How Will You Know?
"Is my accident attorney unethical?” There is a great person whom I haven't seen in a year or two, but we were friends and I was a customer of his business. He went away for a bit, but I believe he is back in Chicago and got into a vehicle accident, so he called me.
He claimed to have been in a car crash and to have some inquiries. I don't recall if he truly received a call from a lawyer or if he received a call from someone posing as a lawyer's office, but he claims,
"I was in a vehicle accident, it was literally like yesterday or the day before and I got a phone call from a lawyer."
Solicitation Lawyers Are Not Allowed
What you need to know is that's called solicitation lawyers are not allowed to like go hunt people out, now they are allowed to advertise and if someone responds to their ad then they can sign up the case, but lawyers are not allowed to like buy police reports and just cold call people on police reports. However, even though I don't know the answer to that question and at the time I was sort of shocked at what he was telling me, I didn't think to ask for that distinction.
Ambulance Chasers
Another frequent one is the use of "ambulance chasers," which entails getting a man they call an investigator to lend them a police scanner, and every time the police report that they are investigating a crash. The ambulance chaser goes out and signs up the injured people and takes them to a doctor and a lawyer.
Now pay attention, I'll tell you that in my 25 years of practice, I have never paid anyone for a case or a referral. Using ambulance chasers, purchasing police reports, cold-calling injured people, paying people for cases—all of these actions are highly unethical, and a lawyer may be subject to disbarment as a result.
Lawyers Are Not Allowed To Initiate Contact
The first week of ethics class in law school teaches you that, "That's a no." Lawyers are not allowed to initiate contact with people or use someone to initiate contact with people. You can run advertising but that's it, and there are lots of rules against advertising.
As a result, a lawyer can be suspended or censured by the Illinois attorney registration and disciplinary committee. Switching shouldn't be a huge problem if you joined these folks two days or a day ago, and shame on them for either contacting individuals or engaging an unscrupulous marketing firm without knowing what that firm is doing to generate those leads.
And this is what I told them: "Well, he said he thought it was sketchy and he wasn't sure the lawyer was legitimate because that's how they signed up the case," and I always advise people in those situations to
"Look if your lawyer is willing to break a fundamental rule in that all lawyers know that's unethical," meaning that if they attended law school, they know that because they drilled it into your head.
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Do You Want To Trust Unethical Lawyers?
The question is: If someone is willing to break ethical rules that are fundamental to the practice of injury law, is that the lawyer you want to trust when they tell you that the offer is top dollar? And that we should settle the case because it can't go to trial? If they're willing to break the rules in that way, this is the person who will be holding your money, negotiating your money, and giving you your money.
I'll be honest, I have no idea whether this lawyer was involved in it or not. I receive calls and emails all the time from people trying to sell me police reports and other similar items, and I've even received calls from ambulance chasers who essentially say,
"Oh, I'm an investigator, I can help you sign up your clients." If you talk to them a little bit more, you start making connections between what they say and what happened.
I don't have any first-hand knowledge of any of this, and this is just a story told for the fifth time, but there's some credence to it right there. I think shady things are going on in business generation, and all I do is rely on people like you, my current and former clients, and people who like my work.
That’s all I do to get cases and clients, so I don't do anything shady, but if your lawyer did something shady to get your case, you should seriously consider whether or not you want to work with them. That's sort of the rule in that situation if the lawyer is willing to do something unethical to sign up a case, they're going to do something unethical during the course of the case, or do they even know what they're doing correctly?
Hope this information was helpful; it's kind of a weird topic; I don't know anyone personally who does that kind of stuff but if there are vendors out there or investors out there. Please let me know at 312-500-4500 that's 312-500 4500 you can call that phone number anytime night or day and I'd be happy to answer your questions or if you have a case and need representation, I'm happy to help you in that regard too.
