| How can I get rid of lawyer-
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Illinois
Almost 2 years ago my wife and I were rear ended while waiting in a parked car. The other driver was drunk, and fled the scene(as we found through researching that would have been his 3rd DUI). He reported to the police 4 days later and told them I said there were no problems and he could go- and they were fine with that.
What happened was actually I had to chase him a bit to get him to stop initially- when he stumbled out of the car he ask if we "hit eachother". From the way the hit threw us around I fully expected to see both our bumpers hanging off- but there was no damage we could see- (the next day we realized it had actually bent our steel bumper about an inch on one side). While we were inspecting the vehicles my wife got out of the truck complaining of back pain. The other driver did not want us to call the police or insurance and assured us he would "pay for everything". I said no, that i thought it was necessary to make the call. When i went to the truck to get my phone and make the calll hegot back in his car and drove off.
My wife has been diagnosed with a permanent back injury- she has had one surgery(shots), and has been seeing a chiropractor. She was out of work for the first 5 months following the accident.
We called a lawyer who was completely gung-ho and wanted our case. He told her to go ahead and seek treatment and do "everything" the doctor said. After about a year he completely changed his tone- suddenly he did not think there was enough damage and could see how she could be so injured from such a small hit(which up till then always told us to refer to as a "smash", "crash", "slam" or other equally descriptive word). Then he began to tell her she had too many doctor bills and could not understand why she did all that stuff. About 4 months ago he gave our case to another lawyer in his firm. He is of the same opinion. He put in a request for the full amount of the insurance policy- $100,000- the insurance company(farmers) offered $2400. The new lawyer says he has been "working" with them and has got them up to $9400- but is sure they will not go any higher. He "knows" we will never get them to give us as much as our medical bills are.
We have roughly $25k in bills, and $5500 in lost wages. Her injury has been deemed permanent. She can no longer lift over 35 lbs. She is no longer as flexible as she was(she use to do gymnastics and cheerleading as a kid and actually kept up that flexibility until now). Our sexual activity has decreased by at least 75%.1-2 times a week is now more once a month, and we must always be "gentle".
Did I mention WE HAVE NEVER MET THESE LAWYERS- THEY HAVE NEVER ASKED US TO COME IN- AND REFUSED TO GIVE US COPIES OF THE MEDICAL RECORDS.
Now the lawyer says if we want to take it to court we have to come up with $6000 to get depositions from her doctors and pay the filing fee- we have told them repeatedly we want to file and they refuse until we give them the money.
So we began to talk to other lawyers- who seemed much more optimistic and helpful. We told our lawyers we wished to discharge them but- once again- they said the refuse to give up the case. Even though they told us when we recieved our offer thier charges and fees were not much at all- now they want a third of whatever another lawyer would get for taking our case- which is not written anywhere in the contract we signed with them.
Am I just some paranoid nut for thinking somebodys getting paid under the table or something-
it does not seem as if they believe in the case- which is up to them- but it also seems as if they are trying to either force us to take the insult of a settlement or just run out our SOL(which is up in 30 days).
How can I get rid of them
are there any lawyer watchdog groups that can help?
please let me know what ever you can.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? | 
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