If you’ve suffered a personal injury, you’d likely like to know the reasons why your personal injury lawyer says they can’t take your case. Many factors play into whether or not a personal injury claim will be accepted by a law firm.
When you have been injured due to someone else’s negligence, the idea of having your personal injury case taken by a lawyer is an exciting, if not stressful, legal prospect. Mistakes can happen early on in the process, especially if you’re unprepared. You want a quality lawyer to take on your personal injury lawsuit. While you may think that all lawyers will be willing to risk a settlement payout for all accidents, there are some reasons why attorneys may not want to accept your case. The most common reasons include:
Your personal injury case may be too expensive to pursue
You might not be eligible for a lawyer’s legal help because your personal injury case requires expert witnesses.
For example, if you have been injured in a car accident, the insurance company will probably hire an accident reconstructionist to evaluate the scene of the crash and determine fault. If your injuries are severe enough that you require surgery, there may be questions about whether or not the other driver was at fault for causing those injuries. It can be difficult for a personal injury lawyer to prove that another driver was negligent and caused your accident without hiring an expert witness who specializes in this area of law. Similarly, if someone has died as a result of their involvement in your accident (for example, a pedestrian struck by a motor vehicle), then this can also impact whether or not you have grounds to file suit against them (you’ll need forensic evidence).
Certain accidents are simply daunting for average attorneys, and the potential reward of compensation is outmatched by the financial or legal risks involved. Lawyers want compensation, but not at the cost of losing what they’ve already earned. This may be tough news if your legal situation mirrors accidents such as these. However, there will always be lawyers who rise to the occasion. Don’t give up hope. You can still earn compensation and resume your normal business and social endeavors. You just need to find a lawyer who helps you understand why personal injury law will favor your situation.
Your accident might not have caused major losses
If your injuries are not significant enough, or if the losses that resulted from your accident are not significant, then you might not have a case substantial enough for many attorneys. That is why it is important to consult with a personal injury lawyer who can evaluate the facts of your case and determine whether or not you have grounds for filing personal injury claims. If your personal injury attorney tells you that he or she will not take on your case because he doesn’t think there’s enough at stake, it may be time to find another attorney who has more confidence in your chances of success.
If the personal injury sustained by an injured person was covered by insurance (such as medical bills), then this most likely means that they cannot file a lawsuit against the party responsible for causing their injuries because they would be wasting their own money suing themselves. Insurance companies also frequently cover other types of losses associated with an accident and resulting personal injury—such as lost wages—so these expenses may also be covered through insurance policies rather than needing to be claimed by filing a personal injury claim against whoever was responsible for causing their personal injury in the first place.
Attorneys often avoid low-reward cases. There is a certain level of compensation personal injury lawyers seek, along with the status necessary to take on higher-profile personal injury cases. Again, most personal injury lawyers seek high-profile cases, or at least accidents with higher stakes. An equivalent gaffe would be to consult a car accident lawyer over a fender bender; most attorneys are more interested in accidents that cause major damages, both for the duty of helping clients reclaim their livelihood from personal injury and for the compensation associated with insurance companies. This is what makes personal injury cases and the costs incurred worth an injury lawyer’s time.
Many experienced personal injury lawyers don’t take cases with low chances of success.
First, the law for personal injury is complicated (even for lawyers) and can be difficult to understand for laypeople. Your facts may need more explanation than what you provided in an interview with the lawyer. Additionally, there may have been different types of personal injury and property damage caused in the accident; some types will require more evidence than others and may not be able to be proven in court as easily as others might. If this is the case, then it’s unlikely that any plaintiff’s attorney would accept your case if he or she felt like there weren’t enough resources available to win it successfully—which means hiring one would ultimately be futile anyway! Most lawyers tend to avoid personal injury accidents with high difficulty or low chances of proving liability. Lawyers often feel the need to hedge their bets and take cases where both personal injury and fault are easy to prove. Your lawyer may need convincing. However, you should only work with a lawyer who takes your well-being seriously and who respects you and your personal injury as true.
Lawyers might think haven’t suffered an actual personal injury
The first thing you should know is that a personal injury claim is not just about money. It’s also about getting justice and holding people accountable for their actions. If a drunk driver slammed into your car, causing damage to your property and emotional distress, then you can sue them for those damages. But suing someone because they’ve made an economic loss by making your life miserable won’t get you very far.
For example, you can’t sue a bad boss for making your work life miserable, even if they cause emotional and mental damage. This is because such injuries can’t be proven at this point, along with the fault associated with them. A personal injury lawyer may turn down accidents involving personal injury if they are skeptical of their ability to prove injury or fault in the accident. This isn’t intended as disrespect to your accident (or injuries), but it’s more so that the attorney believes they cannot convince a jury that your accident and resulting injuries were caused by someone else. Personal injury law is an extremely difficult field, and some cases are daunting for most attorneys simply because of the task of proving fault.
The statute of limitations on your claim has expired
The statute of limitations is a law that limits the amount of time you have to file a lawsuit. In every state, it’s one or two years from the date of the injury. If you miss this deadline, your right to sue is over—even if you get better later on. For example, suppose you were hit by a car at lunchtime on January 1st and went to the emergency room for stitches. Because the first day of 2019 was January 1st, your claim will expire on December 31st—one year from when it happened. It doesn’t matter how many more days pass; if you don’t file within that timeframe (in this case, one year), then your case is out of bounds. It might be time for you to find another lawyer if your personal injury attorney refuses to take your case after reading about its validity in their database but before seeing any medical records or other evidence of how severely injured you were at that moment.
There is no visible defendant in some personal injury cases.
The first step in deciding whether or not you can sue a personal injury defendant is to determine if they are a viable defendant. A viable defendant is someone who has legal responsibility for your personal injury and therefore can be sued in court. If there is no one legally responsible for your injury, then there will be no one to sue.
You may be able to avoid filing suit because you cannot identify an appropriate defendant in your claim. For example, if the person or company that caused your accident did not have insurance and did not have any assets available for collection, then it would be impossible for them to pay an award or settlement on behalf of the injured party (you). This is true even if their actions led directly or indirectly to harm suffered by another party because there simply isn’t anything available with which they could settle out-of-court as part of some type of alternative dispute resolution process such as mediation or arbitration before the trial even begins, let alone once litigation begins its course through discovery requests, depositions, motions practice, etcetera.
In either case, if no visible defendant is present, personal injury attorneys won’t have a case to present even if they wanted to. For example, you obviously can’t approach an experienced car accident attorney to file suit against a parked car you drove into. These are more cases that personal injury lawyers tend to avoid, as these accidents can have lost causes. In the last example, you may be entitled to compensation if the accident was only caused by the other driver’s negligent parking (such as parking on a highway); however, in many cases, liability may be tough to prove, and therefore the chances that a legal firm will reach out dwindle.
Depending on the circumstances, it’s hard to know if an injury lawyer will take your case.
Many factors affect whether or not personal injury attorneys will take your case. The lawyer’s experience and reputation are important, as are whether he or she has had any recent wins in similar cases. Some personal injury lawyers have higher success rates than others, so it can be helpful to research a few before choosing a lawyer to represent you.
The time a lawyer has to work on your case is another factor; some attorneys have very busy schedules and may not have time for new clients right now. It’s also important that you find an attorney who is willing to negotiate settlement terms with the defendant (the person being sued) if necessary; some attorneys are open to settling out of court while others believe lawsuits should go all the way through trial if possible. You’ll want a lawyer who is available when you need them most—for example, this could mean someone with several offices across different cities so that they can meet with clients locally instead of having them travel hundreds or thousands of miles away just for consultation purposes.
If your personal injury is real, don’t give up on finding a quality lawyer. Give us a call today!
While the prospect of finding a lawyer to represent you may seem like a difficult task, we can help. We’re not just a personal injury blog; at Moet, we have a team of lawyers dedicated to getting our clients the compensation they deserve. Each lawyer on staff comes with experience dealing with a wide range of accidents and has earned compensation from the insurance giants. Work one-on-one with a dedicated lawyer who will act as your full resource to read and learn more about personal injury law. Give us a call today, or contact us here for a free consultation. Remember, you’ll pay no fees unless we win!
