wondering if they have gotten reimbursed but they’re dragging their feet about getting the $1000 to you.
You could contact the trucking company’s insurance to see if they have already paid the claim to your insurance company. If the trucking company has already paid out for the claim, then you’d actually have a case against your own insurance company for not reimbursing your $1000.
That’s the answer. How much work do you expect a lawyer to do for what percentage of a grand?
When I (very briefly) worked for a private firm 20 years ago, billing hourly rather than on contingency, I concluded it was not worth my getting involved in any claim under $10k.
I’m hoping that there’s an argument that whatever expenses I have to incur in order to collect an amount they already owe me will be considered as part of the amount they owe me. However, I don’t know if this principle has any legal weight. Which is why I’m going to talk to a lawyer.
The repairs cost around eighteen thousand dollars. I have spoken to people at the insurance company. They have told me they have not received any money from the trucking company. They always tell me some variant of “We sent the trucking company a letter. We’re waiting for them to get back to us.” Pushing this issue does not seem to be a priority to them. My assumption is that the insurance company regards this amount as a small sum to them and they’ve decided to devote minimal effort to closing this claim.
I have tried to contact the trucking company on several occasions. They have never responded to my attempts.
Perhaps I’m naive. But it seems that if this is true then people have no reason to ever pay any amount of money they owe that’s only a few thousand dollars, no matter how clear the debt is. They would just figure that compelling somebody to pay a debt costs several thousand dollars and nobody will spend more money on the costs of collecting the debt than the amount of the debt itself.
Small claims court is designed for normal people, not lawyers. In fact, I don’t think you’re allowed to have a lawyer. They make the process as straightforward as possible. You can find out what it takes to go to small claims court by searching for something like “small claims court mystate” or “small claims court mycounty”. Once you’re in court, it’s kind of like what you see on the TV judge shows like “Judge Judy”. The judge will hear the evidence and render a verdict. If you win, it’s just a judgement, not the actual money. A big trucking company may just pay you so that they don’t have to deal with the process.
But one complication is that this is an ongoing matter with your insurance company. The judge might say that the insurance company has to resolve this before you can try to get your $1000.
Explore your state’s or county’s small claims court website. It likely has all the information you need—perhaps even a step-by-step instruction guide. Filing fees would be stated, and necessary forms are probably available for downloading.
Here in Alberta, for example, the small claims court website has all of the above. The step-by-step instruction guide is a downloadable PDF, and best of all for the layperson, it is written in plain English instead of legalese. Forms are downloadable too, as PDFs that can be filled in on your computer. Fees are clearly explained (they vary depending on the amount claimed). Everything regarding small claims court is set up for the do-it-yourselfer, at least here.
Your state or county probably has the same thing. Can’t hurt to look, anyway.
I would just be worried about whether this case is really appropriate for small claims, what impact winning a small, ~$1k judgment, might have on your insurance company’s ability to recover, and by extension what your insurance company might do if it loses the ability to recover from the trucking company.
This all seems very complicated to me, and not something I’d want to launch into half-cocked. Or maybe even at all.
Okay, I’ve located what I believe is my local small claims court. At least, I’ve located something which is called the Court of Claims, which I assume is the correct place. I will go visit them and see what the process is.
I see lots of people responding about why he wants a lawyer than answering the above question about how to go about finding one
What if the OP needed a criminal lawyer or a divorce lawyer; one might not want to ask their wider network in order to keep the reason they need a lawyer on the DL. How would one go about finding a good one of those, hypothetically?