Rear ended crashed and personal injury

[fotosnath]

Florida
In 2016 I was rear-ended by a driver that was under illicit influences. By the time I was 5 month pregnant. Luckily I was taken immediately to the Hospital where they confirmed my baby's heart beat was strong and ok. I hired a lawyer who sent me to chiropractor treatment, where they could do very little for me due the pregnancy. Eventually my lawyer referred my case to another lawyer and they did not explain reasons to me. Once I gave birth to my child, they did 2 MRIs on me, cervical and lumbar. Cervical MRI showed 3 bulges and 1 herniation. which explained the neck discomfort and pain I been suffering after the accident. I moved to another county maintaining constant communication with my new lawyer about my case. Everything seemed positive for my lawyer, all I want is treatment as I deal with neck discomfort and pain daily which ends in headaches at the end of the day, specially If I drive a lot or stay seated too much. After mediation things started to fall apart and my lawyer is now aggressively recommending me not to go to trial. 2 weeks before trial my lawyer disclosed I still have money in my PIP for treatment, information that was totally new for me, if I knew before I would have use it to alleviate my discomfort with treatment. He is now saying that this will affect negatively my case and if I go to trial I am possibly ending with a huge debt. He also says that the defendant expert report has more value that my MRI results. I been asking for treatment in every meeting and all I been doing is waiting for this case to be resolved to finally get treatment, and now my attorney says I had money for this maybe 1500.00. is this considered negligence? or It was my responsibility to find out this? I trusted him to guide me all this time. I have decided to still go to trial because I consider this is not fair and not right, but I am feeling extremely nervous about my lawyer's new attitude and I understand it is too late to switch to another lawyer. I have lose trust on my attorney and I am afraid he will on purpose not defend me as he should. Can things like this happen? Hoping for advise. Thanks!

 

[quincy]

Florida
In 2016 I was rear-ended by a driver that was under illicit influences. By the time I was 5 month pregnant. Luckily I was taken immediately to the Hospital where they confirmed my baby's heart beat was strong and ok. I hired a lawyer who sent me to chiropractor treatment, where they could do very little for me due the pregnancy. Eventually my lawyer referred my case to another lawyer and they did not explain reasons to me. Once I gave birth to my child, they did 2 MRIs on me, cervical and lumbar. Cervical MRI showed 3 bulges and 1 herniation. which explained the neck discomfort and pain I been suffering after the accident. I moved to another county maintaining constant communication with my new lawyer about my case. Everything seemed positive for my lawyer, all I want is treatment as I deal with neck discomfort and pain daily which ends in headaches at the end of the day, specially If I drive a lot or stay seated too much. After mediation things started to fall apart and my lawyer is now aggressively recommending me not to go to trial. 2 weeks before trial my lawyer disclosed I still have money in my PIP for treatment, information that was totally new for me, if I knew before I would have use it to alleviate my discomfort with treatment. He is now saying that this will affect negatively my case and if I go to trial I am possibly ending with a huge debt. He also says that the defendant expert report has more value that my MRI results. I been asking for treatment in every meeting and all I been doing is waiting for this case to be resolved to finally get treatment, and now my attorney says I had money for this maybe 1500.00. is this considered negligence? or It was my responsibility to find out this? I trusted him to guide me all this time. I have decided to still go to trial because I consider this is not fair and not right, but I am feeling extremely nervous about my lawyer's new attitude and I understand it is too late to switch to another lawyer. I have lose trust on my attorney and I am afraid he will on purpose not defend me as he should. Can things like this happen? Hoping for advise. Thanks!

It is not too late to hire a new lawyer if you fear your current attorney is not representing your best interests. You can have another attorney review the facts of your case for an opinion.

Hiring a new attorney at this late stage, however, may mean you will be stuck paying for two attorneys instead of one.

 

[ALawyer]

While liability in a rear end collision case normally is rather easily determined the major issues are likely to be whether the accident caused the specific damages complained of (which seems to be the major issue here), and then what is the amount damages should be recoverable, which often depends on the amount of coverage the other driver had.

You have the right to discharge your lawyer at any time (although your original lawyer does retain his or her rights to receive a share of the legal fee) I doubt it would be easy to find a capable new lawyer only 2 weeks before trial, much less have that lawyer obtain a medical expert to demonstrate cause and effect.

The sad fact is that too many personal injury lawyers simply take on as many cases as they can, hoping for a quick and easy (even though low value) settlement in each, without having had to do much any work. Some never try cases, and are afraid to do so, and encourage clients to settle, and discourage taking cases to trial as trials require lots of preparatory work, are time consuming, are hard and do not always produce terrific outcomes.

The prospect of getting even a small settlement means that your lawyer would be paid something without doing any more work. If you insist -- and you can reject the insurer's offer as it is your right to do so -- the lawyer would have to do a lot of work in the next 2 weeks, and might wind up with the same amount, less, or even nothing, especially if s/he failed to engage an expert until now.

My sense is that you probably picked the wrong lawyer, yet unfortunately, as a practical matter, you're likely stuck with the lawyer you hired. You do have every right to reject the offer and insist that the matter go to trial. One more thing, by stating that what you are upset about is that the lawyer didn't report that you had some $1,500 left in insurance benefits for medical or rehab care, you may be sending a signal that this case isn't all that important to you, and you too are willing to settle for very little.