HOW OFTEN SHOULD MY ATTORNEY TALK WITH ME?
This question is governed by the Florida Bar Association. When you signed up for your personal injury case and signed a contingency fee contract the Florida Bar required the attorney to give you a document known as Statement of Client Rights. This is a document created by the Florida Bar which attorneys who handle personal injury cases on a contingency contract–meaning you pay nothing up front, and only pay if a recovery is made—must not only give to you, they must have you sign it and they retain a copy of it. That Statement of Client Rights created by the Florida Bar is like a Bill of Rights for clients who hire an attorney on a contingency fee contract—which in personal injury cases is almost all of such representation contracts.
Within the Statement of Client Rights mandated by the Florida Bar Association it requires the following at Paragraph 9:
“9. You, the client, have the right to ask your lawyer at reasonable intervals how the case is progressing and to have these questions answered to the best of your lawyer’s ability.”
AM I JUST A NUMBER IN THAT LAW FIRM?
The next time you do reach someone at the law firm, ask them whether your personal injury case is assigned a case number. If the answer is “yes” that should tell you how the law firm views your case. At www.GolfCartAttorney.com we recently interviewed 12 people who worked at other law firms because we wanted to add on a position at the www.GolfCartAttorney.com law firm. In interviews at least half of the applicants working at other law firms stated they each individually handled at least “200” cases alone. These were not attorneys, not paralegals, but were claims handlers. There is no way one person has the ability to handle 200 personal injury claims with any dedication or the attention you deserve. One applicant stated she received at least “10 new claims every day”. Another applicant who was trying to handle 280 claims alone agreed that the law firm she worked for almost never filed suit for any client. That means they just take whatever the insurance company offers on a case and move on to the next. That is not fighting for you, that is simply flipping cases for whatever the insurance companies think they can get away with.
WHY ISN’T THE ATTORNEY TALKING TO ME?
If you have a golf cart injury case in the State of Florida and your attorney is not contacting you and keeping you informed in the status and direction of your case, you have the wrong attorney. Why would the attorney not be talking to you about the case? It is because they have too many cases to spend time talking with you on the phone. If they are not talking to you, that means they also are likely not doing much on your personal injury case. Ask yourself these simple questions:
- When I am able to talk with the attorney it seems like nothing has changed on my case.
- When I talk to the attorney it seems like I have to bring the attorney up to speed in my case, again.
- During my case, there has been turnover in who is handling it.
If the answer to any of these questions is “Yes”, you have the wrong law firm to handle your important personal golf cart injury case.
DO I HAVE TO STAY WITH THE ATTORNEY I SIGNED UP WITH?
No. The Florida Bar Association states that a client can terminate a personal injury attorney at any time, and that it is the choice of the client—not the attorney—of who represents the client. It’s your choice.
But if I leave the law firm where nothing appears to be happening on my case will it cost me extra to go to another law firm? You cannot be charged two contingency fees. In short, if you leave the first underperforming firm because nothing is happening in your case, and you go to a second law firm to move your case forward then both firms have to operate under the same contingency fee arrangement set out by the Florida Bar. At www.GolfCartAttorney.com we make sure that when a person leaves one law firm and comes to be represented by us that it costs them nothing extra to leave the under-performing law firm and have us fight for them. One thing we can also promise you is that you will not be known by a number here, we will know you by your name. A second thing we promise: you can count on our 25 years of successfully fighting for injured golf cart accident clients against insurance companies and at-fault parties.
SUMMARY:
Remember, the Florida Bar Association says you have the right to be kept up to date on what is going on in your case by your attorney. That is within the Statement of Clients Rights that you signed, and the attorney signed. If you are not being contacted by the attorney or your case is not moving, it is you who has the right to terminate the agreement and go to a lawyer who values your case.
There is never a charge to talk about your case.
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