If you’ve called several lawyers about handling your personal injury case and you haven’t found one who’s interested, it’s usually due to one of three reasons. First, your case sucks. Second, you want to sue someone who local lawyers don’t want to sue. Third, your case involves an area of the law that few lawyers want to deal with. Unfortunately, many lawyers will not give you a reason, or at least the real reason, why they don’t want to take your case. Hopefully, after reading this, you can figure it out for yourself, and decide whether your case is still worth pursuing.
Lawyers Don’t Want Cases That Suck
I know it’s crude to say that a case “sucks,” but this is generally the term we lawyers use among ourselves when describing a case that has more problems than it’s worth. FYI, a case that is slightly better than a case that sucks “has some hair on it” in lawyerspeak — this is usually used to describe a case with serious problems, but which is still worth pursuing (usually due to potentially large damages). Cases that suck usually have one or more of the following three features:
- Liability problems
- Damages problems
- Insurance problems
Liability problems: “Liability” refers to the “fault” aspect of the case. If a jury is likely to find that you are partly or mostly liable for your own injuries, most lawyers won’t take your case unless you have significant damages (think over $100,000.00 for “partial fault” cases and a lot more if you are “mostly at fault”). In car accident cases, collisions at uncontrolled intersections and those involving rear end collisions where the lead driver made a sudden stop often pose liability problems. In “slip and fall” or “trip and fall” cases, cases involving open and obvious hazards will often have liability problems.
If you were in a car accident where you were wrongly cited by law enforcement as the “at fault” driver, expect most lawyers to reject your case. Really, the only hope you have to remedy this is to beat the ticket at traffic court. This is something you’ll have to do on your own, as personal injury lawyers won’t want to do this for you. Even if you do beat the ticket, it’s unlikely that a lawyer will want your case — but it’s really your only shot, so why not try it.
“Open and obvious hazard” cases will usually involve slipping on a colored substance that is clearly visible on the floor (like spilled ketchup) or tripping over a floor display or change in floor elevation that anyone looking down would see. The key to selling these types of cases to potential lawyers is explaining why you didn’t see the obvious hazard. In stores, this can often be explained by the fact that you were looking at the merchandise on shelves. In parking lots, it can be explained by bags obscuring your view or that you were looking out for moving vehicles (if the lot was busy). Quickly explaining your reason for failing to see the hazard to a potential lawyer can be the difference between getting an appointment versus an instant rejection.
Damages problems: A case with clear liability, but little to no damages, is akin to a tree falling in the woods with no one to hear it. Because personal injury lawyers work on a contingency basis, they can’t afford to take cases without significant damages. Bumps and bruises and pulled muscles aren’t pleasant, but they also don’t result in huge settlements or jury verdicts. If you don’t have at least a few thousand dollars in medical bills, expect most lawyers to instantly reject your case. I am by no means suggesting that you overtreat for your injuries in order to drive up your medical bills. This strategy is sure to backfire, and will likely result in a case that you can’t afford to settle (your bills and medical liens will eat up your entire share of the settlement).
If you have a case with clear liability, but low damages, it may be worth pursuing on your own in small claims court (if you can’t find a lawyer). In Florida, the small claims court limit is $5,000.00 (this will vary by state), meaning that you will never be able to recover more than $5,000.00 (excluding your court costs) if you choose to file there. Keep that in mind when deciding whether small claims court is a good option for your case.
Insurance problems: There’s really only one type of insurance problem that will make a lawyer instantly reject your case: the defendant doesn’t have any. Most often, this will arise in the context of an uninsured driver (which can be solved if you have UM insurance). It also arises in cases involving bar fights, as many companies which insure bars now exclude coverage for any injury resulting from assault and battery (including the bar’s own negligent security). While it’s true that you can still sue uninsured defendants and try to recover your judgment from the defendant’s personal assets, most lawyers don’t want to risk suing a defendant that may lack the ability to satisfy a judgment. Also, cases involving the uninsured are nearly impossible to settle, as the defendant does not want to agree to pay large sum of money from his own personal assets. The near guarantee of having to take the case to trial, coupled with no guarantee of ultimately being paid, make these cases extremely unattractive to lawyers.
Lawyers Don’t Want to Sue Certain Defendants
If you want to sue a prominent member of your local community, such as a wealthy businessman, a doctor, a lawyer or your local law enforcement, you may have trouble finding a local lawyer to take your case. This is purely a matter of personal preference by your local lawyers, and has no reflection on the merit or value of your case. Lawyers may not want to sue businessmen, lawyers or doctors for business reasons. These people may be a valuable source of client referrals. They may serve on the same local committees or belong to the same social groups. Doctors may act as expert witnesses for local lawyers. These lawyers don’t want to burn bridges that may impact their business or social lives in the future over just one case.
When it comes to local law enforcement, aside from the social concerns mentioned above, lawyers may also be reluctant to sue them out of fear of retaliation. In my experience, this fear is unfounded. I’ve handled numerous tort and civil rights cases against local law enforcement (one of which even resulted in a sheriff’s deputy being charged and convicted on federal criminal charges), and I’ve never had a negative encounter with any officer as a result of this. Of course, most people, lawyers included, don’t want to risk law enforcement painting a target on their backs.
If you suspect that you are having difficulty retaining counsel because of who it is you want to sue, your problem can usually be fixed by expanding your lawyer search to neighboring cities.
Lawyers May Reject Your Case if it Involves a Legal Niche They Don’t Want to Touch
Personal injury cases aren’t limited to car accidents, medical malpractice and slip and falls. Product liability, libel and slander, false arrest and excessive force, among other things, fall within the purview of personal injury lawyers. However, not all personal injury lawyers take these types of cases.
Product liability cases, especially isolated cases (not mass torts involving hundreds of plaintiffs), could be too expensive or time consuming for many lawyers. Libel and slander cases more often involve hurt feelings than real damages. False arrest and excessive force cases require knowledge of federal civil rights laws, with which the vast majority of personal injury attorneys are unfamiliar. It’s simply not worth most lawyers’ time to learn a new area of law for just one or two cases.
Even if you have a traditional negligence case, you may have a hard time finding a lawyer if your case is likely to end up in federal court (under diversity jurisdiction). They won’t admit it to you, but many personal injury lawyers are terrified of federal court. The procedural rules significantly differ from most state courts, with many potential traps for the unwary. Most personal injury lawyers rarely or never wind up in federal court, so they are uncomfortable trying to learn these procedures from scratch. As someone who practiced as much in federal court as I did in state court, I’ll admit that I had a significant advantage over defense lawyers who had little or no federal court experience. Federal procedural and substantive law is not something one wants to “dabble” in.
With most of these types of claims, it’s really just a matter of calling enough attorneys until you find one who knows the area of law you need. The exception may be the libel and slander cases. If you haven’t suffered a significant business (monetary) injury as a result of the libel or slander, don’t expect any lawyer to value your mental anguish enough to take such a case.
Lawyers May Lie About Why They Aren’t Taking Your Case
In my county, I am appalled at the number of lawyers who will lie to potential clients and say that they can’t take a case due to a “conflict of interest,” when in reality they are rejecting a case because it falls into one of the above categories. I know why they do it. They don’t want to tell the client that his case sucks and waste their valuable time explaining why, while also risking an unpleasant argument over the merits of the case. They certainly don’t want to say that they can’t sue a certain doctor because he refers them a lot of business. They also don’t want to admit ignorance or fear of a certain area of law.
So, why do they claim to have a conflict of interest? Two reasons: (1) lawyers won’t have to explain how they have a conflict, because in cases of a real conflict of interest, attorney-client privilege would preclude them from discussing it with you, and (2) because they legally can’t explain the conflict, they get off the phone with you in the shortest amount of time, and without any hard feelings.
Unfortunately, this leaves the client completely oblivious as to the true problem with finding a lawyer for his case. It also wastes a lot of other attorneys’ time, as a person with a possibly awful case calls more lawyers around town. I’ve found that brutal honesty in telling clients why I’m not interested in their case usually doesn’t take much longer than making up a bogus reason. I’ve had people whose cases I’ve torn to shreds thank me for my honesty afterward. I’ve also been able to send people to lawyers who are more likely to take their cases just by taking a few extra minutes to hear them out.
If you find that you are running into the “conflict of interest” excuse, it may help if you just ask the lawyer if he’s really turning down your case because it sucks. Explain that you’re not going to argue with him over his opinion, but you don’t want to waste your and a bunch of other attorneys’ time shopping around a case no one wants. If enough potential clients do this, maybe lawyers will stop lying about why they aren’t taking your cases, and clients can more easily find a lawyer who likes their case.
Let me start off by saying that I love your site. In a sea of ‘hungry’ attorneys on the web, I’m glad to have found a fun advise site. But hopefully I can utilize some of your expertise.
An at-fault driver hit me while on my bicycle and I went over the hood. My helmet cracked on impact and I had various road rash. I went to the ER, where they only needed to bandage me up. The following weeks, I had nasty bruising/stiffness. Now, a month later, I have some scarring on my face, back, leg, arms, and thigh. My thigh has still been stiff, but after a recent check-up, the doctor said it will just take time to heal.
I’m expecting my medical bills are small; maybe $1,000 for the ER and $200 for the check-up. And I only took one day away from work, worth around $140.
Is it worth hiring an attorney to take my small case? Nine out of the ten offices I have contacted, have denied my case since it’s not valued enough. However, I did find one that was willing. Would they be able to negotiate a higher settlement that more than compensates for their contingency fee? Or is it in my best monetary interest to do it myself?
Thanks for any advise you can give me!
Assuming that you’re comfortable that all of your injuries have been fleshed out, I’d suggest taking a crack at settling this one on your own. I assume you have the insurance information for the at-fault driver (it will be on the accident report). You can call them and ask to speak to a BI (bodily injury) adjuster about making a claim (or you can just ask for the address to submit a demand in writing, if you prefer).
Have your medical billing and health insurance information ready so you can give them specific numbers for your medical claim. If you have a pay stub reflecting the time lost from work (they should still compensate you if you used sick time), that would be helpful as well.
Whether you can make a claim for pain and suffering will depend on whether you live in a no-fault state. If you don’t, you can make such a claim with no problem. If you do live in a no-fault state, then you likely have to prove that you have a permanent injury to recover pain and suffering damages. Your scarring may qualify, depending on how significant it is (and permanent).
As an extra complication if you are in a no-fault state (and you own a car), your own PIP insurance may be primary coverage for your medical and wage loss, so it would pay a certain percentage of these bills (often 80% medical and 60% wage loss) even though you weren’t in your car (PIP coverage travels with you, not just your car) and even though you weren’t at fault.
If you aren’t satisfied with how the at-fault driver’s insurer responds, you can always hire that firm that’s willing to take your case — at that point, you’d have nothing to lose.
I’m glad you like the site. If it’s not too much trouble, and you’re a social network user, a Facebook “like” or Google “+1″ (buttons are on the bottom of my articles) would be appreciated.
Hey, thanks for your swift reply!
I’m in California (a NON-No-Fault state) so making a pain/suffering claim is assumed. There’s just a few things I worry about going in on my own…
- Making sure I receive enough to pay subrogation/liens
- Not knowing the value of my injuries/scars and being naively undercut in their offer
- Dealing with the adjuster (who is with Allstate, which I’ve heard is notoriously aggressive)
I’ve proposed my scenario on legal advise forums, in which all of the responding attorneys have suggested getting hiring legal representation (easier said than done). They’ve said that merely having a representing attorney causes the insurance companies to play more “fairly.” Is this a valid observation? Or should I be taking their advise with a grain salt? No offense, but on a sites like that, it seems that lawyers are biased in keeping ‘business’ in their industry.
Thanks again for your help!
The theory that insurers will play more “fairly” if you have a lawyer is a pretty vague notion. What does that even mean? Ultimately what you care about is how much they will pay to settle your case. Will having a lawyer make them pay more? In most cases, the answer is yes, for the simple reason that they know you’re ready to sue them if they don’t make a reasonable offer. However, if your case is worth so little that it wouldn’t be economically feasible for a lawyer to file a lawsuit over it, the insurer will know that, as well. In this case, the usual advantage of having a lawyer is greatly reduced by the insurer’s belief that your lawyer won’t ever file suit. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the one firm that agreed to represent you plans to dump your case if they can’t settle it pre-suit.
So, while a lawyer may be a better negotiator than you, if he can’t convince the insurer that he will file suit should the case not settle (a very tough sell in a low value case), I doubt that his negotiating acumen will increase your settlement by enough to offset his fee.
That being said, you raise valid concerns about handling this yourself. As to the liens, you can call (or write) your health insurer’s subrogation department to get a written statement of how much they claim they are owed (this is what your lawyer would do, anyway). That’s not really that big of a deal. As to the value of your injuries, your doctors can tell you the economic value of possible future care. On that note, if your scars are bad, you may want to consult a plastic surgeon about the potential for, and cost of, scar revision.
Once the economic value is established, the pain and suffering and emotional distress are worth whatever you think they are. If Allstate makes you an offer that satisfies you, why would you worry that someone else may have gotten more for similar injuries? As long as you’re happy with the settlement, that’s all that matters. Now I know you don’t want to get ripped off, but because non-economic damages are inherently subjective you can’t ever say for certain that a case is worth “x” dollars in pain and suffering. You really just need to depend on your negotiating skills and your ability to read the adjuster to tell whether you’re squeezing the top dollar out of him.
Which brings me to your last concern — the notoriously aggressive adjuster. Every negotiation is going to involve some posturing and some bluffing. Some will involve bullying. If you don’t handle confrontation well, you might be better off having a lawyer do it for you. I don’t mean to scare you. Often, dealing with adjusters is not that confrontational. You throw around settlement numbers and point out weaknesses in each other’s cases, e.g., you say his driver was clearly at fault; he says you’re not hurt that bad — maybe each of you has a counter-argument. You could try making contact with the adjuster and see how it goes — if the person is overly aggressive, stop the conversation an hire a lawyer. If he’s not so bad, see where the negotiations take you.
One final note — I see from Nolo’s website that California upped its small claims court limit to $10,000.00 as of January 1, 2012. So, you can threaten Allstate with suing their driver even if you don’t have a lawyer. You can even follow through with that threat if they piss you off enough — small claims court was designed for pro se parties. You would need to do some serious research before attempting this, however, as the evidence rules can be tricky, especially with a lawyer on the other side trying to get things excluded based on technicalities he would never use against another lawyer. As I said, it’s just a thought. At the least, you can use this to threaten the adjuster (and mention that he’ll wind up paying more in defense costs than he would in just settling your case fairly).
Can the phrasing conflict of interest be used in a retalitaion claim? Especally, when a manager because of a personal interest in you participates in a write up??
I’m not sure why a particular choice of words concerns you. If your employer retaliated against you for pursuing your rights under a state or federal statute, such as an employment discrimination complaint, the only real issues will be whether the motive for the adverse employment action (the write up) was your pursuit of your rights under the law and whether you had a good faith basis to pursue those rights. Personal animus of one of your supervisors towards you, for reasons unrelated to your pursuit of those rights (e.g., he just doesn’t like you) may be a conflict of interest in the colloquial sense, but won’t have much bearing on the retaliation claim.
Well, convienently a Supervisor is hung up on the conflict of interest term and won’t recognize that I mentioned Retaliation/Harassment to her. I was written up for things that I don’t believe are true and the manager that participated in the write up had been texting me and made advances toward me and tld me he had feelings for me and I had cursed at this manager to go away and three weeks later he is involved in a write up. He is not my manager and I feel he should have declined to be involved. He told me during the interview process before the write up – I know you’re talking I get to hear what you’re saying.
I think his involement is wrong and retaiatory.
If you did not report his unwanted advances to your employer prior to him participating in the disciplinary process, allowing him to participate would not be retaliatory in the legal sense. Remember that retaliation claims are brought against the employer, not an individual employee (even a supervisory one). If the employer has a harassment policy that you did not avail yourself of prior to the disciplinary review, you did not give it proper notice of his unwanted advances and a chance to take corrective action. Therefore, you would not have a retaliation claim against the employer (as you never asserted your legal rights prior to alleged retaliatory action).
That being said, a case could possibly be made that any negative actions he caused the employer to take against you were due to you previously rejecting his advances. This could possibly form the basis for a quid pro quo type sex discrimination claim (which Title VII prohibits). If you report this to your employer and they do not take appropriate action, it may form the basis of a Title VII claim against the employer (not for retaliation, but for sex discrimination). If they retaliate against you after reporting your complaint, that could be the basis for a Title VII retaliation claim, assuming that you have a good faith basis for the complaint.
So while it may seem like semantics, as his conduct may be “retaliatory” in the conventional sense, in the legal sense a retaliation claim doesn’t arise until you have first asserted your rights pursuant to a statute such as Title VII, either by complaining to your employer or by filing an EEOC complaint.
As to whether he had a conflict of interest, one could easily argue that his interest in punishing you for rejecting his advances conflicted with his interest in providing the employer with a fair assessment of your alleged wrongdoing. I think it would be more appropriate to describe him as biased, when you should have been reviewed by an impartial decision maker. At the very least, his participation created the appearance of impropriety.
Hi,
I have a few questions for my Aunt… My Uncle was killed Dec.11,2011. He was on his motorcycle and laid it down (that didnt hurt him) at 6:30 pm (still day light out) as he was getting up to flag down the car that was behind him, That car ran him over and killed him. No my aunt had a lawyer but they dropped her and said there is nothing that can be done. Now the witnesses said that the man in the car had been drinking, yet the cops never gave him a breath test or anything, my uncle’s came back that he had been drinking.Why didn’t they test the driver of the car ?? My Uncle was NOT on his bike or in a car, He was on the side of the road. The driver of the car was right behind him he had to see him lay the bike down! And the lawyer told my aunt the driver of the car is a Vietnam Vet there is nothing you can do.. I don’t think that’s right.The driver told the cops ” Oh well this is the second person I have killed” and snickered. What can we do ? Can you please help us?? Thank you for your time
I can only recommend that you keep calling around to find another lawyer to take the case. The case has liability issues, but because it is a death case, there is probably a lawyer out there willing to try to overcome the liability issues.
The fact that your uncle was drinking is not insignificant. It pretty much ensures that a jury will apportion some, if not all of the fault for the accident to him (starting with his reasons for laying the bike down). In a few states, if a person is even 1% at fault for an accident, he cannot recover anything. In most, the damages will just be reduced by his percentage of fault. A recent development also has some states, like my home state of Florida, making a special statute for civil plaintiffs who are intoxicated at the time of injury that bars recovery if the intoxication accounted for 50% or more of the fault.
I know it’s frustrating that the police didn’t test the driver of the vehicle. Without that, it will be near impossible to prove he was intoxicated at the time of the accident unless you had some super-reliable witness who was actively taking note of how many drinks (and what type) this guy had prior to the accident. I can’t say why the police didn’t test him, but there is no civil claim that can be brought against the police for deciding not to do so (trust me, I’ve also handled many civil rights cases against law enforcement). Law enforcement has broad discretion when it comes to these types of issues.
Lawyers have different opinions when it comes to which cases are worth taking on. I strongly urge you to try a number of other firms to see if anyone else will take the case. Be up front about the issues over the phone so you don’t waste yours and the lawyers’ time. Lawyers turn down or drop cases every day that other lawyers pick up and turn into a large settlement. Don’t take one lawyer’s opinion as gospel. You have nothing to lose but time in calling other firms. I hope you find someone.
Thank you for getting back to me so fast:)
And we live in Bunnell Florida, The other guys car insurance paid my Aunt some money but the lawyer she had said that she can’t go after the man for anything. Would you happen to know of a lawyer that might take on this case?? A good lawyer, I want my aunt to get the best help she can. It’s very hard on her she thinks and cries over him each and every day. I have a hard time helping her cause no one wants to talk to me. They all say they need to talk to her, Well it hurts her to talk about my uncle. She misses him very much, we talked about him last night and all day today she was crying over him she cant sleep at night with out him. Please if you happen to know of someone to help, Please let us know. Thanks again for your time
You’ve cast a new light on the case by telling me that the driver’s insurer paid your aunt. This sounds like a case where the driver was inadequately insured and the only means of recovery was through the insurer. Most of the time, it’s not worth trying to sue an individual, as you’ll likely have to take it to trial (because he has no money to offer to settle) and then you get a judgment against someone who will never be able to pay it. In Florida, the generous homestead exemption (which has no monetary limit for a primary residence) prevents a judgment creditor from forcing a defendant to sell his house to pay a judgment. Because most people don’t have any assets worth seizing aside from a house, and you can’t seize the house even if he owns one, lawyers won’t sue individuals unless they are known to be rich — and ironically, rich people rarely have inadequate insurance.
In any case, I can’t imagine the insurer paying your aunt anything without having her sign a release which completely releases the driver from any liability. So, even if suing him personally was a possibility before (and I can pretty much guarantee that it wasn’t), it would be barred by the release now.
If your uncle had UM insurance, that would be the only source of recovery available beyond the driver’s policy limits. Of course, I assume that your former lawyer would have looked into this already, as even a brain-dead lawyer would know to do that.
It really sounds like your lawyer got your aunt as much as he could. The other driver’s insurer probably tendered its policy limits immediately upon receiving the demand to avoid a bad faith lawsuit, which would have been your only real hope of recovering more than the policy limits in the absence of UM coverage.
Thank you very much for all your time. I will talk to my aunt in the morning and see if she signed anything, I didn’t know what was going on I just know she called me and told me the lawyer dropped the case. I will get all the papers and read about it some more. I just wanted to try and get her some kind of help. Thank you and have a good night.
I think your aunt may have been confused by what the lawyer told her. I don’t think he dropped her case. I think he just couldn’t take it any further for the reasons I just mentioned. If you find out anything more, feel free to come back and let me know.
Thank you for your response!
The respose from the employer was “let it go,” Secrecy, and threats of firing. I just don’t think this was handled well!
If you don’t want to pursue a discrimination claim, you may want to start looking for other employment (at least explore your options). While it’s unlikely that your employer would fire you while a possible complaint of sexual harassment is lingering, they may just wait long enough to avoid the appearance of retaliation before trying to get rid of you. If you notice them writing you up or taking pains to build a case for firing you, the writing is on the wall. It’s fight or flight time.
Thank you again for your advice. Left the job – afraid of them – getting an attorney. Worried for others if this is how they do business.
Thanks for being out there! For a guy “who doesn’t want to be your attorney” YOU help the public out a lot with sharing your experience and giving us your advice!
Thank you for all you do!
Laura
Can someone please tell me why a lawyer will not take a class action suit of just me on for a exempt employee status, when the work is already done? The status they put us under is executive, but we do not manage any person or people! Its a simple case, but I think they are scared of the company. We also have resigned under anxiety problems and many others that doctors will testify. PLEASE SOMEONE TELL ME WHY????
I’ll take a stab at it:
1. There are relatively few attorneys that practice employment law, and most that do are more focused on discrimination than FLSA claims.
2. Your case may not be valuable enough in the eyes of these lawyers to justify filing suit. While attorney’s fees can be awarded to the winner, most lawyers don’t want to gamble on winning just so they can get paid an hourly rate. If they wanted an hourly rate, they’d be on the defense side, where payment is guaranteed regardless of case outcome.
3. You may not have enough people to warrant a class action. Even if you do, most law firms don’t have experience handling class actions (further cutting down your options when it comes to firms).
As to lawyers being “scared of the company”, I doubt it. Large, powerful corporations are sued every day. Even law enforcement agencies get sued all the time. If lawyers aren’t afraid to sue the cops, why would they be afraid of some corporation?
You may just need to broaden your search to firms outside your immediate geographical area. It will often be a numbers game, contacting a number of firms before you find one that’s interested. As a tip, don’t start off bashing lawyers and saying how no one will take your case so far — that’s a big red flag that you’re going to be a “problem client”.
Hello,
I am a resident in California. I worked for a company for three years in California. That company has multiple facilities around the country. Reason I know this is because my check stub came from another state. I was injured on the job. The moment I decide to receive medical attention, I get discharge from work. I open workers comp for the injury and the workers comp lawyer refers me to another attorney to open a case for Wrongfully Termination. After showing all my paper work and evidence example recommendation letters, promotion on the job etc. He took my case with no further question. In fact he said we had a strong case. I have been off work for almost eighteen month now. I have had one deposition. Now he is saying that the case is not worth money or fitting and he was advice that the company in California is going out of business. What do you recommend I should do? Is this case worth any money or worth fighting? Any advice would be great. I would appreciate your advice.
Thank You
Fernando Garcia
Well, it is illegal in California (and most other states) for an employer to retaliate against an employee who files or states his intention to file a workers compensation claim. I’m assuming this is the type of claim you pursued in your wrongful termination case.
It doesn’t sound like your lawyer has doubts about the legitimacy of your claim, but rather the chances of recovery even if you win. If your employer did file for bankruptcy, whether you have any realistic chance of recovery will depend on many factors, such as whether the employer had separate insurance to cover such retaliation claims (this improves your chances) or whether it was self-insured for such claims (this worsens your chances). Make sure that your lawyer received a formal notice that the employer filed for bankruptcy, and was not just told this by the employer’s lawyer. Ask your lawyer what the deadline is for filing a claim in the bankruptcy court (you’d need to do this by a certain deadline to preserve your right to recover anything). If your lawyer does not want to proceed with your case, let him withdraw (so you don’t owe him any fees if you ultimately recover anything) so that you can consult with other lawyers.
Bankruptcy of a defendant does not necessarily mean that your claim will be worthless. If the employer has an insurance policy to cover workers’ comp retaliation claims, your chances may actually be quite good to make a full recovery (as this insurance wouldn’t be a general asset to be divided among all of the bankruptcy creditors, and the bankruptcy court may lift its “automatic stay” of all actions by creditors and allow you to proceed with your lawsuit).
If you don’t have any luck with either other employment/workers comp lawyers, you may want to consult a bankruptcy lawyer or two to see if they might help you understand your chances of making a recovery — they may also help with getting another lawyer to take your case (for a fee cut).
Sorry I can’t give you a more clear answer to your question, but seeing that I’m neither a comp lawyer nor a California lawyer, I’ve given you my best guess.
Could you please advise kindly whether anything can be done to get my identity back from this Florida government agency? Thank you very much in advance for your help.
Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco, Department of Business and Professional Regulation in Tallahassee, Florida has been listing my address as
a licensed alcohol dealer in South Carolina. When I notified them they wrote that it was their mistake and that they removed my address from their website
and databases, yet my address remains there. Here is some correspondence from them:
June 13, 2012
Good afternoon.
Good news. It appears as if the incorrect address was in place due to an employee that we had who is no longer with us, and not because of any actions taken
by Banknote Wine Company or the distributor that they sell to in Florida. With our new reporting system, each entity reporting has a license or identification
number with us. When we record the reported information in our system, if an entity does not have a number, we assign them one. When the wholesaler in
Orlando reported purchasing from Banknote, the employee here looked on the web to find an address. Apparently, when doing this, they found your web page
when doing a search for “banknote” and typed in your address without verifying it.
I sincerely apologize for any grief that this has caused you in thinking that someone was tampering with your identity. I have asked my current staff to resolve
the issue by removing your address and adding the correct address for Banknote Wine Company into our system. We will also put procedures in place to
assure that any current employees do not simply put the first address that they find into our system without verifying that it is the correct entity and address.
Unfortunately, sometimes you don’t find out about mistakes such as this until an employee leaves or someone contacts you with the issue. Again, I thank
you for bringing this to our attention.
Thanks.
~ Marie
Marie Fraher, Chief of Auditing
Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco
Department of Business and Professional Regulation
1940 N. Monroe Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1022
marie.fraher@dbpr.state.fl.us
=======================================
June 14, 2012
(Their response to my demand to actually erase my address from their files since I have nothing to do with sales of alcoholic beverages or tobacco)
Good afternoon.
I had hoped that I could answer your questions and give an explanation that would satisfy your dilemma with us. However, as I read through your email below,
I find that I do not have the authority to answer your requests. Therefore, I will be forwarding your email to our legal staff.
Thanks.
~ Marie
Marie Fraher, Chief of Auditing
Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco
Department of Business and Professional Regulation
1940 N. Monroe Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1022
(850) 717-1136 voice mail
(850) 922-2901 fax
marie.fraher@dbpr.state.fl.us
=======================================
June 15, 2012
Good afternoon.
We have taken the reference to your address out of our non-licensed entity list in the on-line records on our web site.
Thanks.
~ Marie
Marie Fraher, Chief of Auditing
Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco
Department of Business and Professional Regulation
1940 N. Monroe Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1022
marie.fraher@dbpr.state.fl.us
========================================
Today is June 24, 2012
Let’s see whether my address P.O. Box 331, North, SC 29112 is still listed with the Florida Licensing website:
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sclient…w=1024&bih=601
Oh yes, it still is! See the very first Google search result there under “Pseudo licenses 05-14-2012″. If you click on it and go to the LICENSE # 7901108 you
will see it listed there. That’s not my business name, not exactly, but it is similar to my website name.
NOTE: I have never sold any alcohol anywhere in the world. This is an outright identity theft by a government agency (entity) if not a mistake that’s NOT been
corrected (yet) even if promised.
First, the agency has not committed identity theft, as that involves someone knowingly representing themselves as another person. The agency isn’t claiming to be you. It was just sloppy in its records keeping, and has done a poor job of correcting its error thusfar.
You have three options at this point:
Obviously, option #1 is the path of least resistance (and cost to you).
Thanks a lot for your advise. Can I ask you one more question? Someone (a brand new novice poster with no posts probably registered their ID just to post my name) posted my full name and my full address on a forum and the forum administration will not remove it upon my request, no reasons given. Can they do that legally? How can I remove my name and address from the forum? The name and address is listed at Whois as domain info, but they took it from a stolen identity registration (name/address hijacking by criminals for their own domains) and also I do not wish to be identified on any forum by my real name. Is it just unethical what the forum is doing or illegal? Can you help?
Impersonating someone online is a pretty new phenomenon, so depending on your state (or the state of the website operator), there may not be a specific law against it yet. California recently enacted such a law. Unfortunately, even laws such as this one are directed at the actual impersonator, and not the operators of websites where the impersonation occurs.
If you are having no luck with the website operator, you may want to take the issue up with his hosting company (the company that provides his website storage). The hosting company will be listed in his Whois information. Even if it isn’t illegal for the website owner to leave the post online, his hosting company may still pressure him to remove the post for practical reasons — if the industry doesn’t self-regulate, it is inviting new legislation to regulate it.
If your state is one that has a law against online impersonation, you may have criminal or civil remedies available against the original poster. Whether any prosecutor or lawyer would be interested in pursuing such a claim without some form of cyberbullying or financial fraud being attempted under your name is another matter. Did the person post your name and address with the intent of drawing other users to harass you?
You are very helpful and thanks. Can I send you the link to the forum via a private message somehow? Then we could post comfortable parts of that on here for other users to possibly benefit from.
If not, then I will explain a little bit about the situation I am in.
I own several domains. I do not hide my name or address for the benefit of customer trust.
Some criminals who own some (unattractive) domains have used my name and address in their Whois as theirs. So when you see the whois of their domain you are seeing “me” as the “owner” and my mailing address as the domain’s contact, yet the email is theirs (I suppose) and they (purposely) use my old telephone/fax number that has been disconnected for years even if they know my active number.
Now after I posted on a forum about this story, also providing links to the public whois record to those scammer domains where my name is used, one of posters (the post was their first and i suspect the posted created their user ID for a sole purpose of this one post) posted asking something like “is xxx xxxxx your name, and is xxxx xxxx xxxxx xxxx” your address? Although they could clearly see I xxxxxx’ed my name etc,. in all my posts and their last sentence is something like: “So what are you up to?”. And I am up to protecting my privacy and my identity, of course. So that question of theirs is kind of a form of harassment or even invitation to others to harass me (perhaps?). I can send you actual correspondence or simply the link to the forum posts by private message if you will agree. Thanks again.
As this subject is really off-topic for a personal injury website (and far from my area of expertise) I don’t know that there is much that I can do to help you further, other than my already suggested action of contacting the forum’s web hosting company with your concern in an attempt to enlist them to pressure the site operator to remove the posts containing your personal info. I don’t know that I’d read as much into that new user’s posting, unless you actually start getting harassed as a result, in which case it may become a criminal matter.
As to your domain registration issues, you could report the websites with the fraudulent information to ICANN here. It is against ICANN policy to allow false WHOIS information in a domain registration, so it will contact the domain registrar about changing/removing the false registrations once you file a complaint.
I’m glad you wrote about ICANN. I’ve been writing about ICANN and about BIZCN (shady domain registrar in China accredited by ICANN). The PROBLEM is that ICANN does nothing to stop BIZCN and ICANN has referred me to BIZCN and BIZCN did little to nothing in my case. Plus, ICANN’s WDPR forms were sending rejections for all my reports. No matter what I did, when I reported all or most those domains to ICAN they kept on sending me these rejection emails:
Dear Sir/Madam:
ICANN appreciates you taking the time to complete a Whois Data Problem
Report regarding the domain [removed by admin]. However, your complaint was rejected
because the Whois inaccuracy claim was found invalid and the domain falls
under one of the following categories:
1. Client Hold: Domain is On Hold
2. NOT FOUND: Domain is not existent
3. Pending Delete, Domain Suspended or Deleted
The Whois Data Problem Reporting System only forwards valid Whois inaccuracy
complaints directly to the registrar for review.
For further information on what is required of registrars upon notification
of an inaccuracy in Whois data, you may wish to view the ICANN Advisory
located online at http://www.icann.org/announcements/advisory-03apr03.htm.
Kind regards,
ICANN Services
====================
This is the original thread explaining the entire story, which you may find useful to read:
[removed by admin]
P.S. Those reports I made to ICANN were about 8 months ago. All rejected. Those domains were NOT on hold, they were not deleted, I filled all ICANN forms very carefully and did everything by their instructions. I even telephoned ICANN and told them he problem, yet they told me they can’t help me and they referred me to BIZCN, but I told them I already tried BIZCN and that BIZCN does nothing and they are shady. Then I said I can’t sue BIZCN as they are in China and ICANN should do something about my id theft case and then the ICANN hung the phone on me abruptly and did not pick it up anymore. So, eight months later, nothing has changed. Since I can’t sue BIZCN (they are in China), I may have to take ICANN to court and I wonder whether I can find a lawyer to help me do that. I just ran out of all other options. Damages are accumulating fast as more and more criminals are using my name for their domains and I am losing customers and my name as those criminal domains have been listed on Google first page now and some people called me and asked me why I was running a scam while they thought I was an honest businessman. Now they even posted my name on the forums and the forums refuse to remove it as if they want to punish me by allowing a complete novice to post my name and the forum also threatened to shut my account down if I demand to remove my name. They ([removed by admin]) seem to be shady and unethical as the least. Now some users are on the verge of harassing me there. Integrity and honesty is very important to me and that hurts a lot.
After reading the forum posts you linked to, in which you discussed this issue with a number of people, unfortunately I have to say I am at a loss as to what you should do. It really does appear that BIZCN doesn’t care that Chinese and Russian criminals are using its service to register domains for websites which are clearly engaged in criminal activity (that “watch” website you listed couldn’t be a more obvious scam). It also appears that ICANN has no intention of alienating the Chinese by revoking BIZCN’s domain registrar status. As long as the criminals keep using web hosting services that also support their illegal activities (and are located in countries where this kind of corruption is ignored), I don’t see a way to track them down, much less have them criminally charged. There may be some attorneys out there who are knowledgeable enough in international law and domain registration issues to help you with this problem. Unfortunately, I’m not one of them. Of course, those attorneys who do have that knowledge probably wouldn’t want to get involved unless there was a huge amount of money at issue (which was actually recoverable) or unless you could pay them a hefty hourly fee.
As to the posting of your name on the forum website, I’m not as convinced as you are that the person who “outed you” did so maliciously. Before even reading his post, I saw your post with the domains listed and did a WHOIS search on my own, which gave me your name and address. I think it was just dumb curiosity that prompted him to ask if the WHOIS data was you. As far as him asking “now what’ve you been up to”, I took that as him asking what the status was of you getting this issue resolved (as it had been several days since your last post). Don’t take this the wrong way, but I think you really overreacted to a lot of people on that forum who were offering advice (even if you felt the advice was stupid). You really jumped down their throats, when a simple “I already tried that” would have sufficed. I understand how upsetting this issue is for you, but I don’t think anyone on that website was acting “shady” (quite the opposite), and any info that was posted about you was easily obtained from your own prior post and a quick WHOIS search. I’m just saying that in the future, you might get more cooperation on those forums and from the forum webmasters if you showed a bit more patience and weren’t so quick to accuse people of behaving unethically.
I’m sorry I couldn’t be more helpful, but as I said, this is not really my area of expertise.
Hmmm, interesting, first of all criminals seem to be protected and even if I wanted to track them down by their bank account number they would be protected by the bank where the scammed money is received.
Second, I seem to be the one who’s acting shady on that forum wanting to protect from my identity being further shared on the forums, while I question legality of posting (and not removing it by the mods) since the person who’s only purpose to register on that forum was to post my info since they no longer participate in that conversation, and since the whois info in the so-called public space has been stolen by criminals and posted there by the criminals. So is it really legal to repost stolen Whois info? It is stolen identity after all being posted on forums.
I did not jump the gun on the forums, but even if it sound a bit like that, someone created a new id to “punish” me by posting my stolen info on the forum.
One thing is having your name and address in a public (not so easily findable though) Whois and another thing is to being unable to remain private, or even anonymous on a forum, while everyone else is using their aliases, usernames etc. How many people did you notice use their full name in the forums? None to almost none. Don’t I have a right to a privacy on a forum or on that particular forum?
Hello criminals, you’re free to roam unpunished.
First, you’re being hyperbolic, which helps no one. Second, I didn’t say that you were acting shady — I said I didn’t think that the others on that board were (when I said “quite the opposite”, I meant it looked like they were trying to help). Third, yes, it is legal for that poster to ask you whether you were the person in the Whois information that you yourself linked to in that forum. He didn’t steal your identity or invite any criminal acts against you. He just asked a question, which was practically invited by you posting the link to the Whois data. Also, you’re the one who confirmed that the name he posted was, in fact, yours. Up until that point where you flew off the handle at the posting of your name, no one knew for sure whether that was your real name.
If you wanted to remain anonymous on that forum, you shouldn’t have posted information which would lead to your identity, and then confirm your identity when it was posted. You obliterated any argument for “expectation of privacy” by doing so. The reason the others remain anonymous on that forum is because they didn’t post information that would lead anyone to their real names. Nothing in that site’s rules forbid the posting of real user names. Also, the forum has the following rule explicitly stated: “We do not remove posts or accounts on request.” You posted there and accepted their rules and the accompanying risks of posting information which would naturally lead to your true identity. So, no, I don’t see any legal recourse for that. You want privacy on a message board? Be more careful with what you post there.
I’m done dealing with you. I genuinely offered what help I could — telling you in advance that this is not my area of law — and you showed zero appreciation. Instead, you overreacted and turned what most people would consider a relatively minor annoyance into “the greatest injustice to have ever occurred.” Find someone else to complain to. Your comments aren’t welcome here any more.
I have a landlord tenant case in which the landlord through us out and kept EVERYTHING from our family of 4. No one will touch the case. Is it possible to get a law student to take it? Where do I turn next?
Most counties have legal groups which provide free or low cost services to the poor. Either Google or look in your phone book for a “legal aid” group in your area. These groups handle landlord-tenant disputes as the majority of their claims, so you should be in good hands.
In 2003-4 I submitted a hat design patent application to the USPTO. In 2006, after having the original application looked over and critiqued by a IP attorney, I was awarded ownership of the design patent. I established a brand and marketed my new product everywhere I possibly could. At one point my hat was even in one popular tv reality series episode on MTV. Things got slow. The economy worsened. My business virtually stopped operating. Then in ’09 it was brought to my attention that a Danish company was producing a hat “just like” mine. I spoke to some attorneys about it and they all shrunk back when they heard the company was in Denmark, but they felt strongly that the hat was infringing on my patent. This company is selling to the US and even claiming through implication that they are its creators. I can’t do anything without any dough…What’s up with that? Where can I get help?
I don’t practice intellectual property law, so I don’t know what to say. Unless you can find an IP lawyer willing to take the case on a contingency fee, you can either come up with money to pay one hourly (obviously including a decent retainer) or let the matter drop. I doubt that there are too many pro bono IP lawyers out there. You might be able to get an affordable answer (maybe $40-$60) as to whether the matter is worth pursuing by asking an intellectual property lawyer on JustAnswer.
Hi, I find this website really helpful, I wanted to know what can I do with my case. I been working for the same company for about 15 years, last year I was a victim of an accident. They told me that I was going to get paid for 2 years after the accident because it was not my fault, however it hasent been a year yet and they preten nothing is happening, the doctor told me that I can’t go back to work and that I need surgery but I don’t have the money to pay for my surgery and the company doesn’t want to respond for me. Also papers were altered they lied about my situation the good thing is that I have copies of every paper that they altered I have evidence for everything however I been seeking for a lawyer and they all say that it is a good case, but they don’t want to take it. What can I do about this?
Was this an on-the-job injury, making it a workers compensation case? If so, then you should just keep looking for a workers comp lawyer — there are lots of them out there, and you don’t want to risk your statute of limitations running (don’t ask me what it is — I’m not a comp lawyer). Without knowing why these lawyers are rejecting your case, I can’t say how you can better sell it to another lawyer.
Where can I find a lawyer to hire by the hour?
To handle what kind of case? Personal injury? Is it that you’ve tried to find a lawyer to take it on a contingency with no luck, or do you just prefer an hourly rate?
I worked for this compland for 33 years and I had to leave it for I had two 2 hip replacement. they said that there is no liabilty on there part , I work for the railroal as conductor and traiman switcherman the name of the compl CSXT RR
Railroad workers are typically covered for workplace injuries under the Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA), which operates quite differently from state workers’ compensation laws. Under FELA, you have to prove that your injury was caused, at least in part, by the railroad’s negligence. It’s not enough that you just happened to suffer a workplace injury. However, damages available under FELA often far exceed those available under state workers’ comp laws — so there is something of a trade-off.
You need to discuss this matter with a FELA lawyer (I’m not one, by the way) as soon as possible. If you’re having trouble finding a lawyer to tell you whether you might have a case, it may be that you just haven’t contacted the right kind of lawyer. Most workers’ comp lawyers won’t know FELA that well, so be sure you find one who does before accepting his advice.
Hi,
First off I want to thank you for taking the time to provide a site that answers the myriad of questions that folks such as myself (personal injury victims) have been struggling to figure out.
I am in a situation where I simply cannot find a lawyer that will take my case but I’m wondering if it’s more because I am an out of country client?
My situation is I was recently in a MVA in the US (in a no-fault state). I am a Canadian citizen and this accident occurred while on vacation. I was a victim of a rear end collision where the other party admitted fault. He was travelling at around 70mph when he collided with my car which was at a full stop.
I suffered severe whiplash and have been in pain since the day of the accident. I have missed work, spent 3-4 days a week with headaches, and accrued over a thousand dollars in medical bills out of pocket so far and it’s only been a month. The doctor diagnosed me with whiplash, nerve damage and reduced range of motion.
Lawyers in my country (Canada) won’t take this case because they aren’t familiar with the State law where the accident occurred. Lawyers in the State where the accident occurred won’t take my case because I haven’t reached the $5000 tort threshold.
The conundrum is I am unable to proceed with filing for PIP as the rental car company insurance (of the car I was using when the MVA occurred) wants me to sign a release of ALL my medical records. I have been in a similar type of accident about 5 years ago and recevied treatment and was on the mend. This recent accident has exacerbated my symptoms greatly and pretty much disabled me 40% of my work week. I haven’t signed this application because I wanted advice from a lawyer or someone to take on my case and act as a buffer. I don’t want the insurance company turning this on me and blaming my old accident. I feel like I’m not personally prepared to deal with that and don’t want to sign anything that would damage my case as I could be in pain for a long time for something that was not my fault. I’m stressed enough trying to pay the medical bills and getting treated ASAP to prevent chronicity of my symptoms.
Are you able to provide any advice or suggestions on my course of action? I feel like I’m just sitting in limbo and putting my life on hold in order to support the payment for my medical treatments.
Thanks so much
With first-party insurance benefits, such as PIP insurance, typically your policy will contain what’s known as a “cooperation clause” which requires that you cooperate with them in processing your claim. Failure to provide them with a medical release would likely be considered a breach of the cooperation clause and allow them to deny you coverage. If it makes you feel any better, I always have my clients sign the insurer’s medical release for PIP claims. It’s really unavoidable. The same is true for release of work records if you make a wage loss claim.
While I understand your concern about them denying your claim as a preexisting condition, they will definitely deny your claim if you don’t give them that release. If you give them the release and they do deny your claim, you have a pretty good shot at getting a lawyer to handle the PIP claim, as most states allow lawyers to recover attorney fees if they win on a PIP claim (and some, like Florida, can even multiply that fee award up to 2.5 times, making PIP cases pretty attractive even when they are for a small amount).
As far as finding a lawyer for the liability claim, the fact that you have a whiplash injury (which is incredible from a 70mph collision) and only $1,000.00 in medical bills (is that your total medical, or just your out-of-pocket?) would make your case a pretty tough sell even if you were a local client. The fact that you’re in a different country makes it even less attractive, as long-distance representations can be a huge pain for lawyers. If your total bills are really more than the $1,000.00 you stated, and your doctor is willing to say that you suffered a permanent injury (i.e., you’ll never be at 100% of your pre-accident condition again), this is the information you should lead off with if you contact any other lawyers. If your total bills really are just $1,000.00, your case isn’t worth the cost of pursuing, either for the lawyer or yourself (as you will have to pay to travel back to the state for a deposition, mediation and trial if the case goes that far).
If you can’t find a lawyer, you could always try to settle the case yourself. I wish you luck.
Hello, how are you?
I was hit by a Police car that ran a stop sign while i was riding on my bicycle. the police car crushed the front end of my bike with its front tire and the impact sent me flying through the air and landed on the ground. I didnt move and the paramedics hauled me off to the E.R. where they just bandaged me up and sent me on my way, even though I felt like crap. As i was exiting the hospital, a police man handed me 2 tickets, 1 for running the stop sign and another for not having a light on my bike.. I got a lawyer which sent me to therapy, and i went for 3 months.. after making attempts to contact my lawyer, in time I started noticing that they were very disrespectful to me and even started hanging up on me.. I asked them for my file because I wanted to starta search for another lawyer and they refused to give it to me, after about 4 months of begging for my file, I finally got it and found another lawyer. After about 3 months of my (new) lawyer not answering any emails or calls, he called me out of the blue and saidthat they are dropping my case and hung up on me.. i dont get it.. I know i have a case. I have my file right now and just by browsing it i see I have atleast 6 or 7 thousand dollars in bills.. If any advice on how to go about this myself is available would be greatly appreciated since now, I can find a SINGLE SOUL that would take my case anymore and all of a sudden. thank you..
I really wouldn’t recommend trying to handle a case like this on your own. Because you’re suing a local government agency, there’s a good chance that you need to deal with what’s known as a sovereign immunity statute. A sovereign immunity statute waives the government’s inherent immunity from being sued, usually only to a certain amount (often between $100,000.00-$200,000.00 per claimant). It often includes a notice requirement, meaning that you must formally notify the applicable agency (and possibly others, such as the Florida Department of Financial Services in Florida cases) within a certain time frame or you are barred from suing them. This notice period is often much shorter than the statute of limitations, so the first thing you need to do is figure out whether your state has such a notice requirement in its sovereign immunity statute, how long that notice period is, and whether either of your lawyers has already met that requirement — hopefully one of them covered this in his withdrawal letter. After formal notice of your intention to sue is made, there is often a waiting period (often several months) during which time you cannot sue — this is to give the agency a chance to review the claim and try to resolve it before incurring the cost of defending a lawsuit. In short, dealing with sovereign immunity issues makes a standard negligence case very dangerous for a lay person to handle on his own.
Some sovereign immunity statutes also place a cap on attorney’s fees — for example, Florida’s limits attorney’s fees to 25%, making such cases less attractive for lawyers to take. This might be one of the reasons you are having a hard time finding a new lawyer. Another reason is that some lawyers just don’t like suing law enforcement agencies. I’ve never had a problem with it (I’ve also sued them for civil rights violations, which are far more serious allegations than negligence) and I’ve never had any issues with them trying to retaliate against me — some lawyers just don’t want to take that risk.
As to your former lawyers hanging up on you, I can’t recall a time in my 16 years of practice when I’ve ever hung up on a client — though I’ve been tempted. Usually lawyers only do this if the client becomes abusive (e.g., cursing, accusing the lawyer of working for the other side), so if you’ve had a heated exchange of words with these lawyers, you can bet that most potential future lawyers will find out about it and not want to take you on as a client.
A big concern in your particular case is the fact that you were ticketed for failing to yield for a stop sign. Did you fight this ticket and win? If you just paid it, regardless of your reason for doing so, it will make lawyers far less likely to take your case.
If you fought your ticket and won, didn’t get verbally abusive with your former lawyers, and there’s still time to notify the government agency of your intention to sue, you should be able to find a lawyer willing to take your case. It’s just a numbers game — you need to call more lawyers. If you absolutely can’t find a lawyer, I have strong doubts as to whether you’ll be able to make any recovery on your own. It’s clear that the police intend to dispute liability (fault), so it’s unlikely they’ll want to settle quickly (or at all) if you don’t have a lawyer.
I was in an accident 16 months ago. My friend and I were in a parking lot, she was trying to leave to go home (45 miles away.) I told her she couldn’t leave because she had been drinking. I was standing next to a glass window and she was talking to a couple of guys who were trying to get the keys away, when out of nowhere she jumped on me and we both went crashing through the window of the building I was standing next to. The window was not safety glass and when it broke instead of shattering it sharded, which in turn severed my leg almost completely off. A helicopter was called and I was airlifted to the hospital 60 miles away where doctors wanted to amputate my leg from the knee down. They were able to save my leg, but I was in the hospital for a month, in a wheelchair for 7 months, (Dr’s said I would never walk again.) I’ve had 15 surgeries on my leg since then.
I have an attorney who is going after the building owners, (the glass was not up to safety code) and trying to get me disability. At the beginning of the case, the insurance company offered me $100,000 for an at fault settlement which we denied. My medical bills are close to $1 million. Fast forward 16 months. I’m finally out of my wheelchair, able to drive (was my right leg) and feel that I can now make it in the workforce. I’ve attempted 2 jobs in the past 4 months and been “fired.” Of course its not because of my disability its always some other excuse. My Pain Management doctor prescribes me morphine. I have to take a large amount of morphine twice a day. It makes me loopy and tired and if I don’t take it I go through withdrawals and we have been weening off of it for the past 4 months this coupled with me having a hard time sleeping (never had a problem before) makes me tired all the time. I know these things can take some time, but I’ve been denied disability twice. My attorney says that we will have to go to trial to get disability.
Next lets go back to the insurance company. My attorney called me this morning and stated that the insurance company offered me $10k for non liability payoff. He knows I’m hurting for money because I can’t keep a job, I have 3 kids and I live with my parents. He suggested that I take the $10k and he can still sue them for liability and they’ll just take the $10k out of the settlement.
He stated he made them an offer over the phone. He told me 2 weeks ago he was seeking $2 million, but when I asked what he offered he won’t tell me. He claims that he sent me the offer like I requested, but I never received it. I need the money, but I don’t want to accept this offer and not be able to pursue the case further or delay it further. It has been going on for 18 months and I want to finish it as soon as possible.
Can you tell me if this is legit? Will it impede my case? What can I do to speed things up with disability and this case?
Thanks,
Kim
It sounds like the business had $10,000.00 in Med Pay coverage. If that’s the case, you can accept it without it affecting your liability claim at all. This is pretty common. Just confirm with your lawyer that this is Med Pay coverage, and you can accept it without worry.
As for your disability claim, it sounds like you were denied social security benefits upon your original application, and again on reconsideration (also pretty common). Now you’re just waiting for a hearing before an administrative law judge, which usually takes a very long time (often more than a year after being denied on reconsideration). Getting your ALJ hearing expedited requires that you have a “dire need”, as discussed in this article. Unless you meet the “dire need” criteria, you’re just going to have to wait until you get notice that you’re hearing has been set, as there’s nothing your lawyer can do to speed things up.
hi litiq8r’. that was wow. well hell’ i’m prob-a suck of a client for a lawyer but not sure. i’m trying to sue dorr- publish co for sell’g my brothers wi is the auther for rit’ng about me no permision by me.
his book says my sex life and how emotionless i was when i was
a kid. i never realy trusted my brother that much and after the book
i won’t now. i try to aterny’s already they tell me differ’nt from another. sorry bout my type. i will say more please help thanks much
t
You’re pretty tough to understand, but I think you’re saying that your brother wrote a book that included parts about you which are unflattering and allegedly untrue, and you want to sue his publisher. First, the fact that your brother didn’t get your permission to include you in his book isn’t something you can sue over. Your permission is not required. Second, if your brother published this book as non-fiction and lied about your behavior in it, you might have a libel case. Libel will only apply to statements he made as fact, and not as to his opinions. So, if it was his opinion that you seemed “emotionless” as a child and he wrote that, it isn’t libel. If he wrote about false factual events — like, say he wrote that you liked to frequent prostitutes — that could be the basis of a libel claim.
Of course, whether you can find a lawyer willing to take your case is another matter — as a general rule, plaintiff’s lawyers hate libel cases unless their clients have suffered serious financial injury due to the alleged libel. While certain types of false statements are considered libel per se, meaning that they are presumed to have caused you damages (such as an allegation of criminal conduct), even in those types of cases it won’t be worth it for a lawyer to get involved unless you can show real financial harm from the libel.
So, even assuming that your brother’s book contains libelous statements, and not mere opinions, you’re going to have a hard time finding a lawyer who will take your case unless you can show how you have been damaged financially (e.g., lost job opportunities) from these statements.
Thank you so much for creating this website and extra thanks for explaining why lawyers won’t take my case! My slip and fall case suffers from the “damages problem”. I slipped in a puddle surrounding a clogged drain on the floor of a big box store’s restroom. My feet flew forward and my hand went back to break the fall. I felt a stab of pain in my fingers and wrist. The force of fall even tore the sole of my shoe in half. There were witnesses present, 2 of them went to get help from a manager. The knuckles on the injured hand were visibly swelling when the manager arrived to take a report. I didn’t ask for a copy of the report because I didn’t know that I would need it. I did take pictures of the floor and the sole of the torn shoe. The manger said I would hear from Corporate in a few days.
Corp said they needed to confirm the details of the report and asked what I wanted as compensation. I said they should cover my medical expenses and replace my shoe at the very least. They asked for a number and I gave them the amount of my PT co-pays and a guess at how much the shoes cost. They sent me an offer letter for a few hundred dollars to cover shoes + co-pays and included a paragraph on notifying them in the event medi-cal wanted reimbursement.
Red flags went up when I noticed that my husband would have to sign the release, since I never mentioned I was married, and that my insurance might be entitled to reimbursement. I presented my case to 5 attorneys, all declined, so here I am. I suspect they declined because:
I have been a full-time homemaker (unemployed) since 11.23.12
I don’t collect disability or unemployment.
I injured the same hand to a lesser extent prior to this incident.
X-rays taken after each fall show no broken bones.
General practitioner and Occupational M.D. both diagnosed condition as “soft tissue” injury to hand, wrist, and forearm.
I have an MRI scheduled for next week, to see if there is evidence of ligament damage, but the rehab period is still going to be 6-12 months. I am licensed in a field that relies entirely on hand strength and dexterity, so I can’t even look for a job until I have completely healed.
How do I proceed? Keep calling attorneys? I’d rather not handle it myself, but if I must, do I start off asking for an amount that covers the full cost of all medical treatments since the fall (my co-pay and the insurances portion), the shoe replacement, and pain/suffering equal to 1.5-5x the medical bills?
Sorry for the lengthiness of this post, but I’m at my wits end!
The store asking your husband for a release as well is pretty standard in any case that has a potential loss of consortium claim, so that’s not really a big concern. Their attempt to dodge the likely reimbursement to Medi-Cal is troublesome, as I suspect that you do owe reimbursement and they’re just hoping that you don’t notify Medi-Cal so they don’t have to pay it. Before you negotiate any further, I’d contact Medi-Cal and find out the amount of the lien they will assert.
Don’t expect the store to offer a lot in pain and suffering or future wage loss based on the claim that you would have tried to find work during the rehab period, unless you already started to look for a job prior to the accident and can prove it (along with proving that your injury actually prevents you from doing this job). Because you’re probably not going to be able to find a lawyer to take this case, unless the MRI reveals something really unusual, you’d be lucky if they offered you anything above token pain and suffering damages. They know what kind of cases lawyers won’t take, and you can bet that without the threat of a lawsuit behind your demands, they aren’t going to be eager to make you happy.
I hate to sound discouraging, but if they offer to pay your out-of-pocket expenses and medical liens, along with some small amount for pain and suffering, that’s probably the best you can expect to get from this injury (again, assuming the MRI doesn’t reveal anything special).
I’d wait to hear their first real offer (after they agree to pay the Medi-Cal lien) before trying again to hire a lawyer. Even if a lawyer does take your case, in its current state, he may wind up getting you less than you could have gotten on your own — it just doesn’t sound like you have a whole lot to work with. A soft tissue injury to a hand that had a pre-existing condition, with no objective evidence of a serious injury or aggravation, isn’t going to be worth very much. I really doubt that you could get pain and suffering equal to 1x your medical bills (especially after the cost of an MRI is added) from such a claim.
Without something serious showing up on that MRI, take what you can get — but be sure that the Medi-Cal lien is taken care of. Don’t let them BS you into thinking that it’s in your best interest to not notify Medi-Cal.
Finally! An honest and simple answer. Your website is amazing and I can’t thank you enough for your insight. I was also troubled by the negotiating agent’s failure to mention the possibility of subrogation, but did not realize how serious its implications were until now. I tried to find some information on what insurance adjusters were legally required to disclose and came across this on the California Department of Insurance website:
Fair Claims Settlement Practices Regulations
California Code of Regulations
Title 10, Chapter 5
Subchapter 7.5
(Approved by OAL and Filed with Secretary of State 12/31/12. Per 2695.14: Compliance Date: 3/30/13)
Table of Contents – Fair Claims Settlement Practices
Section Number Section Title
Section 2695.7 Standards for Prompt, Fair and Equitable
Settlements
Section 2695.7. Standards for Prompt, Fair and Equitable Settlements
(g) No insurer shall attempt to settle a claim by making a settlement offer that is unreasonably low. The Commissioner shall consider any admissible evidence offered regarding the following factors in determining whether or not a settlement offer is unreasonably low:
(6) the extent to which the insurer considered the probable liability of the insured and the likely jury verdict or other final determination of the matter;
(7) any other credible evidence presented to the Commissioner that demonstrates that (i) any amount offered by the insurer in settlement of a first-party claim to an insured not represented by counsel, or (ii) the final amount offered in settlement of a first-party claim to an insured who is represented by counsel or (iii) the final amount offered in settlement of a third party claim by the insurer is below the amount that a reasonable person with knowledge of the facts and circumstances would have offered in settlement of the claim.
I feel like the representative I spoke to violated this regulation, (along with a few others). If so, it just reinforces my belief that attempting to settle myself will result in a decidedly unfair and inequitable settlement. Does the Insurance Company’s initial attempt at railroading me make my case any more attractive to counsel? Does it give me any leverage at securing a higher settlement?
Thanks again!
Be careful doing your own research. The section you quote above refers to “first party” insurance claims (claims that your own insurer pays). You have a “third party” claim (a claim against someone else’s insurer), not a first party claim.
While I wouldn’t go citing statutes or regulations to the insurer (because you could show that you don’t exactly know what you’re talking about), I think that a threat of notifying the state Department of Insurance (assuming this is not a self-insured store) and/or Medi-Cal itself of their thinly-veiled attempt to avoid Medi-Cal’s subrogation rights might motivate them to cut the BS and start with an offer that at least covers your lien and out-of-pockets. I’m sure that the letter they sent you was a form letter, meaning that they’ve tried to dodge Medi-Cal’s subrogation claims with others as well — they may not want this looked into.