Personal Injury Lawyer not responding

[mobbdeep]

What is the name of your state? Colorado

Hello,

I hired a personal injury lawyer in May 2022 who took on my case. I've been in contact with his paralegal via email every so often where she's checking on the status of my injury etc. However, the last email I got from her was Nov 4th and then I sent an email to her on Dec 14th and my lawyer on Jan 12th, in which neither one of them have replied. At this point, I'm going to end up having to call them which I'll probably have to leave a voicemail but if I still don't hear back, what do I do?

Thanks!

 

[quincy]

What is the name of your state? Colorado

Hello,

I hired a personal injury lawyer in May 2022 who took on my case. I've been in contact with his paralegal via email every so often where she's checking on the status of my injury etc. However, the last email I got from her was Nov 4th and then I sent an email to her on Dec 14th and my lawyer on Jan 12th, in which neither one of them have replied. At this point, I'm going to end up having to call them which I'll probably have to leave a voicemail but if I still don't hear back, what do I do?

Thanks!

This question would have best been added to your other thread - https://forum.freeadvice.com/threads/injury-at-night-club.662516/

If you are having difficulty reaching your attorney or anyone at his office by email, you should call.

If you can’t reach anyone by phone, you might want to make a personal visit to the attorney’s office. It is, of course, best if you can make an appointment first but I understand the difficulty you might have with that, if no one is responding to your calls or emails.

Or you could look for another attorney to take over your case, one who is more responsive to your needs.

 

[Taxing Matters]

What is the name of your state? Colorado

Hello,

I hired a personal injury lawyer in May 2022 who took on my case. I've been in contact with his paralegal via email every so often where she's checking on the status of my injury etc. However, the last email I got from her was Nov 4th and then I sent an email to her on Dec 14th and my lawyer on Jan 12th, in which neither one of them have replied. At this point, I'm going to end up having to call them which I'll probably have to leave a voicemail but if I still don't hear back, what do I do?

Thanks!

I'd suggest calling to see if you can actually talk to the lawyer or paralegal and get a status update. If you can't succeed with that, I'd send a letter by mail with proof of mailing from the post office outlining your concerns. Give a reasonable time to reply.

While doing that, I suggest you also interview a couple of other PI lawyers in case you need to switch lawyers. Failure to keep a client informed of his/her case is a violation of the Colorado Rules of Professional Conduct, which is the mandatory set of rules all lawyers in Colorado must follow and are enforced by the Colorado Supreme Court. You can make a complaint of your concerns to the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel. That office will investigate and determine what the problem is and whether the professional conduct rules were violated. Lack of communication is the number one complaint the Office gets from clients of attorneys. Sometimes there is an acceptable/understandable reason for it, sometimes not. The details matter.

I am a Colorado attorney myself though I don't do personal injury cases (and don't solicit clients from message boards). The fact that you cannot reach either the lawyer or the paralegal is troubling. Nearly 2 years ago I had an acute medical problem that landed me in the hospital for months for a series of operations and then several months more in medical rehab after that. But even in that dire straits, my clients could always reach someone at my office and I did what work I could and referred clients whose work I couldn't do from the hospital to other competent lawyers. The reason I mention all this is because it's the lawyer's responsibility, to the extent that the lawyer is able, to keep clients informed of what is going on and do their work for the client in a reasonably timely manner. Depending on what happened, the lawyer should have at least contacted each client if he was facing any problems that would interfere with his ability to diligently do the work the client hired the lawyer for and if necessary help with transfer to another attorney if the lawyer isn't up to it.

Hopefully the suggestions above will help you either get in touch with the lawyer or find out what happened to the lawyer. But feel free to come on back here if you have other questions on this or run into unexpected problems with the lawyer.

Has a lawsuit been filed yet? If not, when did the injury occur? There is a time limit (statute of limitations) within which you must file a complaint with the court. If you're late, the court will dismiss your case and you'll have no recourse.

 

[quincy]

TaxingMatters, you might want to read mobbdeep’s other thread, linked to above.

From the other thread, mobbdeep said he fractured his wrist on May 21, 2022.

mobbdeep was told last year that there is a two-year statute of limitations for filing a personal injury case in Colorado.

Two questions not asked that could be pertinent: mobbdeep, has your wrist healed? Are you experiencing any problems with it? The attorney you hired might be waiting to see if any complications arise with your injury.

 

[mobbdeep]

Thank you for the information @quincy . I was unsure if I should continue on that same thread as the notice at the bottom suggested I create a new one instead of digging up that one since it was over 180 days old. On the other hand, I will definitely be giving them a call tomorrow to see why I haven't gotten a response back since November 4th. The previous communications have been the paralegal asking about the status of my wrist and saying they never received the medical records from the surgery center.. which at this point, I'm not sure how they haven't if I've been receiving a letter that I owe a bunch of money at least once a week in the mail. However, my last email I sent to each of them on 2 separate days was to follow up and see if they received the medical records yet. All in all, my wrist is doing a lot better though.

Thank you as well @Taxing Matters . As mentioned above, I will call them tomorrow and also do additional research for other PI Lawyers just in case.

 

[quincy]

You might also want to add to your list of things to do tomorrow: make a phone call to the surgery center to see if your medical records were in fact sent on to the attorney.

I am happy to hear that your wrist is doing better.

 

[mobbdeep]

You might also want to add to your list of things to do tomorrow: make a phone call to the surgery center to see if your medical records were in fact sent on to the attorney.

I am happy to hear that your wrist is doing better.

For some reason, I didn't get a notification about this reply. I will do that on Monday. Unfortunately, the PI lawyer or his PL still don't reply to my emails. My last email I sent was 4/12/23 since my last one I sent on 11/4/22 and got no reply. When I originally made this thread, I called the next day and they told me they're still waiting on medical records. I'll update here on Monday when I call the surgery center.

 

[quincy]

For some reason, I didn't get a notification about this reply. I will do that on Monday. Unfortunately, the PI lawyer or his PL still don't reply to my emails. My last email I sent was 4/12/23 since my last one I sent on 11/4/22 and got no reply. When I originally made this thread, I called the next day and they told me they're still waiting on medical records. I'll update here on Monday when I call the surgery center.

We will watch for your update.

 

[STEPHAN]

One of the lawyers I work with a few months ago got a new email system so all my emails ended up in spam. Took us a while to figure out what was going on. Just mentioning that option.

 

[quincy]

One of the lawyers I work with a few months ago got a new email system so all my emails ended up in spam. Took us a while to figure out what was going on. Just mentioning that option.

It is certainly a possibility that the medical records are hiding in a spam folder. I would hope that the attorney’s office would know enough to check their spam folder, though, if they didn’t receive documents they were expecting. That seems to me to be a bit of a no-brainer.

 

[cbg]

It is certainly a possibility that the medical records are hiding in a spam folder. I would hope that the attorney’s office would know enough to check their spam folder, though, if they didn’t receive documents they were expecting. That seems to me to be a bit of a no-brainer.

I work with some of the brightest minds in the world; doctors, lawyers, scientists, engineers, political scientists. Never underestimate the power of a brilliant mind to overlook the obvious if it's outside their immediate focus.

(in other words, I don't find Stephan's suggestion to be at all outside the realm of possibility...)

 

[quincy]

I work with some of the brightest minds in the world; doctors, lawyers, scientists, political scientists. Never underestimate the power of a brilliant mind to overlook the obvious if it's outside their immediate focus.

(in other words, I don't find Stephan's suggestion to be at all outside the realm of possibility...)

Definitely not outside the realm of possibility.

 

[Bali Hai Again]

I work with some of the brightest minds in the world; doctors, lawyers, scientists, political scientists. Never underestimate the power of a brilliant mind to overlook the obvious if it's outside their immediate focus.

(in other words, I don't find Stephan's suggestion to be at all outside the realm of possibility...)

If you don’t mind, please add engineers to your list of elites.

 

[cbg]

Absolutely, Bali. The Engineering School is a very important part of the university.

 

[doucar]

Of course, without engineers, how would we keep the locomotives running!