Convinced that the electrical sensations in his chest must be from one of those “defective pacemakers” he keeps seeing lawyer ads about, a man calls the 1-800 lawyer line and stays on hold for the longest time. He then decides instead to go to the hospital emergency room, which turns out to be a much better idea. (Throckmorton, Dec. 14).
Posts Tagged ‘chasing clients’
“5 minute after” suits and the Wal-Mart trampling
Ron Miller at Maryland Personal Injury thinks the filing of suits only days after an event like the Long Island Wal-Mart trampling, at a point when key facts relevant to the nature and extent of liability have yet to be brought out, “don’t help the clients and also don’t help the general public perception of personal injury lawyers or their clients.” There are, of course, numerous tactical reasons for a race to the courthouse in various legal situations, particularly in likely class actions where lawyers who file early may seize control of the management of a collective suit. Where class action handling of cases is unlikely, however, as in the trampling case, I’ve long suspected that the main reason for the race to the courthouse is that it enables the lawyer to get his own name in the papers, thus pulling in other claimants, including some who might otherwise have signed up with less noisy lawyers.
Bill Childs at TortsProf speculates that another reason is to obtain discovery immediately before memories fade or evidence becomes unavailable in some other way. Again, I’m sure there are some cases where this factor is at work, but I also suspect there are many where the lawyer does not follow up on the hasty filing by plunging into discovery as rapidly as is practicable.
P.S. Some new reporting out on the events leading up to the shopper crush that morning, and a blog roundup from Carolyn Elefant. At “Freakonomics”, Ian Ayres: “To say that the low prices were a but-for cause of this man’s death is not to say that Wal-Mart should be legally or morally culpable for low prices.” Further thoughts from White Coat Rants. And from commenter “Dan”, below, a naughty suggestion for how to treat the claims from not-especially-injured crowd members:
…how about this idea. Everyone who self-identifies as being in the trampling crowd so they can share a jackpot for the psychological horror of it also gets put on the list of people included in a share of a manslaughter charge. Seems like a good trade; a coupon for $10 off your next Wal-Mart purchase in exchange for a few years in prison. Any takers?
P.P.S.: Eric Turkewitz advances an alternative motivation for haste, in that it might encourage potential witnesses to get in touch with the lawyer; yet another possibility, he says, is that the plaintiff family might have demanded haste.
From comments: lawyer referral fees
Reader Phil Grossman, in comments to yesterday’s post about the hawking of injury case leads to lawyers, advances some interesting contentions, including some I’m not knowledgeable enough to evaluate, about lawyer referrals and fee-splitting:
…Lawyers are the only professional group that considers it ethical to pay referral fees. The bar associations allow and approve referral fees as long as they are paid only to other lawyers.
In the sort of mass tort lawsuits that this company is dealing in, it is extremely common for ‘clients’ to be bought and sold, sometimes multiple times, with a typical referral fee being around a third of the contingency fee. The general public doesn’t realize that the lawyer advertising on TV or out on the Internet for mass tort clients is usually just a marketer, selling all the clients he collects to other lawyers. It is actually more lucrative to advertise for clients and then sell them to other lawyers than to do the actual work of representing clients.
If, for example, someone is injured in an auto accident, it is common for a relative or friend who happens to be a lawyer to offer to refer the victim to a “good personal injury lawyer”. But the victims aren’t aware that their relative or friend is probably making money off of their accident by collecting around a third or so of the contingency fee from the lawyer they have been referred to. Although bar association rules usually say the referral fee and its amount should be disclosed to the client, in practice it is always kept secret from the client, who thinks his or her lawyer relative or friend is just being altruistic.
But it appears that this company might be trying to collect money up front from its targeted lawyers, rather than taking the normal percentage payment of their referral fees from the contingency fees after the fact. If so, the targeted lawyers need to be very cautious indeed.
And:
Read On…
Lawyers! Getcher hot “pearl-shucked” case leads!
Readers keep sending me examples of what they say are unsolicited emails in which a marketing firm that calls itself ServicesToLawyers offers “pearl-shucked” personal injury case referrals, along the lines of the sample emails reprinted here and here, though with variations in the particular mass tort or torts for which leads are being hawked (Avandia, etc.) An April email attributed to the same sender offers the tempting chance to become “King of Motorcycle Accidents“, or at least King for one’s own locality, since “Not All States [Are] Available”.
Virginia personal injury law blogger Ben Glass wonders (Nov. 5) who would knowingly engage a lawyer who had purchased case leads drummed up in such a manner.
“Jedi Injury Lawyer”
A spoof TV lawyer ad; Robot Chicken Star Wars Episode II. (Meredith Woerner, io9, Nov. 13).
Had one too many to drink?
Lawyer-directory firm Avvo has an iPhone app by the name of “Last Call” that
allows you to calculate your blood-alcohol level to determine if it’s safe for you to drive after drinking. If not, use Last Call to call a cab. Last Call also provides a list of top local DUI lawyers on Avvo to call for help if you need it.
(h/t Denise Howell). More from Scott Greenfield:
I wonder whether some developer at Avvo field tested the concept at the local bar and grill, numerous times, before declaring it a winner? There are many areas where this app could fail, from inputting error (hey, you’re drunk, right?) to claims of encouraging drunk driving by the false sense of security of knowing that a list of DUI attorneys are only a click away. This is a far cry from “just say no.”
On the other hand, when the cop grabs your iPhone at the time of arrest and sees that you’ve used the application, input information that showed you to be intoxicated and drove anyway, even the best DUI attorney will have his hands full explaining that away. …
If you read the marketing language with care, however, you find this: “Last Call is provided for entertainment purposes only.”
It’s always amusing as well to contrast the marketing with the legal disclaimers, as it would be wrong to expect the app to serve the purpose for which it’s sold. No detrimental reliance here.
Microblog 2008-11-05
- “Friend named superlawyer five years after she quit practice” [@vpynchon] #
- Unreality meets unreality: inmate Jonathan Lee Riches files third-party brief in World of Warcraft case [Duranske, Virtually Blind] #
- Uh-oh: new White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is on record as a supporter of “universal citizen service” [Lindgren @ Volokh] #
- Ralph Nader is vile (but you knew that) [Weigel, Reason “Hit and Run”] #
- U.K.: new pet welfare regs could mean jail for owners who fail to put obese dogs and cats on a diet [Daily Mail via Bookworm Room] #
- Frum: GOP future should be in going after educated voters [National Post] #
- Idea for re-use of McCain-Palin yard signs [Steve Hayward, NRO Corner] #
October 29 roundup
- District court tosses $5.2 million punitive damage award against TASER in closely watched case [CalPunitives, Feral Child]
- You mean demanding that opponent submit to a “PET brain scan” is vexatious? [The Briefcase, Stemple v. Dunina, Ohio]
- Election’s implications for federal courts [NLJ, NYT, Steven Calabresi @ WSJ]
- Don’t even think of using “the cash machine legal clinic” as your slogan if Louisiana implements tough new lawyer-ad rules [New Orleans City Business]
- Our long national slide toward “election by litigation” [Hillyer, D.C. Examiner] Plus: America’s Most Irresponsible Public Figure® RFK Jr. emerges as “election law huckster” [Weigel, Reason “Hit and Run”]
- While privacy laws ratchet ever tighter on private actors, publicly available court documents blare out Social Security numbers and other sensitive data [Ambrogi]
- Which is the worse deal, using your own bank’s ATM or patronizing one of those awful payday-loan outfits? No peeking [Coyote]
- “DMCA: Ten Years of Unintended Consequences” [EFF]
October 27 roundup
- NYC judge tosses injury suit against Lawyers Athletic League filed by a player on Milberg’s team [NYLJ]
- Kentucky fen-phen lawyers Gallion and Cunningham disbarred [Lexington Herald-Leader]
- Worker’s comp doc claims he noticed abnormal lab result and told patient to check with his primary doc. Patient didn’t and harm ensued. Malpractice? [CalLaw Legal Pad, KevinMD, Happy Hospitalist]
- Federalist Society publishes text of Judge Dennis Jacobs’s speech on pro bono, but Chemerinsky digs in rather than apologize [PoL]
- Are HIPAA privacy rules suspended during emergencies? No, and what lovely situations that’s likely to cause [HIPAA blog, more]
- One of the more unusual personal injury lawyer websites is “like a touchy-feely hybrid of Myst and The Office” [Above the Law]
- Gold-collar criminal defense work? McAfee decides $12 million too rich a sum for defending CFO Prabhat Goyal [Bennett & Bennett, Greenfield]
- Sounds promising: “Texas Supreme Court decision could end peremptory strikes in jury selection” [SE Texas Record]
October 22 roundup
- Bulgarians employ “decoy lawyers” to get around corruption in official bureaus [Cowen, MargRev]
- Forum-shopping vol. MMMCCXII: Taiwan company claims Apple broke California unfair-practices law so of course it sues in Texarkana [AppleInsider]
- “U.S. produces far too many lawyers for society to absorb” and one reason is that law schools want warm seats on chairs [Greenfield]
- Second Circuit: lawyers can’t buy their way out of sanctions for filing meritless lawsuit [Krauss, PoL]
- Some reasons furor over free speech in Canada is relevant this side of the border [Bernstein @ Volokh]
- We’re quoted on the subject of those websites that offer “point-and-click access to trial lawyers” [Business First of Columbus]
- Tight lid kept on study of disposable diapers’ environmental impact since findings were … inconvenient [Times Online (U.K.) via Stuttaford]
- Judge backs Kentucky’s bid to seize domains of online gambling sites, implications for everyone else [Balko, “Hit and Run”; earlier here and here]