Morning all. Looking for the "wisdom of the group" on hiring a auto related personal injury lawyer.

Better half was injured in a MV accident and was completely NOt at fault, which is not disputed. Other driver was issued 4 summonses including DUI's. (Was narcanned)

She had foot surgery and recovery is slated for 12 weeks. Dr. has indicated " life altering" mobility issues going forward.

Looking at attorneys now.

AllyM's statement that th4e biggest ad in the Yellow Pages is the biggest badass is wrong. The biggest ad is the biggest whore who is chasing the easiest settlements with the least work. The biggest ads often are from attorneys who are afraid to try cases.

Some of the billboard person injury attorneys never try cases. If a case doesn't settle, they sell the case to a trial attorney who will take it to trial.

You need an attorney who is not afraid to take a case to trial. Ignore the yellow pages and the billboards and the TV commercials. Get referrals from real people who have done it. I wish I had some recommendations for you.

Good luck to your wife.

I agree with Mike45[NV]

Ever hear of the bigger the flaw the bigger the ad?

Good morning all. The censor arte my reply.

I agree w/Mike45 and others re the big ad guy.

Just like incessant TV car insurance ads whose service after an event is iffy.

In the past we have used retired judges or even an active one for a matter outside of his jurisdiction. They seem to get more respect.

Have an appt.Thursday ...we'll learn more then

I certainly don't want to waste people's time, but you never know what gold nuggets may be posted.

AllyM, I think Frank is going about this in the best way. He is best off getting referrals from past clients who were happy with their Personal Injury attorney. Otherwise, it is all smoke and mirrors, self-promotion.

Maybe someone on the Forum has a recommendation.

Frank's idea of retired judges is good. For the most part, retired judges are not afraid of taking cases to trial, because if they were trial attorneys, they have been presiding over trials (sometimes for years) and are comfortable in that environment.

We've been through this. DH was sitting at a red light when he was rear-ended by a drunk driver going 65 mph. At 11 a.m. In a company vehicle.

A couple of things we learned from the experience:

--ultimately, the settlement amount will be based largely on the bills incurred. So don't hesitate to seek the medical help that you need. The fact that DH was taken away in an ambulance (which I didn't really feel was necessary) played well in the negotiations.

--the lawyer is going to take 1/3, regardless of how hard or easy the case is.

--you will probably need to wait until the health situation has resolved itself or is at least stable and unlikely to change.

--strategically, you're better off NOT paying outstanding medical bills. Our lawyer contacted the creditors after the settlement and was able to get discounts from several of them, which effectively made our settlement larger.

When we lived in DFW, we were at our favorite restaurant. DH was drinking water... but a passing waitstaff had accidentally refilled it from a water pitcher that actually contained bleachwater for cleaning rags. He got a mouthful before his nose caught up with him to tell him "don't drink that"-- and it was too late. He went to the hospital to get checked out for esophagal damage, etc.

He worked for one of the local universities at the time, and one of the faculty was married to a personal injury lawyer. So she got them together, so her husband could help mine with his claim against the restaurant to reimburse the hospital expenses, etc.

He was all gung-ho about it at first... but it seems injury lawyers have some sort of a (program? website? something?) that runs scenarios past a random sampling of "if I was a juror in this situation, this is what I'd do". I didn't really understand how it worked, but the long and short of it was, they run the facts past this group of people, and the reactions of the group of people indicates how big the possible payout is going to be in a given scenario. So they focus their energy on the cases that give indications of being moneybags, and they let fall by the wayside the ordinary everyday cases where people feel well, that's too bad that happened, but it's not really a scenario worthy of big bucks.

Ultimately, I don't think anything ever happened with it. We ate the cost, and it was a long, long, long time before we went back to that restaurant again.

Good luck with an old judge. I let one do my mother's estate. They don't think like lawyers. They think like someone who only has to listen and pass judgement. That's how I ended up with 8 K still in my father's trust account under the wrong trust name. I had to buy the three cars out of the estate because the judge/lawyer told me to drive them without paper work! Of course HE would not have got in trouble but if I had been stopped with expired paperwork I would have been in trouble. So I wrote some checks for the cars and the estate sold them to me. I had the titles so as executrix i sold them to myself. My advice to you right now is to find a greedy injury lawyer.

I forgot to mention--we interviewed a couple of lawyers before choosing one. That's when we found out that the first lawyer in a firm that talks to you gets your case, even if you'd rather go with a more senior partner.