Lawsuit Question and Vent

Calypso1977

My goodness, we wouldn't want the attourney and secretary to have to do all that work they are paid to do now would we? i think you missed the point.  they dont get paid unless you win money from this lawsuit.  most likely, they are working on contingency.  some attorneys handle 200 cases at a time.i know it sounds crazy, but that's how attorneys work.  that's why no one likes attorneys.

ivystar57

Meaghan, while I respect your position and I certainly respect your frustration, I really have to say that what you are asking of an attorney and his support staff may be just a tad demanding.  I will assume here that you are paying your attorney out of your settlement.  I'm sorry, but in these cases efficiency is very very important.  Calling my clients when there is no change of status reduces my billable time.  I literally cannot call all of my 100 clients each week to tell them how their cases are going, especially if I have to go through each case and determine that yes, in fact nothing has happened.  It would be the ONLY thing I would ever do.  And in order to move forward on a case, I need to draft letters, request medical records and harass insurance companies and their attorneys.  If I don't do that, you don't get paid and I don't get paid.  Simple as that.  And I'm not even the attorney. If you have to have a phone call each week from your attorney, I would recommend you request the paralegal or legal assistant to call and give you updates during the weeks the attorney herself does not call you.  Frankly, my time is far less valuable to the company than my boss's.  He's busy being paid to do the heavy thinking.

MeaghanandMichael

Claypso, no I got what you meant. Also, I really appreciate that you are helping me work through this in my head. I probably wasn't clear in that I know we are going to 'win' this. Even the lawyer has said there is no way we won't win, it is more of how much moula we can actually get. But yeah, along the same lines I am sure they don't want to do more work than they could potentially win. And yes, it is odd and the sense of 'it's ok because every lawyer's office does it' bothers me a lot. But, I also wouldn't judge our individual lawyer on it if what you are telling me is true.

MeaghanandMichael

I would recommend you request the paralegal or legal assistant to call and give you updates during the weeks the attorney herself does not call you. Frankly, my time is far less valuable to the company than my boss's. He's busy being paid to do the heavy thinking.This sounds like a great compromise Ivy. Also, I should probably clarify, I don't need a phone call every week. But when we call the lawyer (sometimes once a month, sometimes 6 times a month) I really would appreciate a call back within a few business days. If there is no change in status, the legal assistant could certainly do this.

ivystar57

I completely agree that if you call your attorney you should hear back promptly.  As a paralegal, it's my job to return phone calls if the attorny can't.  I would make that explicitly clear to the attorney working on the case.

Calypso1977

honestly, the para is probably the one gathering and summarizing all of the medical info and other records.  the para probably knows more abotu the case than the lawyer.  :-)