another question abt my hit and run

[dawggoneit]

What is the name of your state? ga

A couple of days ago I put up a post abt my hit and run. Yes we caught the person who did it. Her and her spouse #1 lied to the police twice and to Progressive. I have a annular tear between L4 and L5. My attorney contacted me today stating that he has trouble with Progressive especially the particular adjustor who is handling. He states that she is not knowledgeable about her job and wants to take it out of her hands and put it into progressive's attorneys hands whom he has dealt with before. He told me to come in next week let him know what my decision is and he wil have the paperwork drawn up. Any advice on this situation? He said he wanted to go ahead and get the paperwork started so that when I finish treatment that this will all be taken care of and wont boggle up us settling.

 

[las365]

My general inclination is that you should trust your attorney and his strategy. There is a special consideration, though, in how this may affect the cost to you in attorney fees.

Is the contingent fee you will pay under your attorney-client agreement graduated, that is, does the fee% increase when a suit is filed? That is commonly how it is done. For example, the fee may be 1/3 if the case settles without a lawsuit being filed and 40% if suit has to be filed.

If the plan is to file the suit so that the claim is re-assigned to a litigation adjuster and a defense attorney is put on that case, but the activities of litigation (discovery, depositions, etc.) will not commence, then perhaps you can make an arrangement with your lawyer that your fee % will remain at the non-litigated rate if settlement is reached without the additional activities of litigation taking place. This could be tricky because there are usually discovery deadlines that begin when a suit is filed; however, lawyers can typically reach agreements to extend the deadlines.

Have a discussion with your lawyer about the effect of filing suit on your attorney fees and the real problem, if any, with allowing the case to remain with the bad adjuster while you get treatment and recover. No settlement would take place during that time anyway. Be sure to talk about the statute of limitations!

Everything I just said should be considered with the knowledge that I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. I don't know anything about the laws of your state. I could be completely wrong. Cheers.

 

[las365]

Oh, and if your attorney does agree to a fee structure that is different than what is in your original fee agreement, get the modified agreement in writing and signed by both of you.

 

[ecmst12]

Please keep all your questions in ONE THREAD.

 

[dawggoneit]

sorry I didnt realize that I needed to keep them in one thread. Will know next time