Crash Victims Info

personal injury lawyer question?

My lawyer told me that he got the insurence company to not come after the settlement money. im only getting $250,000 due to her max policy coverage. My bills are documented to be in the $850,000 range and still climbing. the family that hit me dosent have much money. we did an asset check and turnd up nothing. 2 cars under 10,000 with loans on them, id say a 250-300,000 house. the only funny thing is they only owe 27,000 on there house. whitch makes me think that any assets they had they dumped into their house fast. my lawyer says its not worth taking it further because we would never be able to collect on the money. so What im wondering is if its that cut and dry why is my lawyetag 20%-30 it dosent sound like he had do much work. could i have convised my insurence(bbb) not to come after the settlment money? second is it worth it to go after thier house or family.(i know about the hole lean on the house thing and it only applies if they sell the house). then pocketed all the 250k i offerd my lawyer to take 20%(50,000) he was origanally at 33%. he said he would discuss it with his firm. He didnt have to do anything (or did he). I think hes worth maybe $20,000. when i got hurt my family went and got the biggest most expensive lawyer they could find but now i wish i would have found some guy on the corner. IT wsa 16 year old girl 40 miles from her house with 3 16 year old friends. she was speedind 40 in a 30 and ran a stop sign and hit me on my motor bike, she says she couldnt see the stop sign which is true at that speed. and the city knew that and put a visable stop sign on the other side of the road after the accident. we were gonna go after the city but my lawyer kinda just gave up on that. my buddy on a bike next to me also got struck but his bills were only 125,000 and he allready got his 250,000 check with a diffrent lawyer. his took 19% and his lawyer told him not to tell me what % but u know he did. stupid huh? i dont think its fair that he gets the same. sorry but im really messed up for the rest of my life. it sux

Public Comments

1. Here is the thing. When you say that family taht hit you, I am assumoing more than one person was at fault. Consider this: are these people young? Do you think they will have other assets in the future? Are they likely to get better jobs (currently in school, etc), stuff like that. When you win a judgement, you can wait and attach an asset any time one of them buys it. In this case, it doens't seem like these people are the type that will be able to pay you anything. So your lawyer is probably right
2. <check with ANOTHER lawyer or your state disciplinary board> Most PI lawyers will charge 33-40% of the recovery, and this is legit for cases where the lawyer actually had to do some work. But in this case, the lawyer probably simply showed your $850K bills to the insurance company, who laughed and said "we're only covering $250K" and now your lawyer doesn't want to do the work to get the other $600K (well, it shoud be 5-10x that much), because the payout isn't guaranteed quickly. Call another lawyer or the discplinary board, and see HOW to get your lawyer to get paid QUANTUM MERUIT (the value of the work he ACTUALLY did - probably just a few hours worth of work), as opposed to 1/3 of $250K ($75K, which is 300+ hrs at $200/hr, which is impossible). he should get 10-20 hours, tops. Also: you can sue for the remaining $600K and other damages - you would win a judgement, which may not be collectable NOW, but is good for 10-20 yrs (depends on the state). So, in 7 years, the dude hits the lottery - you get paid. In 5 years, dude gets a job - you start garnishing $100 or $200 from his paycheck. Your PI lawyer is just looking to turn the file for a quick payout. This crap makes me sick, YOU get injured, and the only people who get paid are the lawyer and the insurance company. Why CAN'T you get the $263K equity in the house, in addition to the $250K? Get a different lawyer.
3. My question is: Why does a family with little or no assets carry a $250,000.00 policy limit on their auto insurance? I smell a rat.
4. There are Pi lawyers out there that work on a system by which they sue on top of your claim for their fees. So whatever you win you keep. They are out there. I don't know what country you are in, but maybe google compensation lawyers, that's how i found mine.