Memphis Injury Law Blog : Memphis Personal Injury Lawyer & Attorney : James Ferrell Law Firm : Tennessee, Mississippi

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 As many of you may well know there has been a very well publicized feud between two Memphis area personal injury lawyers. The subject of the feud is whether or not Corey B. Trotz should be classified as as Top "100" Trial Lawyer. Another Memphis accident and personal injury lawyer is calling Mr. Trotz a great businessman, but not such a great trial attorney.

My friend Jonathon Stein wrote a great post on his California Person Injury and Insurance Blog about the feud. He did such a great job summing up the situation that I'm going to leave it up to his post to express my feelings. 

"What Makes A Great Trial Lawyer"

This is always a fascinating argument. Here is the debate out of Memphis, TN from my friend James Ferrell.

This is simple from my perspective. First, if you want to call yourself a trial attorney, you need to try cases. That is what people think of when they think of trial attorneys. They think of an attorney who is in court.

Second, if you are looking to hire an attorney, you want a trial attorney. Why? Because that person will get more respect from the insurance companies. They know that an attorney who tries these cases will cost them more money. And they know they can, and often do, lose. Additionally, the insurance company knows that they do not have to make a fair offer to an attorney who does not try cases because there is no downside to them. They know he will settle the case at some point.

A trial attorney: someone who actually tries cases. And that is who you want on your side if you have been involved in a car accident.  

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Although Ken Shigley is a practicing attorney in Atlanta and isn't a Memphis personal injury or accident lawyer I wanted to share his latest blog post with all of my readers. Ken has written an exceptional post concerning "billboard" and "tv lawyers". Even though he is writing about Atlanta, the same thing rings true here in Memphis, Tennessee and Northern Mississppi.

As a serious personal injury attorney in Atlanta, Georgia, I am frankly embarrassed by the inundation of billboards and TV ads for personal injury lawyers who have little respect within the profession and seldom if ever set foot in a courtroom. 

If you or a loved one has a serious injury or wrongful death case, you would do better throwing a dart at the attorneys section of the phone book than choosing a lawyer on the basis of a billboard or a 30 second TV ad. At least you would have a chance of getting to a decent, honest attorney who would know how to identify a specialist for an appropriate referral, rather than a "mill" that focuses on volume and accepts low offers rather than doing the hard work of litigation.

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Just for kicks and giggles last week I set my tivo/dvr to record some of the daytime tv shows here in Memphis. No, I wasn't jonesing for some Jerry Springer. Nor was I trying to catch up with the latest legal tactics on shows such as Judge Judy or even Memphis' own Judge Joe Brown. I wanted to see who was advertising during these tv shows during the day. And boy was I blow away.

During one hour of recording I saw no less than seven different law firms advertising. I'm not kidding there were seven different firms all advertising for different types of personal injury and accident victims. All of them promised "Big Money", "Quick Settlements" or "Money in 30 days". They were all shouting the same exact message. And each of them had their own little gimmick and photos showing ambulances and car wrecks with blue lights flashing. Is this what these firms think that injured accident victims are interested in?

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I've been working on getting a number that's easy for all of my clients and potential clients to remember for quite some time. As luck would have it, on Christmas Eve I received the news that my wait was finally over and that I was the proud new owner of my very own vanity telephone number!

Soon you will be able to reach us anywhere in the country at 1-888-GET-JAMI. (For those of you who just want the numbers it's 1-888-438-5264.) This is just another way we're trying to make it easier for you to get in touch with us. Please call us any time you have questions about your personal injury or accident lawsuit.

Thanks - Jami Ferrell

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There are a few things that everyone who is looking to hire a lawyer should know about lawyer advertising. The first place many people turn to when they look for an attorney to help them is often times the telephone book. In it you'll find tons and tons of yellow page ads placed by lawyers that all say virtually the same exact thing. Very few of them actually give good useful information to help you with picking a lawyer for your case.

Here are a few things to think about if you're looking at the yellow pages to hire a lawyer:

• There is no rule which requires that the lawyer have a minimum amount of experience handling the case which the lawyer wants to advertise.
• There are virtually no restrictions on the different types of law that a lawyer can advertise for.
• Any attorney can buy a big slick ad in the yellow pages. The phone company typically doesn't verify any of the claims that a lawyer may make in his or her ad. The telephone company usually doesn't even verify if the lawyer is in good standing!
• Just because you see the lawyer on tv or in the yellow pages doesn't mean that he will be the one handling your case. A lot of lawyers that you see simply hand off the clients who call to other associates in their firm or just refer most or all of their clients to another lawyer who will do all the work and give the lawyer who advertised his services a "piece of the pie".
• Just because a lawyer buys a full page ad in the telephone book or who pays for slick TV commercials doesn't mean that he is super successful. Some lawyers who do this operate a "volume practice" or "lawyer mill" for the sole purpose of just making a little money on themany cases that are generated from the ad. Many times these "lawyer mills" tie to settle all or most of the cases to earn the most amount of money in the least amount of time. The only time you ever actually see an attorney might be when you see them on TV!
• Many lawyers who run huge ads on TV and the yellow pages constantly to fill the "volume practices" will rarely even work on a case. These lawyers farm out every aspect of the case to a paralegal or legal assistant. The only time the lawyer may even look at your case is after it has settled and the lawyer wants to collect his fee!
• Be extremely cautious of any attorney advertisement that shouts "Fast Settlements", "Money in 30 Days", or "Money for you in less than a month". These attorneys probably never go to trial and settle cases for far less than what they are actually worth. In most cases, good settlements take time and effort.
• Sometimes lawyer advertising can negatively affect your own case. If your case goes to trial and jurors recognize your lawyer from him "outrageous" advertising, it may undermine your lawyer's credibility during trial. Do you want jurors to remeber your lawyer as the one who can get "BIG MONEY DAMAGES!!" OR "FAST SETTLEMENTS $$$" for pain and suffering??? Jurors watch television too you know.

Did you know that there are companies that offer pre-written and pre-shot TV commercials for personal injury attorneys? You've probably seen one. Sometimes they have famous personalities speak for them, and other times an attractive man or woman is shown speaking behind a desk or holding a legal book to act like a lawyer. And other times the person is the "Heavy Hitter" or "One call that's all" guy. The person usally says something like, "If you've been in an accident, get the money you deserve. Speak to an attorney for free. Call 1-800-XXXX."

What you need to know is that these firms work on a volume practice. They try to settle as many cases as possible as quickly as possible. Is that how you want your case handled? As quickly as possible without regard to its' value?

When you're looking for an attorney, whether it be in Memphis or anywhere else in Tennessee or Mississippi you need to make you know what you're looking at. If you need help and don't know where to go call us, and if we aren't a good fit for you we will send you to an attorney who is.

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Ok, you’ve been hurt in a car wreck or have sustained some other type of injury. There isn’t a lot of visible damage and you really just have one or two minor injuries that required you to miss a day or two of work and maybe you had a couple hundred dollars damage to your property.

You’ve seen all the advertisements on television from the “heavy hitters” and “one call that’s all” guys and you’re wondering if you should call one of these personal injury lawyers to help you.

Should you? Do you need to hire a lawyer?

Nope, nada, nein, nin, NO.

You probably shouldn’t IF the injury is very small and limited, and you are good at negotiating, keeping track of deadlines, doing light paperwork and are willing to learn a little bit about your injury and the claims process.

That’s right, I, James K. Ferrell, a personal injury lawyer is suggesting that you not call a lawyer. Sounds crazy doesn’t it. But here are the facts. Most of these attorneys you see advertising on television don’t really care about your claim. And most of these law firms don’t even have a lawyer negotiate your claim with the insurance adjuster. The smalls claims are usually just relegated to a paralegal, or assistant.

In a recent conversation with one of my good friends, Katie, who is a claims adjuster for one of the largest insurance companies in the world, we were talking about these television law firms (from now one I'll just be calling them "injury law mills") and how they handle small claims for their clients. We were both discussing how most small claims could be handled easily by an informed person without the need for an attorney. And how this would usually be better than hiring an attorney.

As an adjuster who works with thousands of claims each year, and hundreds of attorneys, paralegals and assistants Katie had this to say about these "injury law mills".

 “Most of their attorneys at these firms don’t give a cr_p at all, they just want to settle and move on.”

Is this the type of representation that you want? Probably not. Can you do just as good by yourself? You betcha!

If your claim is just for very minor injuries and only a small amount of property damage has occured then by all means you can handle the claim by yourself. (Personal injury lawyers across Memphis, Tennessee; Mississippi and the Midsouth will be sending me hate mail for saying that.)

How do you do this? Look for more information in one of my upcoming posts where I walk you through the claims process for a small injury.

If you'd like more information about how to settle your injury claim or if you need our help with your major claim call us at our Mississippi or Tennessee office today or order our free book "7 Deadly Mistakes That Can KILL Your Memphis Accident Case".