You Don't Want To Ruin Your Case...
In this article, I want to talk to you about the number one thing that you should never do with a lawyer. In other words, how to keep relationship good between you and your lawyer. The one thing you should never do in your injury case is, let me tell you a little story about a recent even I had with a client.
A Story About A Previous Client
So, I signed up this lady who had a case and she has from day one, she was under a lot of stress and was very unhappy. As you know, we put in a fair amount of work on her case to try and make it better for her. As we try to get her the things she wanted, but sometimes it takes two to tango in an injury case. So, there are many times where I cannot immediately get somebody what they want.
Sometimes, I get people who call me up and say, “I need my case settled.” And immediately, where there are things that have to happen.
We can’t really settle an injury case until you’re done going to the doctor and we know you’re better. Because for example, what if we settle your case and a week later, your doctor says you need surgery. Once you settle an injury case, you can’t go back and get more money anymore or it could be that the insurance company is really particular. They have any sort of defense and if they have a defense, great. And if they don't, then maybe they'll settle the case.
But they need to have an opportunity to investigate the case. They don't just pay money automatically in a lot of the cases. Especially, if it's a bigger injury. More valuable case they want to know if there's a way for them to reduce. What you're going to get and if they have a defense to the case. So, those are just a couple of examples why you know a lawyer can't just immediately settle a case.
You got to do your due diligence and of course, you've probably heard the old saying, the wheels of justice turn slowly well at my office. We try and do everything we can to make the wheels turn faster, but this lady would call me every week. Even when I told her give me 30 days, she would call every week, she would act like every time she called it was the first time. She ever heard that these cases take time. Every time she called, she complained and she was angry and acted surprised and acted like all the things that we had talked about.
She had never heard before which is a little frustrating but I'm trying to be patient with injured people because I understand the process and maybe they don't. Which is why you got to be patient if you're going to help people, you can't be impatient with your clients. But finally, we got to the last straw with this lady. So she has been calling me and calling me and calling me, and then every time she calls, she says, “I've tried to reach you four or five times this week and I have a electronic phone system.” It's just not true, so lots of issues with this lady. I always like to make my clients happy and it's personally frustrating for me when I have somebody that no matter what I do for them, they're going to be upset and angry.
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Don't Lie To Your Lawyer
So basically, the lady called me up and she lied to me. I can't tell you the details, but she told me one thing and then we spent like five or ten minutes talking about that, and then she admitted to me that she lied to me. She didn't admit it, but she said something else that made it clear that what she had just told me could not be true. I asked her about it, and it caught her off-guard and it made me feel like she wasn't being honest with me and that she was playing games with me. Like was she just trying to burn my time and make me sit on the phone with her for 30 or 40 minutes.
I try hard to return clients’ phone calls. It's not always easy to do, if I'm on the phone with clients, I'm not on the phone with insurance companies or doing paperwork. They're doing lawsuits or in court or taking depositions. So, there are only few hours in the day I can spend on the phone with clients and when I have a client who doesn't tell me the truth and then who feels like they're playing games with me.
Time Is Important For Lawyers
The practice of injury law is a very time-intensive deal, like it burns a bunch of time, it's all these details, all these little boxes have to be checked before you can take a case from the date of injury to the client, getting money, so there are many little details. Obviously, my time is I have to spend time getting those sorts of things done and when I have a client who isn't being honest with me. it's a problem not only for the time that I'm burning on the phone with them when they're telling me a lie, but what they tell me tells me what other work I have to do on their file.
If they lie to me or they tell me something that isn't true, it becomes a wild goose chase for me and then I do all this other work on their file that wasn't necessary. It’s very frustrating, there's also a danger that if a client tells me something that isn't true and we represent it to the insurance company and the insurance company finds out it's not true, you're going to take a case that could be settled for good value or you could go to trial and win. But if the insurance company or the defense attorney catches you in a lie, suddenly they have a defense to the case.
If you would lie about one thing that you would probably lie about being hurt or how hurt you are right. So, honesty is always the best policy. But even if there are like sensitive things in your life or things in your background or things you're not proud of, believe me I have things like that. There are things like I don't want other people to know about me or things in my past that I'd rather not people know about me, but when you hire a lawyer for an injury case, you have got to tell that lawyer the truth because it can ultimately hurt your case and it wastes your lawyers time.
Because obviously I'm a lawyer, I think it's a big deal. Maybe you don't think it's as big a deal, but the main thing for you could lose your case, if you tell your lawyer something that's not true and then your lawyer represents it in court or puts it in your interrogatory answers or represents it to the insurance company.
It Will Hurt Your Case
When they're trying to settle your case and then the insurance company or the judge or the defense attorney find out that it's not true, we've just lost all credibility. It makes the case a thousand times harder to settle. The number one thing you have to do when you have a lawyer even if it's uncomfortable, even if it's embarrassing, is you have to tell your lawyer the truth and that includes admitting things that aren't comfortable to admit.
There's attorney-client privilege, so you tell your lawyer somebody who is representing you. But if you tell your lawyer something that may end up being important in the lawsuit, if it's not important and it doesn't have to be disclosed according to attorney-client privilege, the lawyers not allowed to talk about it. Even if it is something that has to be disclosed in an injury case, I always say I want to know all the warts on my case.
I want to know all the bad points about my case before the insurance company does and before the defense attorney does. If I know what the problems with the case, I know how to manage the case and get the best outcome for my client. But if we get surprised in the middle of litigation about something that somebody doesn't tell me or I find out that something my client told me, it may be too late for me to position the case the right way. I think a lot a lot a lot of people know that, but they think maybe, well maybe the lawyer doesn't need to know all the facts or maybe you can gild the lily a little bit about something that you really don't like talking about, but that will affect the outcome of your case.
If you've been injured and you need to talk or you have any questions, I offer a free no-obligation case strategy session. You can reach me 24/7 at 312-540-500. I am happy to answer your questions or you can get more information at my website at www.DeSalvolaw.com.
