I cannot tell you how sick it makes me feel when someone calls me after they have been in a car, motorcycle, or other motor vehicle accident, after they have already allowed themselves to be screwed out of the money that they are entitled to by a savvy insurance company adjuster.
I just gave a consultation today to a person (sex and name removed for privacy) who was involved in a serious car accident with serious injuries. This person was driving a brand new $40,000.00 car that was hit so hard that frame damage was caused to the car.
They were also seriously injured in the accident, and are still treating for their injuries. What did this person do? They signed a settlement agreement for the bodily injury portion of their case for $750.00, which only allows for 3 months worth of medical treatment and/or a total of $3,000.00 in medical treatment; that is it. They got 0.00 and an allowance for only 3 months or 3k in medical treatment. They got royally screwed!
They called to see if I could get them out of the settlement which they had signed. They also wanted to see if I could help them force the insurance company to pay for the fair market value of the car of the new car that suffered frame damage, rather than them being forced into accepting a repair of a car that has suffered frame damage.
I absolutely could not believe it. The person who called me is basically shit out of luck. It would be almost impossible to get the rock solid settlement agreement with the insurance company set aside. They called me too late.
I do the property damage portion of personal injury cases for free minus cost and expenses that I incur in getting the property damage portion of the case settled. I recover cost and expenses for property damage settlement at the end of the case. I do this as a service to my clients so that they can get their cars fixed or so that they can get another car to replace one that has been totaled. How can someone get their car repaired or replaced if a personal injury lawyer takes a percentage of property damage? Do not sign up with any personal injury lawyer that would take a percentage of your property damage loss!
The real money in an injury case is the bodily injury portion of the case, and not the property damage portion of the case. I cannot and do not feel that it is appropriate for any personal injury lawyer to take a percentage of property damage claims; so I don’t. I actually want to help my clients.
You can read the articles that I have written about personal injury cases at my personal injury website by clicking here now, or you can go directly to www.therpersonalinjury.com which is my personal injury website.
What is wrong with people out there? I know that for some reason whether it be political or other reason, that people call us personal injury lawyer’s ambulance chasers. There is such a negative stigma about personal injury lawyers, that someone like the person I gave the consultation to today would screw themselves out of what they are entitled to rather than call a personal injury lawyer for help. It absolutely makes no sense to me. Do they honestly think that an insurance company has their best interest at heart? No way, they are in business to make a profit, not to help you!
I can tell you right now that I am no ambulance chaser. My job as a personal injury lawyer is to get my client’s what they are entitled to if they are injured due to the negligence of another. I do not chase clients; they come to me when they are in need of help. Beware of any lawyer that calls you after an accident trying to get you to sign up with them; these lawyers are in fact ambulance chasers! If you need my help, simply give me a call. I will tell you over the phone FOR FREE what I think of your case. A good personal injury lawyer does not have to chase cases; the cases will come to them if they are good. I do not want to sound egotistical; but I am good at what I do, that is why people call me for their personal injury cases.
The poor person that I spoke to today has no clue what the true nature and extent of their injuries are, how much their medical bills will be, and they allowed themselves to be conned into signing a rock solid settlement agreement in return for basically a nothing settlement.
I told this person that the insurance company adjuster was probably laughing as they got them to sign the settlement agreement, because they knew they had a sucker who was not represented by counsel. The insurance company adjuster will probably get a raise for this settlement!
Now I must state for the record that not all personal injury lawyers are created equal. There probably are personal injury lawyers that do take a percentage of whatever they recover for you for property damage and all other aspects of the case. I do not do that. There probably are some personal injury lawyers out there who are bad apples and who will not take cases to trial if necessary. I am not one of them.
If you have been the victim or a car, motorcycle, or other motor vehicle accident here in California give me a call AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Do not be a sucker like the person who called me today. Remember; any information that you give the insurance company can be used against you in your case. Call me first.
Some may look at this article as an advertisement for my personal injury practice. This article may in fact be an advertisement. However, I genuinely care about my clients and want to help them to the best of my ability. I am writing this article out of frustration more than anything else. I am sick and tired of people calling me after it is already too late.
Do yourself a favor; go to my personal injury website and read the articles that I have written on the subject. If god forbid you are in an accident maybe you won’t be a sucker like the poor person I talked to today. There is nothing worse than my having to tell someone that there is nothing I can do for them.
My firm has offices in Chatsworth, Norwalk, Van Nuys, and San Francisco, California. We handle personal injury cases throughout the State of California. If you are hurt in an accident give me a call at 818-584-8831 extension 1, or go to www.thepersonalinjury.com for more information. I will send my investigator out to you to sign you up so that you do not have to worry about coming into the office.
The only thing you have to lose by not calling is the money that you are entitled to in an injury accident that is not your fault! No personal injury lawyer can ethically guarantee the outcome of a case and that goes for me as well. However, I can guarantee that my firm will work our butts off to get you as much money as possible for you in your case.
For those of you who want to go at it alone without a personal injury lawyer on your side; good luck, you will need it.
By Norman Gregory Fernandez, Esq., © 2007
Welcome, my name is 
It’s amazing how downright cold and evil insurance companies can be.
My brother, a father of three, was killed in a drunk-driving accident. Of course, the drunk driver walked away relatively unscathed.
Two days after accident and one day before my brother was burried, the telephone rang. Due to the grief of having lost their oldest son, my parents were still unable to answer phones, so I picked it up.
It was the drunk driver’s insurance company calling to talk about settling any damages for (if memory serves me correctly) $20,000. Even given what I knew about insurance companies, I was utterly stunned that the wouldn’t even wait until he was in the ground before they attempted to contact a stunned, confused, and grieving family to try to settle the case for such a paltry amount that would barely cover the funeral expenses.
After my “discussion” with the insurance company, it was a quite a while before the insurance company called back and there were offering a lot more to my brother’s three kids.
Shame on them.
I don’t know if you have read Gerry Spence’s book, “With Justice for None,” but if you haven’t, I recommend it. He talks a lot about insurance companies, their practices, and the lawyers who represent them.
Talking about the lawyer for an insurance company in a medical case he worked on and insurance company lawyers in general:
” you [insurance] defense attorneys at your standard hourly rates would have done whatever you could, legally and ethically, to deprive that good man’s family of a just settlement. If you could, you would have turned that family away without a penny. And you would have been proud of it. You would have insisted that justice was on your side. It would have been good business. The members of your firm would have congratulated you. And the company you represented would make due note of your success and would have sent you more cases against more widows and orphans. And whatever was kept from those widows and those children would, of course, stand as blessed profit for the company.”
I absolutely love EVERYTHING about Gerry Spense. He is a smart man and for the little people. Ruby Ridge was one of the “GREATEST” defenses ever put on by any lawyer in the United States. To Jeff in Korea, I also recommend that you read “How to “Argue and Win Everytime”,”Give Me Liberty” and I love this book by Gerry “The Making of a Country Lawyer”. “The Making of a Country Lawyer”, I read in one day, I could not put it down. My cousin was shot and killed at Salt Lake City, Trolley Square Mall. One of five killed and I think six were shot and wounded. My cousin, 29 years old was meeting her husband of four years to buy wedding rings they could not afford when they married. Her husband, Rich called her to meet him. Go figure, the gunman was from Bosnia and had been given a chance for a better life in the USA and he does this for no reason at all. My family is still reeling from the shock. Now, I guess the defense is he is mentally unstable. My cousin had the right to go into that mall and expect not to be shot and killed. There is no amount of money that would make anyone feel better about 29 year old Vanessa Antrobus Quinn losing her life. There are things no amount of money can buy. We live in a “sue” happy world. My family has no lawsuit. Yes, lawyers will come out of every crack. I feel bad for the guy who came to see you too late Norm. A lot of insurance adjustors are as smart as the lawyers whom they work with settling cases. No way would I have a $40,000 car repaired!!!! I would have immediately asked for a referal for a good lawyer. The best lawyers are usually not found on a billboard, yellow pages or television ad but by word of mouth. Norm, back to Gerry Spense, all of his books are well worth a read. If I had a chance to spend a hour with anyone, I would pick Gerry Spense. The man can write. Also, he turned down defending OJ Simpson for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Read the books, you will be glad that you did. After you read “The Making of A Country Lawyer”, you will be hooked. I am sure you will appreciate what you read!!!!! This lawyer will get in the trenches. I am sure he would agree with your article on the gas companies raping the USA citizens!!!
OMG!!!!! I ALMOST FORGOT!!!!!!!GERRY SPENCE WAS A INSURANCE ATTORNEY!!!!!!! YES INDEED!!!! NOW HISTORY WILL REMEMBER HIM AS ONE OF THE BEST LAWYERS OF THIS ERA.
I forgot…..after you read the book, you will see that Spense is referring to the insurance companies not at a specific lawyer. Hey, as Spense says……You have to be able to close your eyes to sleep. Do not take a job that is not right for you. Some lawyers can do anything. Insurance lawyers are paid to save the insurance companies money and not pay out when it is time for them to do so. We pay in and the insurance companies never want to pay out. I know you see that on a daily basis Norm. YOU ARE A GOOD GUY!! I lived in Homestead when Hurricane Andrew wiped the city, I can tell you how insurance companies treat good people. They “WALK” all over you and treat you like dirt.
I am sorry to hear about the loss of your brother Jeff.
Do you get CNN in Korea? I am sure you do. For the past month they have doing exposes on insurance company practices. It all comes down to money for them and that is it.
What is even more amazing is that the insurance company funded media campaigns and political machine blames everything on us lawyers just trying to get a fair deal for our clients.
It makes me sick.
God be with you and yours,
Norm
I have not read Gerry Spence’s book yet, but I will put it on my list of books to read. It sounds to me like this lawyer has been in the trenches.
However, you have to admit that it is not the lawyers fault, he or she are just doing their jobs. Every party or entity has a right to legal representation. It is really the insurance companies themselves that control the case and give ultimate settlement authority. The same type of thing that Spence said about insurance company lawyers could also be said about criminal defense lawyers who are defending an innocent man, i.e. how could you defend a murderer who will be put back on the street to murder again.
I am leery about attacks on someones right to hire a lawyer to prosecute a case, especially if it is from another lawyer. He should focus his energy on the insurance companies themselves.
Norm
I know a lot of people that think they are fine after an accident but they don’t notice the full affects until months later when it is already too late. Its best to act fast, like you said.
I know what you mean Dave!
Norm
Exactly! You feel fine while looking at the Trauma Hawk and the next morning it takes a crane to get you out of bed. Then you head off for the Emergency Room.
It never hurts to be checked out right then!!
You have to be careful when looking for a lawyer in this case because there will be some just out to make a quick buck. You might want to go for the no win no fee lawyers so they are more motivated to win your case.