Lawyers are supposed to act in your best interest. They have an ethical (and moral) responsibility to do so. That does not always mean lawyers are acting as such or your best interest is being acted upon in your case. If your lawyer is pressuring you to settle your accident case, perhaps your lawyer does not go to trial, has not gone often, or is simply afraid to go to trial. Many lawyers who handle accident and injury cases are infrequent participants in the courtroom.
If your lawyer is trying to settle your case without having filed a lawsuit, is it in your best interest to file the lawsuit? What are the odds of you obtaining a higher recovery if you file a lawsuit rather than if you settle out of court for the money that you’re presently being offered?
If your case is in litigation, is it close to trial? Has your attorney tried to force you to settle the case at mediation? Do you feel like you’re getting true value on your case?
If you have any questions or issues about this, you are certainly entitled to a second opinion.
Just like if you were told that you needed surgery you would hopefully go for a second opinion, the same should apply to an accident case where you are having doubts that you are getting full value for your case.
Feel free to call us for a free, no-obligation second opinion regarding your accident case. We’ll intake the information from you, and if the lawyers hear information that merits an in-office consultation, we’ll bring you in, ask you to bring in whatever paperwork you have, and try to advise you whether we think you’re getting what we call “full value” for your case.
All you’ve got to do is telephone us toll–free at (954) 833-1440 and we’ll let you know what we think as soon as possible. Many times, if you tell us the name of the law firm handling the case for you, we can tell you right then and there that you have a good lawyer, and you don’t even need a second opinion.
But you need to know:
- Is your lawyer Board Certified in Civil Trial, and if not, why not?
- Is your lawyer a real trial lawyer who will go to court, or has your lawyer never seen the inside of a courtroom?
- Even if your lawyer will go to trial, has your lawyer had success in the courtroom?
- Do the insurance companies and your opponent’s lawyer have some fear of going to court against your lawyer?
A second opinion is better than one.
Even if the insurance companies have offered you their policy limits, have they done that on a timely basis? If they haven’t, it’s possible that you may be entitled to more than the policy limits of the insurance policy. If the insurance company waited too long to offer you the policy limits, there is something called “bad faith.” The insurance company has an obligation to its own insured to:
- Make a good faith and reasonable settlement offer in the best interest of their insured.
- Offer the policy limits on a timely basis if it’s in their insured’s best interest to do so; and
- Timely investigate the case and tender the policy limits even if no demand has been made by your lawyer.
If they don’t do that time and that causes you prejudice or puts you in a worse position, you may be able to proceed against the insurance company and/or their insured for the excess over the policy limits.
Finally, there are situations where you may be getting the policy limits of a driver’s insurance policy, but there may have been other causes that contributed to the incident. Was something blocking the path of the vehicle which caused the accident such as a tree, a bush, or a hedge on private property? Was there road construction going on with improper or confusing marking or designation?
These are all questions and issues that we can look at for you if your lawyer has not done so.