{"id":1086,"date":"2011-02-04T10:32:16","date_gmt":"2011-02-04T15:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=1086"},"modified":"2011-06-09T16:16:52","modified_gmt":"2011-06-09T20:16:52","slug":"q-how-many-lawyers-does-it-take-to-screw-in-a-lawsuit-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=1086","title":{"rendered":"Finding a lawyer: First meeting with a personal injury lawyer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201c…I shall not rest, sir, while I am your representative. Whenever you want me, you will find me here. Summon me anywhere, and I will come. During the long vacation, sir, I shall devote my leisure to studying your interests more and more closely, and to making arrangements for moving heaven and earth (including, of course, the Chancellor) after Michaelmas Term; and when I ultimately congratulate you, sir,\u201d says Mr. Vholes, with the severity of a determined man, \u201cwhen I ultimately congratulate you, sir, with all my heart, on your accession to fortune \u2013 which, but that I never give hopes, I might say something further about \u2013 you will owe me nothing, beyond whatever little balance may be then outstanding of the costs as between solicitor and client, not included in the taxed costs allowed out of the estate…\u201d \u2013 Charles Dickens, Bleak House<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

That Dickens quote floors me. One-hundred and fifty-eight years after it was written, it remains\u2013with a slight edit to modernize the language\u2013what a practiced lawyer tells a potential client at the first meeting.<\/p>\n

In fact, read the quote so I won\u2019t have to relate my first meeting with the Foot Lawyers.<\/p>\n

Well, maybe I\u2019ll report a few tidbits, the most significant of which is how I found the Foot Lawyers. I did exactly what I will not <\/em>recommend to you as a way of finding a lawyer: I asked Miss Billy (remember Miss Billy, my lawyer in the Skush-O\u2019Brien case?).<\/p>\n

\u201cMiss Billy,\u201d I said\u2013when I called to tell her I was invalided out of joining her at our first court conference against the Skush-O\u2019Briens due to my inability to flow gracefully on crutches\u2013\u201cDo you know a good personal injury law firm?\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawyers tell you to ask a lawyer you know to recommend another lawyer. Why? (I’ll be answering that question in a few days.) Why should a real estate lawyer know a good P.I. lawyer? And why shouldn\u2019t I, legal aficionado, resident of a great city in which there is perhaps one personal injury lawyer for every 150 people, know a P.I. lawyer myself? Or know how to find one?<\/p>\n

Very soon I will expound upon how to and how not to find a lawyer. In this instance, though, Miss Billy asked some law school classmates and eventually someone came up with the firm of Foot Lawyers, P.C.<\/p>\n

I made an appointment, my endlessly darling brother helped me slide down the stairs and crawl out of my house; he drove me to St. Vincent\u2019s, went in to pick up my medical records and x-ray, and then drove me uptown where I crutched into a windowless conference room to meet Basil Valentine, a managing partner with Foot Lawyers, P.C.<\/p>\n

That was Friday, February 8, 2008. Three years ago.<\/p>\n

After I handed over my several prepared pages of dissertation on the accident (see previous post called Q. How many lawyers…Part 2)\u2013and received praise for my acumen and industry, as well as keen questions about the accident and the photos I’d brought with me\u2013Basil Valentine gave me the Dickens spiel: \u201cThis is your case, whenever you have a problem, a question, if you need a car to take you on doctor’s visits, you call us, we\u2019re at your [not quite] beck and call,\u201d blah blah. I knew it was unlikely I\u2019d be calling: this was a boilerplate case; any P.I. lawyer could stroll his way through it.<\/p>\n

My favorite Basil V. pronouncement: \u201cOur firm has won $$million dollar$$ verdicts for our clients.\u201d<\/p>\n

I sort of knew he would say that; it’s a standard lawyer pitch. \u201cOh, I doubt this is a million dollar injury,\u201d I laughed, glancing down at my cast\u2013which remained mute on the subject of what this injury was worth. And like Mr. Vholes, Basil Valentine remained mute. Correctly so: no lawyer should or would suggest a possible number lest a client (less experienced than I) cling to it and shoot into lunacy if the number were not eventually met.<\/p>\n

A retainer agreement was whipped out, as were many releases. I used to draw these things up myself, for clients to sign. Now I<\/em> was doing the signing. I thereby OK’d my podiatrist, St. Vincent\u2019s Hospital, anyone I\u2019ve ever known in my life and a whole lot of entities nobody knew of (yet: any lawsuit has soaring expectations), to hand over to Foot Lawyers, P.C. any information they had about my injury.<\/p>\n

I didn’t ask whether Basil Valentine would be handling my case. I knew he wouldn’t. I didn’t ask what associate would be handling my case. Figured I’d be contacted by the associate when he\/she needed me.<\/p>\n

Aside from what a luggy bitch it is to haul your whole body weight around on crutches, it was a smooth and pleasant meeting with smooth and pleasant people. I include myself in that \u201cpeople\u201d designation.<\/p>\n

But now, as I look through my \u201cFoot\u201d folder, I confirm that Foot Lawyers, P.C. never gave or sent me an executed copy of the retainer agreement. Note to lawyers: you know<\/strong> you should send the client any documents regarding her case. Note to client: I should have called and asked for the retainer agreement.<\/p>\n

Summation<\/strong><\/p>\n