Why Are You Having A Hard Time Finding An Attorney To Take Your Case?

1 February 2016 by Jonathan Phillips

If you've been injured in an accident that was someone else's fault, it may surprise you to find that not every attorney is eager to take your case. You may even have a hard time finding an attorney who is willing. This can leave victims frustrated and angry because they don't understand why, or how to overcome the problem. Learn more about why it might be hard to find (the right) attorney to take your case.

1.) You may be presenting your case the wrong way.

Depending on what happened, you may be explaining your case the wrong way. Not every attorney will listen past the first few things that you say before making up his or her mind about whether or not you have a case, and you may be describing things in such a way that it sounds like you're partially or mostly at fault for your own accident. This is a liability problem.

In some states, if your negligence contributed to the accident at all, you can't recover anything for your claim. In other states, any negligence on your part that caused the accident is compared to the negligence on the part of the defendant. Depending on how that comparison comes out, your ability to recover financial damages for your injuries can be drastically reduced by whatever percentage of the accident is deemed to be your own fault. That can discourage an attorney from trying to recover damages in all but the most serious cases.

However, you may be describing things in a way that makes the accident sound different than it really happened. For example, if you start by telling an attorney that you hit another car from behind, many attorneys don't want to try to overcome the presumption that you are at fault for not keeping an assured clear distance between you and the other driver.

On the other hand, if you start by explaining that it was after dusk, the other driver's car was disabled, and he or she had failed to move it safely off the road and turn on the car's hazard lights, that may change the situation. 

2.) There may be nothing to pursue.

Sometimes, a person has clearly been victimized but there's still no way for an attorney to make a viable personal injury case. You could easily win the case, but never be able to collect.

Usually, when this happens it's because the person who injured you doesn't have any insurance. He or she probably doesn't have the personal assets required to be able to pay a personal injury lawsuit and could likely file for bankruptcy once the lawsuit is over and a judgement is rendered. Unless the uninsured person is independently wealthy, neither you nor the attorney is likely to collect on the judgement.

It may also be simply that the settlement value of your case isn't very high. Personal injury cases are essentially valued according to the damages you incur in the form of concrete expenses: medical costs, property damage, and lost wages. Pain and suffering are added in as a calculation that's usually based on the amount of your other damages combined multiplied by a number from 1.5 and 5. The lower your concrete expenses, the lower the multiplier that's used.

Out of that figure, you usually have to pay back any medical expenses that were already paid for by your insurance. If your case only had a couple thousand dollars worth of medical bills, an attorney might not want to enter into a protracted legal case when the resulting fee won't cover the expenses.

In that situation, you may find an attorney who is willing to help write a demand letter, laying out your injuries and expenses and asking for a modest settlement in return for an equally modest fee. Alternately, you might consider writing the demand letter yourself and taking the case directly to your local small claims court.

For more information, contact an auto accident attorney in your area.

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