floundering
Junior Member
What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Rhode Island
Sorry for being so lengthy, but feel these details are important in order to be able to get informed responses.
In 2001 my husband was injured on the job. He received a couple of small 2nd degree and one 3rd degree chemical burn approx. 4" diameter on his leg which required surgery and skin grafts, while working on a sink drain pipe. The customer had poured a combination of two chemicals down drain resulting in these burns. Prior to starting the work he told my husband he had not poured anything down the drain. There was an employee in training with my husband who witnessed the incident.
We hired a law firm and an attorney was assigned to the case. Several months later we received a letter stating the attorney retirned and a 2nd attorney was assigned. After several months, received another letter stating the 2nd attorney was no longer with the firm (no explanation as to why he left and not much was done while he had the case) and a 3rd attorney was being assigned to handle the case.
This attorney has had the case for almost 3 years now. A few months into his handling of the case we learned that he had no idea that there had been a witness to the incident as there was information missing from the file. The witness left the company where my husband is employed a few months after my husband was injured and the lawyer was unable to locate him. We tried to find him ourselves but were unsuccessful.
Approximately a year ago, the law firm moved into new office space but the lawyer handling this case did not move with them. He moved into other office space on the other side of town. Both the attorney and the law firm told us that he was still affliated with the law firm we hired and was just working from a different location.
This attorney has been very disorganized, always wanted to meet at our home instead of his office, never took pictures of the injury or scarring as he said he would because his camera was not working (??!), calls my husband and addresses correspondence to him by the wrong name, is unable to provide copies of documents because his printer has no ink, claims his secretary is always out of the office (we no longer believe there really is a secretary there). On two occasions my husband has received documents in the mail that belong to other clients/cases this attorney is handling in error.
Last summer, my husband came across the missing witness purely by chance in a local coffee shop. The witness was subpoenaed and gave a deposition which corroborated my husband's account of the incident and in the beginning of this year an offer was made to settle the case (less than 20K). The attorney felt the offer was far too low, suggested we decline and take the case to trial. We agreed.
Last week the attorney called to say a counter offer (less than 30K) had been made and now he feels that the offer should be accepted. We had been under the impression that he was preparing to go to trial all these months.
The lawyer says that he cannot find the witness, again (wouldn't his deposition suffice?). He also said that he is unable to get the doctor that treated my husband to come in to give a statement because the doctor doesn't have the time to do it. Can't he be compelled to make his statement or testify? My husband told him he wanted time to think it over.
A few days ago we discovered that this attorney no longer works for the law firm we hired. We were never advised of this by either the law firm or the attorney, personally.
The lawyer called yesterday to tell my husband that he had just come out of a trial where the client was awarded much less than anticipated and that jury trials are getting harder to win all the time. He, again, told my husband that he feels he should settle the case out of court and wants him to come in to sign the release.
We are feeling very uneasy about all of this and have no idea of how to proceed. We are very unhappy about the way this case has been handled and are concerned that this is not in my husband's best interest. Perhaps we are wrong and this is the way these types of things go, but we have never been involved in a court case or had to hire an attorney, so we don't know.
Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Sorry for being so lengthy, but feel these details are important in order to be able to get informed responses.
In 2001 my husband was injured on the job. He received a couple of small 2nd degree and one 3rd degree chemical burn approx. 4" diameter on his leg which required surgery and skin grafts, while working on a sink drain pipe. The customer had poured a combination of two chemicals down drain resulting in these burns. Prior to starting the work he told my husband he had not poured anything down the drain. There was an employee in training with my husband who witnessed the incident.
We hired a law firm and an attorney was assigned to the case. Several months later we received a letter stating the attorney retirned and a 2nd attorney was assigned. After several months, received another letter stating the 2nd attorney was no longer with the firm (no explanation as to why he left and not much was done while he had the case) and a 3rd attorney was being assigned to handle the case.
This attorney has had the case for almost 3 years now. A few months into his handling of the case we learned that he had no idea that there had been a witness to the incident as there was information missing from the file. The witness left the company where my husband is employed a few months after my husband was injured and the lawyer was unable to locate him. We tried to find him ourselves but were unsuccessful.
Approximately a year ago, the law firm moved into new office space but the lawyer handling this case did not move with them. He moved into other office space on the other side of town. Both the attorney and the law firm told us that he was still affliated with the law firm we hired and was just working from a different location.
This attorney has been very disorganized, always wanted to meet at our home instead of his office, never took pictures of the injury or scarring as he said he would because his camera was not working (??!), calls my husband and addresses correspondence to him by the wrong name, is unable to provide copies of documents because his printer has no ink, claims his secretary is always out of the office (we no longer believe there really is a secretary there). On two occasions my husband has received documents in the mail that belong to other clients/cases this attorney is handling in error.
Last summer, my husband came across the missing witness purely by chance in a local coffee shop. The witness was subpoenaed and gave a deposition which corroborated my husband's account of the incident and in the beginning of this year an offer was made to settle the case (less than 20K). The attorney felt the offer was far too low, suggested we decline and take the case to trial. We agreed.
Last week the attorney called to say a counter offer (less than 30K) had been made and now he feels that the offer should be accepted. We had been under the impression that he was preparing to go to trial all these months.
The lawyer says that he cannot find the witness, again (wouldn't his deposition suffice?). He also said that he is unable to get the doctor that treated my husband to come in to give a statement because the doctor doesn't have the time to do it. Can't he be compelled to make his statement or testify? My husband told him he wanted time to think it over.
A few days ago we discovered that this attorney no longer works for the law firm we hired. We were never advised of this by either the law firm or the attorney, personally.
The lawyer called yesterday to tell my husband that he had just come out of a trial where the client was awarded much less than anticipated and that jury trials are getting harder to win all the time. He, again, told my husband that he feels he should settle the case out of court and wants him to come in to sign the release.
We are feeling very uneasy about all of this and have no idea of how to proceed. We are very unhappy about the way this case has been handled and are concerned that this is not in my husband's best interest. Perhaps we are wrong and this is the way these types of things go, but we have never been involved in a court case or had to hire an attorney, so we don't know.
Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.