Does It Matter To The Insurance Company Who Is Your Attorney? And Will He Take Your Case To Trial?

Some people think that attorneys are more or less the same. Sure some are more successful than others. Some specialize in personal injury law, family law, wills and trusts or criminal defense, but they are all about the same. WRONG! Depending on your claim, the question of who is your attorney may translate into a better settlement offer, a better resolution or a better result at trial.

Well over 90% of the personal injury claims and lawsuits (car accident, dog bites, slip & falls) settle, either before a lawsuit has to be filed (pre-litigation) or after the lawsuit is filed and before the trial. But part of the analysis of the value of your claim, the value of your harms and losses due to the negligence of another, is based upon who you have hired as an attorney. The infamous Colossus case evaluation program started by Allstate Insurance gathers 600 factors. Many other insurance companies use Colossus or a similar program. And one of the important factors in those case evaluation programs is who is representing you in your claim. Has your attorney gone to trial on prior claims? If so then that will help the value of your claim. It will also help the value of your claim in that an attorney with prior trial experience will know how to litigate your case prior to reaching the trial. He or she will be prepared and have completed all the necessary fact gathering called discovery prior to beginning trial. But if your attorney is inexperienced that may have a negative impact on your claim. Also many attorneys dabble in personal injury, while handling other types of cases such as bankruptcy or family law. Personal injury law and practice is specialized and to be proficient at it an attorney needs to make it his primary area of specialization. The insurance company will know if your attorney specializes in personal injury or not and that will affect their offer. Or if the attorney handling your claim is known to the insurance company industry to be the type of attorney who always settles at whatever “best and last” offer that the insurance adjuster or their attorney makes, then that will affect the value of your claim. Insurance companies are all about keeping records. They will know whether the attorney representing you is willing to do battle at trial or just pretending and then folding when the going gets tough.

I have taken over many cases in my legal career from other attorneys who told their clients that they should just take the last offer from the insurance company. Or they might have been told that the attorney was not willing to take their case to trial. Maybe it was not a “big enough” case. Sometimes they are told that if they want to go to trial then they have to pay thousands of dollars of cost. While an attorney is not obligated to pay all the costs of going to trial, an attorney should be committed to taking the case to trial if he believes in the client’s claim. Some of these attorneys making these statements to their former clients are well-known attorneys in the area or even have lots of advertising on the t.v. or on radio. Just because an attorney has a large advertising budget, don’t count on them being willing to take your case to trial.

And really that should be a concern of yours when you are deciding who to trust to represent you. Don’t choose your attorney based upon a late night television ad promising you an unreasonable result. Do you homework and ask the attorney how many cases he has tried in his career. A successful trial attorney always will cite his trial victories. We tend to downplay our losses, but even the losses prove that your attorney is willing to do battle on cases that are disputed and the damages are in question. If your attorney is not willing to present your claim to 12 other honest members of the community at a jury trial, then you are at the mercy of the insurance adjuster’s last and best offer. If you have an attorney with a reputation for taking cases to trial, and better yet winning those cases, then your claim is in better hands and the insurance adjuster knows that too. If you have an attorney willing to take your case to trial when necessary, then you have the luxury of telling the insurance company who has made an unfair settlement offer, “I will see you in trial!” Good luck with your claim and choose wisely.