What is your accident and your time worth to you?

You want how much?

I have written before about understanding contingency fees but I want to expand on it a little more.

There are many people out in the world today that want to tell you that you will pay more doing a contingency fee than you do any other type of payment.  I want to clear the air about this:

1. I have said this before but it bears repeating:  It is the Personal Injury Attorney that assumes all the risk when taking your case.  If you don't win they do not get paid.  
2. They pay all the upfront costs to move your case forward.  Obtaining past medical records IS NOT CHEAP and they have to have the full picture to fight you case for you.  When you meet with a Personal Injury Attorney and have your consultation they are trusting what you say to determine whether they can win.  BUT the insurance companies don't trust what you say.....it has to be proved.
3. Just because there isn't any "progress" on your case doesn't mean your Attorney is not working on it every day!  It is a fight with the Insurance Companies to get you what you deserve....if it was simple you wouldn't need an Attorney.  If Insurance Companies just wrote the check they promised you...you could do it.
4. Most Personal Injury Attorney's have to return your calls, when you call, because they are on the phone with professionals or your insurance company fighting for you.  These people are very hard to get a hold of so when you have them on the phone you handle business so don't be discouraged when you have to leave a message.  Be concerned when your calls are NOT returned.

Imagine your job.  Imagine working every day to complete your job.  Imagine that you do not get paid unless the job is complete.  You dedicate time of each and every day to this job while paying out of YOUR POCKET to get the necessary information you need to do the job.  Now remember...there is no guarantee you will ever see a dime unless you do your job well.

Many of you know that I was involved in a car accident.  After my car accident I didn't have the energy to fight the Insurance Companies (mine and the other guys).  I also didn't have the time to get all my medical files together so my Attorney (Carol Zeisler) had all the facts.  I also hadn't been to a doctor in the previous ten years so she had to prove a negative.  Proving a negative is difficult...you have to prove something that does not exist.  She had to prove my injuries were not pre-existing injuries without any medical reports to do so.  I love one of Carol Zeisler's quotes when she represents a client with pre-existing injuries:

"Is there anyone on the road today that doesn't have some type of pre-existing injury?  If there is your client should have aimed better!"

This is EXACTLY the type of representation YOU want if you are in a car accident.  Someone who is going to stand up to the Insurance Companies and tell them THEY are wrong for looking for excused NOT TO PAY YOU!!!

We are smart people...we don't believe the commercials that tell us, "Buy this product and you will.....

• get rich
• get thin
• get healthy

so why do we believe the commercials that say "XYZ Attorney got me 2.2 million dollars" and think that is what they will get for us.  TRUTH.  They have to work within the same guidelines as any other Personal Injury Attorney within that State and YOUR insurance policy.  Yes, they probably did get that one client that.....but I promise you this....the circumstance behind that case are not the same as yours.  You want the Attorney on television who NEVER meets their clients....or do you want the Attorney who actually meets with YOU and is too busy fighting for your rights to make commercials.

We've all heard the term Ambulance chasers, right?

"Ambulance chasing is a term associated with lawyers. It refers to an attorney’s practice of soliciting business from accident victims or their families at the scene of an accident or disaster. Trial lawyers who specialize in representing accident victims are often described as ambulance chasers. Ambulance chasing may involve the chasing of an ambulance from an accident scene to the hospital in order to contact the victim/victim’s family members for consent to represent him or her in a lawsuit.
In the U.S., such conduct violates Rule 7.3 of the American Bar Association Model Rules of Professional Conduct. Some state bars strongly enforce rules against ambulance chasing. Ambulance chasing is severely condemned, and said to be a ground for disbarment. However, the employment by an attorney of an investigator in personal injury cases is not unethical, and it cannot be inferred from such employment alone that the attorney is engaged in ambulance chasing. [In re Mitgang, 385 Ill. 311]. The employment of investigators after an attorney has been retained is not unethical and does not give an inference that the attorney involved is engaged in "ambulance chasing." [In re Ratner, 194 Kan. 362 (Kan. 1965)]."  (uslegal.com)

Since Attorneys cannot do this anymore....they go on television and promise you the world.  The "legal" way to chase ambulances.  Find a respected Attorney that works hard for you.  Find a respected Attorney who meets with you.  Find a respected Attorney who's reputation speaks for itself....not an actor or an "actual client" on television.


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Pueblo Office: 113 W. 12th Street  (Map it)

Colorado Springs Office:  422 E. Vermijo Ave., Suite 412 (Map it)