The Last Monopoly in the U.S.?

Personal Injury Times

The next time you can't sleep at night and you are watching the infomercials, try to remember how many Personal Injury Plaintiff (PI Lawyer) advertisements or auto-accident injury "treatment" shops advertise (it use to be just chiropractors advertising, but now it is multi-discipline) - MDs DCs and DOs have seen the profit-point.

When you drive down the highway (or freeway if you are in L.A.) you can't help but to see PI lawyers advertising for your injury "case." There are lots of little known industry secrets that go into making such a large profit that you can afford to advertise like Chevy.

How do I know?
I was one.

But before you decide that I am a jaded, burnt-out, disbarred lawyer (I am none of those things, well maybe I am slightly jaded) I have had dozens of conversations with other PI lawyers over the years and surprisingly, there are several "universal" rules they follow to be able to afford all that expensive advertising.

Interestingly, I have a strong opinion about PI lawyers and feel that they are worth their weight in gold if they are trial lawyers who will take you into the courtroom. If you have an automobile accident "case" (and this word irks me) because 98% of the population thinks their lawyer is helping them with their "case," when in fact, all that is going on is that the PI lawyer's secretary is typing up a settlement demand to the insurance adjuster for the lowly policy limits of the at-fault person. I've known some PI lawyers who even let their support staff, now called paralegals or case managers (gee, I wonder what college degree they obtained to become a case manager) negotiate with the insurance adjusters.

Now if you think you could not do a better job with the appropriate outline of the what, the when, the why and the "how much?", then you might as well just give him or her 1/3 of your settlement for the two hours (FTEs - full-time equivalents for the metrics people) of "case manager" time, no less, invested in your case.

Let's see, I think I can hire a secretary (one of the "secrets" in my URL, pretty interesting, huh?) for $12.50/hour, even less if she has no experience. My per unit cost for client acquisition is $500.00 - television and billboards are expensive and the contracts are long. Are you getting the picture?

Next time you go to the PI lawyer you saw on TV, ask him or her when was the last time they "picked a jury" (meaning they got prepared for trial, went to the courthouse and began the trial) and you expect that he or she will return your telephone calls within 24 hours (this means not their "case manager"). Each of these are rare, although I do know several small PI firms or individual lawyers who do provide client attention but the problem is, they do not advertise on TV or billboards because they have happy clients, who inturn give them word-of-mouth advertising and they concentrate on each case. Just like I use to do (well sort-of, because I did have to pay the bills too). More rants to come.