Shortly after I moved into an apartment with my kids, a friend called me to recommend a local attorney, also a friend of hers. I was overwhelmed with the struggle to reconfigure my life, so I put if off.
How could a single-car accident generate a lawsuit? Oh, how little I knew! I was about to learn. Most everyone involved in my case is dead now, which allows me to speak with absolute candor.
Eleanor called again a few weeks later to urge me to contact him. I did. Soon I was signed up with an impressive lawyer. Naively I thought he was being kind to me. In my ignorance I really believed it wasn’t much of a case. Ignorance can be very costly!
Embarrassing to relate, I didn’t call around and I didn’t check him out, even though I knew several legal secretaries. Worse, an acquaintances worked in the courts. I didn’t ask them anything. Another mistake.
He was a reputable and conscientious attorney, but he had some notable weaknesses. One was that he had only minimal experience with large personal injury law suits. I now know — experience is better. Much better.
After I was well into the lawsuit and negotiating for a settlement, I was told my attorney had a tendency to throw in the towel on a lawsuit if he found any flaws or shortcomings in his case.
The acquaintance who shared this information with me was a court official who had seen him in action on a number of occasions. She had seen him throw in the towel many times even though — in her words, “…everyone in the court was in sympathy with his client.”
In short, he was way too eager to get the case settled quickly, regardless of the cost to the client. He had talent, he lacked grit.
Another weakness of this attorney came to light when he gave me a form to fill out describing the injury ramifications. With no internet to guide me, I did my best to relate what the doctors had told me to expect.
Inadequate as was my description of SCI, he was clearly astonished at the physical complications and unceasing lifelong expenses. Put another way, he knew little or nothing about SCI or the costs that were to persist and increase over the decades. Worse, he apparently did no further research into the matter.
He settled for a pittance.
One large error came from something I volunteered. What ever possessed me I don’t know. it is wise to simply answer the questions your attorney asks you. Out of nowhere I told him about telling a nurse in ICU that I had been driving too fast by about 5 or 10 miles an hour. He promptly dropped his demand for several million dollars to a half-million, sure this conversation could come up in court.
Several months after the settlement I remembered how surprised I was when, weeks after the accident, I was removed from ICU and put on the general surgery floor. I didn’t have the strength to talk except the occasional monosyllabic answer to a question. I must have imagined the conversation. It couldn’t have happened.
Nor should he have overreacted as he did. I’ve often wondered if nurses are even allowed to testify in such cases. I don’t know the answer.
As inadequate the settlement was, he made it worse by demanding and getting a lump sum payment from the insurance companies. His only advice when he delivered the checks, “Call me when you consider investing this or if someone tries to talk you into giving them money. I will give you advice.”
It was bad, misleading advice. After the case was settled, the only time he took my calls was when I called to refer someone to him.
The third and most disconcerting action on my attorney’s part came when he released a press release disclosing the amount the settlement. It is possible the press would have found out and disclosed it on their own. Surprisingly, he confessed to me that he wanted the publicity as a way to advance his own career.
His press release made sure the wolves would find their way to my door. At that point I become the target of every cheap hustler in town. It also flushed out some people I had — until then — held in high regard. The transparency of efforts to separate me from my money ranged from laughable to sickening. It seriously lowered my estimation of some members of the human race. It was a short painful course in cynicism.
Rule One: Find out exactly what an attorney’s fellow professionals think of him or her. You need someone with an excellent record. Really work the phone and find out all you can before you commit. You won’t regret the time you spend on researching your choice.
If you have a spinal cord injury or any serious injury, get some recommendations. then contact an attorney or two — and only the attorney or attorneys — to ask if you have a case. If the injury is serious enough they likely will visit you at your home. Interview several before you decide. Gather all the information you can. It is an easier task to day with the internet than it was in 1972.
My greatest regret was that I settled for far less money than I had coming.
Rule Two. Even if you are well along in the legal process, if you make an unsettling and seriously consequential discovery about your attorney, take care of yourself. Change attorneys. Don’t change over inconsequential matters. Don’t expect your attorney to answer every telephone call. If he is good at what he does, he will receive many more calls or emails than he can return every day. If you have someone in your family or circle of friends with experience in legal matters, get all the advice you can. The law is not easily understood by the public.
Rule Three. Have your settlement money put into a lifetime annuity, especially if you have poor friends and relatives (we all do, she smiled). In the beginning, you may have difficulty imagining how great the expenses of SCI. Take into consideration that expenses will likely increase with time. Likely, they will increase every year.
Despite the fact that you will need every cent of your settlement and the interest it might earn, people close to you will show you the face of greed in ways that are hard to imagine until you’ve lived it. In the early years of the injury you will find yourself emotionally vulnerable. More than you may be willing to admit to yourself.
In my humble opinion, an annuity payable monthly will ensure a reliable income throughout your life. An annuity makes it more difficult for the inevitable chiselers and hangers-on to take advantage
Semd questions to Sofiea Clerico