I Just Settled Another Case for What It Was Worth!

No real magic again. Another Plaintiff lawyer settled a slip and fall claim for what it was worth. WoW!!! Too Much Work for ME!!!

This is the real shame of it all. O.K., I guess you could tell I am a Defense Lawyer but I did spend many years as a Plaintiff Personal Injury Lawyer running my own firm. Here is the real problem facing injury victims day in and day out. They are not armed with the knowledge to attempt to resolve (settle) their claim before they go to a lawyer to see if the Personal Injury Lawyer can help them. There really needs to be a resource for injury victims (car accident, slip and fall or trip and fall) to use to see if the insurance adjuster is going to be reasonable. I have seen a book written by an adjuster (I don't know if this is a good idea or not), and I have seen general guides in print, but you really need a resource prepared by a Personal Injury Lawyer.

The Plaintiff had a foot fracture from awhile back after falling into a pit on the property of an eating establishment. $3,000 in medical bills and a bunch of lost wages. Her first attorney demand $55,000 (way too much). In an afternoon her new attorney and I negotiated from a spread of $4,500 from me to $18,500 to settle it. Her attorney got 40% of that (over $7,000) for an afternoon's work. It was worth $18,000 even without her lawyer.

The point is that she is out $7,000 of that for something she could have learned to do in a weekend with the right understanding of insurance settlement negotiations and her legal rights (what she was entitled to get if she was not at fault herself).