Injury Lawyer Is Not Calling Back
We're going to talk about: What should I do if my injury lawyer isn't calling me back or isn't giving me information?
I got a call from a guy who is represented by an attorney. He has a very serious injury case. He hired an attorney who he liked but who is quite old and he is concerned that the case requires fight. So then he hired another lawyer. I don't know how he found the other lawyer. But his doctor actually told him to be careful with those guys, they have a reputation of not being very good and being settlers.
That's when he called me. It's funny he was actually subscribed to my YouTube channel but a family member sent him to his first lawyer and then his second lawyer was the union lawyer. It was the lawyer his union recommended. He signed up with him but he didn't really feel great about working with him. He hired him and like literally within a couple of days he regretted the decision and called me.
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Try Calling The Secretary Or The Paralegal
He was having problems with these guys not calling him back. The minute they got the paperwork signed, that was it. He didn't like how often his first lawyer talked to him either. Like it was hard to get him on the phone, it was hard to get a straight answer about anything. This is what I tell people. If the only problem is your lawyer's not communicating with you enough, try to get answers from his secretary or his paralegal because the lawyer might be busy.
Hire A Different Lawyer
Second strategy for you, call them up and let them know "listen I am unhappy with the amount of communication I'm getting from you, you guys are not answering my questions, you're not calling me back, I need more information, I need more input from you". And then if they make no effort to accommodate your request for a call back and to talk to you, then it might be time, and this is just your decision, don't let anything I say influence you, but it might be time to start thinking about hiring a different lawyer. If you have a lawyer who you don't feel like you can trust, who you feel like is not responsive to your phone calls and requests for information, it might be time to talk to a different lawyer.
Give Them A Week To Get Back To You
Whenever anybody calls me and says "I want to switch lawyers". I tell them I don't like to do that and then what I usually do is I will call the attorney and say "Your client is upset. But it's not anything substantial, it's not that you swore at them or yelled at them or slammed the phone on them or blew a deadline or made a mistake in the case or anything like that, it's just they called you three times, left messages over the course of three or four weeks they never heard back from anybody, so please call your client".
A lot of times that fixes the problem. But if an attorney, after being told that their client is unhappy, does nothing to communicate with the client, nothing to address the client's concerns, what is the client supposed to do and what am I supposed to do? I've got somebody who knows me, likes me, and wants to hire me. I've reached out to try and repair the relationship or if they don't want me to call the lawyer, I'll tell the client to call their lawyer. Tell them you really need to hear from them, give them a week to get back to you.
Consider Switching Lawyers With A Clear Conscience
If they don't want me calling their lawyer, I tell them what to do. Then if they've called the lawyer a bunch more, and they're still not getting answers from their lawyer, what are they supposed to do? I mean there's no way to force your lawyer to call you back. If you've made it clear that you need more communication and you have answers and problems that need to be addressed and they're not doing it. I think you can probably consider switching lawyers with a clear conscience if that's your choice.
I give lawyers every chance to keep their cases but past that point. This is what I always tell people. It's your case, you're hiring me to win it for you. But that's your case. You have every right to have your questions answered, you have every right to hear from your lawyer if you need to know what's going on.
Client Communication Is Important
In my office, honestly my staff do most of the client communication because I'm so busy. I asked my clients to understand that but when one of my girls tells me "Hey Mr. so-and-so or Mrs. so and so needs to hear from you. They only want to talk to you". Guess what I do? I drop what I'm doing, I call them back. Or if I'm in the middle of something that I can't stop doing, I call them that evening on the way home or I call them first thing in the morning before I get neck deep in details and work.
It's important and you shouldn't feel bad about it. Again, it's your case, you're just hiring a lawyer to handle it for you. And it's not a good feeling when you are out of money and you're worried about stuff and you just don't know what's going on. You deserve to know what's going on. So that's my point
Try To Repair The Relationship With The Lawyer
Reader's Digest is try to repair the relationship with your lawyer. If that doesn't work then it might be time to switch lawyers. I've got videos on my YouTube channel that explain how to switch and the implications and when is a good time to switch lawyers and when is a bad time. Some times when it might be harder to switch and times where it might be easier. So you can check those out. But if you have a specific question or if you have a case and you need to consult with a lawyer, of course I'm available to do that with you.
