The first thing they teach us in law school is to not make any guarantees as to the outcome of a case, because there is no way to predict the outcome of a case no matter how much experience you have. It is like trying to guess what the lottery numbers will be.
An experienced attorney can kind of predict what may happen, and make an educated guess based upon their experience, but they cannot know for sure what will definitely happen.
I recently had a motorcycle client of mine switch to another attorney who was a female attorney with literally no motorcycle experience whatsoever, although she swore up and down that she was a motorcycle accident expert attorney. I could tell within 5 minutes of talking to her on the phone that she had no clue what she was talking about. She was bragging about how she worked for a so-called famous attorney, but she had no idea what lane splitting was, or how to shift gears on a motorcycle, she was obnoxious, and she was of the same racial heritage of the client that went to her, and I believe that my ex client bought into her bullshit lies to his peril. His loss ?
I laughed, put a lien on the case for my time, and called it a day. His case happened to be a lane splitting case, with denied liability, which will require an attorney that not only knows motorcycle cases in depth, and how motorcycle accident victims can become seriously injured even in low-speed accidents, but who can also explain to a jury why motorcycles have the right to lane split, and how the accident was not the clients fault even though the police report showed him to be at fault. I venture to guess this client with this new attorney will get zero money out of the case. He was the victim of a good con job by an inexperienced attorney who talked him in to switching probably with promises of great riches, etc.
I have noticed on the Internet many attorneys violating their ethical duty when it comes to advertising to clients. Many of these attorneys are promising the world, and frankly it is just plain bullshit.
The best thing you can look for when you are looking for an attorney is years of experience, trial records, awards, publications, and so forth.
You can’t really trust reviews, because they can be spoofed. On one lawyer rating site, almost every attorney has all perfect reviews, and you know full well that nobody gets all perfect reviews. These guys are probably just giving themselves good reviews.
On another rating site, if you don’t advertise with them, they won’t display good reviews.
On all rating sites, companies can simply purchase good reviews.
So, for something like attorneys, that are not like TVs, or restaurants, or plumbers, you can’t really go by consumer reviews, you need something more reliable, something more objective.
If you have a lawyer with 5 years of experience yet they have 100 positive reviews, I can assure you that there is something wrong. 5 years’ experience is nothing in the legal world, and it is doubtful that any lawyer with 5 years of experience has had 100 cases, let alone 100 cases that all did reviews. Even 10 years’ experience is nothing in the legal world. When you get a lawyer with around 20 years of legal experience, and no record of discipline, then you are talking to a real attorney.
Another thing to go by when looking for a lawyer, is whether or not the attorney has done trials. Many personal injury firms are nothing but settlement mills. A settlement mill is a law firm or lawyer who never goes to trial, and all they do is try to settle cases. If they do not settle the case, then they drop the case.
The vast majority of personal injury firms are settlement mills.
See if the attorney you are looking at has won any awards from actual trial review organizations. Ask what their trial record is.
With respect to promising the world, if an attorney makes promises to you, hang up the phone, you are being lied to.
The only reason why an attorney would make a promise to you is to trick you into signing up with them.
There is a ton of competition in the personal injury market. It seems like every Tom Dick and Harry coming out of law school thinks that personal injury is really easy, which it is certainly not, and they try to do personal injury cases, along with 2 or 3 other areas of the law. Most of these people soon find out that it is very hard to actually make money in personal injury unless you know what you’re doing, and secondly there is a ton of competition.
Many lawyers resort to making fabricated promises to try to lure customers. This is not only unethical, it could lead to potential discipline against the attorney, and a potential breach of contract action against the attorney by the client that does not get the result they were promised.
I myself tell the my potential clients I will do the best I can for them. I tell them what they are entitled to, and I always tell them that there are no guarantees.
In the case of my client who went to that obnoxious female attorney above, I am quite sure that she promised him the world. He will soon find out he was the victim of a con job.
Caveat emptor is a Latin term that means left the buyer beware. If you are being promised something that sounds too good to be true it usually is.
In the legal game, if you are looking for an attorney, who will tell you the truth about your case, who will fight for you, who will stand with you every step of the way, who is competent, experienced, and ethical, that is how you will get the best result in your case.
If you need help with any type of help with your personal injury matter anywhere in California, give me a call at 800-816-1529. I am here for you.
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