Personal Injury Attorney Advertising
I have been in the legal profession long enough to remember a time when there was virtually no attorney advertising. Back then, a prominent personal injury attorney told me that attorney advertising would be detrimental to our profession.
What attorney advertising has done is to distribute the bulk of all personal injury cases to the firms that advertise. Also, it has forced other previously non-advertising firms to incur the cost of advertising in order to survive. All this reduces the net return to the client. Let me explain.
I’m not saying that there are not qualified and experienced attorneys working for personal injury firms that advertise. Some of there firms have very good attorneys on their staff.
You may be surprised to learn that some of the personal injury commercials that you see on television are generated by marketing firms that do all the T.V. commercials, radio ads, print ads, and billboards for these firms. They plug in an image of a local attorney and utilize simple catch phrases and slogans to and attract clients to the advertising firm.
The important thing for you to remember is that it costs a lot of money to run these media campaigns-millions of dollars per year.
When this amount of money is spent on advertising the cost must be recaptured in two ways: (1) The advertising law firm must handle a lot of cases, or (2) Most of the work must be passed on to para-professionals, because their rate of pay is less than that of an attorney.
How many personal injury cases can one attorney effectively handle in a year? Is it 50? 100? More? Less? If a firm has a lot of cases , they can recoup on the cost of advertisement over thousands of cases. In order to do so, work on the pre-litigation stage must be transferred to non-attorney personnel such as ex-insurance adjusters, para-legals and legal secretaries. All firms who represent victims of injury accidents pass on some work to non-attorney personnel, but when a non-attorney handles a claim beginning to end, this does not amount to quality representation.
So the cost of attorney advertising must be passed on to the client. Standard contingency fees on personal injury cases are 33 1/3 % on settlements that occur prior to litigation. The standard fees is 40% after litigation. We saw a lot of attorneys advertising for discounted rates for representing personal injury victims in the past. Currently these ads are rare. Most of the discounted rates only last for a short period of time. These commercials sound attractive, but the time periods associated with the reduced rates are so short that a case cannot be settled within the stated time frame.
Because the advertising attorney’s cost per case is high, this logically means that there generally is less net return to the client out of the settlement, or that medical providers must cut their bills drastically to get the cases settled.
What is the cost of a super bowl television commercial? What is the cost of a yellow pages advertisement? One researcher has reported that the cost per case of a major yellow pages campaign can exceed $2,000 per case. So what is the cost per case if a personal injury law firm advertises on TV, radio, billboards and in the newspaper?
So, what should an accident victim do in selecting a personal injury attorney? Instead of selecting the first attorney who attracts your attention, set appointments with several firms. Most law firms who represent victims of personal injury accidents offer free consultations. If a non-attorney conducts the interview, this is a bad sign. See how much time the attorney spends with you. An appointment to obtain information about your case and explanation or relevant information to the client should take at least an hour. Does the attorney during the initial interview answer all of your questions? Does he even ask you if you have questions? Did you develop a rapport with the attorney?
Did the attorney make representations that appear unrealistic? No attorney can tell you what your case is worth, or how much your medical treatment will cost at the beginning of a personal injury case. Not even experienced attorneys can make these predictions at the onset of a claim. Listen to what the attorney has to say about returning your calls and answering any future questions about your claim.
If your claim involves potential litigation, does he explain the downside financial risks associated with litigation as required by our code of ethics.
Selecting a personal injury attorney is an important decision. Advertising attorneys may or may not be best for you. Do your homework and make an informed decision in selecting a personal injury attorney to handle your case.
