Palm Coast Injury Law Blog : Florida Personal Injury Lawyer & Attorney : Philip J. Chanfrau

There are a lot of attorneys in Florida.  According to the Florida Bar there are more than 90,000 of them  in Florida.  How do you know which one to hire for an accident injury case? The Bar association has leveled the playing field for you to a certain degree. 

1. It has passed rules which tell you that you have the right to get a Statement of Client's Rights before signing any contingency fee contract. This form is Mandatory.  It was prepared for use exclusively in contingency fee personal injury type cases.  So this is standard, just like all cars have 4 wheels.
2. The rates charged by accident injury attorneys are also standardized.  Just like the 4 wheels again. 
3. all lawyer advertising must be approved by the Bar. 

What is not standard?

• Ability of the attorney.  In Florida lawyers who are fresh out of law school, who have never been in any kind of case before, can legally handle first degree murder trials, crashes involving 18 wheelers, medical malpractice cases involving hospitals, and lousy doctors, public offerings, and other highly complex legal matters.  Some attorneys handle everything they can, while others limit their cases to a certain area.  Get one who limits his or her type of cases.  You would not want a general practice doctor to do heart surgery...Same thing with personal injury cases. There are attorneys in Flagler County who advertise themselves as Personal Injury attorneys who have ZILCH for experience.  Most prospective clients are afraid of offending the lawyer so don't even ask about trial experience.
• Budget. a lot of what goes for name recognition on TV, the internet, and everywhere in between depends on the size of the lawyers budget. Some TV lawyers spend millions of dollars and get lots of cases. Do you want to be another number on their shelf?
• Experience and judgment.  These two factors are important enough that I recommend questioning your prospective attorney about his experience in cases just like yours.  Has he been to trial?  What is the highest verdict he got?  How long ago?  Was he lead counsel on the other case?
• Accessibility:  I give my clients my personal cell number to call me. Other lawyers never even talk to their clients- they let their staff do it.  Legal issues cannot wait for days or weeks to be answered and you deserve the right to an answer from an attorney, not the paralegal who never went to law school.
• integrity:  A lawyer knows there is a lot of competition for cases like yours.  He should be honest with you in his evaluation of your claim.  He should not sugar coat your case so that you hire the lawyer with the biggest evaluation.  There are always potential defenses: two sides to the story.  His evaluation needs to make sense to you.
• Clarity:  This is very important.  You, the client, should be able to understand the  major legal arguments in favor and against your case.  If he cannot explain them to you in clear and understandable ways, maybe you should ask yourself, how is he going to do that for a jury?

Knowing how to hire an attorney is the first step in the successful completion of a legal fight.  I have 40+ years of experience and would be happy to discuss your case for free so you can make an informed decision.

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Drunk drivers cause a lot of accidents with injuries and death.  What are the steps taken by the criminal justice system to make them pay? Just because you were in a wreck does not automatically mean there will be DUI charges.

If you have been the victim of a drunk driver you should expect to have a conference with the State Attorney within a few weeks after the wreck.  He represents the State, not you, but might be able  to indirectly help you.  During the interview with the victim, the State Attorney will ask basic questions about the accident, and should also find out how seriously you were hurt.  If you have evidence to show him, bring it to the conference.  He will want copies of your hospital and doctors' bills, photographs of your injuries and some idea of your injuries.  If you have wage losses then let him know about them too.

Once the State Attorney hears all of the evidence he will make a decision about whether to charge the suspect with  DUI, or maybe reckless driving instead. The State Attorney will be getting toxicology information from the lab based on blood alcohol or other chemical tests done shortly after the wreck.  He will know for example whether the suspect has a bad driving record, including prior DUI arrests and convictions.

So how does this help the victim?  The state of Florida has adopted important victim's rights legislation which gives  victims of  crimes the right to know about all of the important stages of the criminal prosecution.  You might be able to get a suspect to agree to pay you restitution for the losses you have as part of any plea deal.  The State Attorney is not a collection agency for victims, but should be willing to at least keep you informed.  The victim has the right to go to the sentencing and tell the judge and the Defendant what he did to you, and how much it means for him to be sent away or pay restitution.

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Medicare pays doctor's bills, hospital bills and nursing home care.  If the Medicare patient needs these types of medical care because of an accident, Medicare pays on the expectation that at the end of the case, Medicare will be reimbursed out of the settlement.

One of my clients is a Medicare recipient.  He was injured about 18 months ago and all of his medical bills, including his hospital, emergency room, nursing home charges and doctors bills were submitted to Medicare.  They totaled over $250,000.  Medicare paid them at a reduced rate, and has a lien on the settlement for close to $100,000.

So how does medicare's lien get paid off?

Medicare has contracted with MSRPC to handle its worker's compensation liens, and third party liability cases.  When the case settles, MSRPC reviews the final settlement paperwork, and then reduces its lien pro-rata for the costs of collection paid by the Medicare recipient. In other words, if the Medicare patient paid 33 1/3% to his attorneys, then medicare will reduce its lien by 1/3rd.  MSRPC will send a letter within 65 days after the case settles to advise what the exact lien amount is, and that amount must be paid within 60 days.

There is no federal statute requiring that Medicare's name be included on the check.  Medicare law requires the insurance company to notify medicare (MSRPC) of the claim, and if it does so, the insurance company has satisfied its obligations.  The patient's obligation is to pay the lien.  If the patient does not do so, Medicare can deduct the cost of the lien from his future Social Security checks or deny future medicare benefits. 

Right now only Worker's Compensation benefits are included in the statute.  But, attorneys handling liability claims in general are following the same settlement procedure model that is required in all worker's comp cases.  Also, MSRPC wants people who are almost 65 to advise Medicare of a liability claim so that Medicare can be aware of it.

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It would be a miracle if each person who negligently or carelessly caused a bad accident with injuries had plenty of insurance.  But they don't.  Sometimes my clients get a settlement offer for the full amount of the insurance policy and want to do an asset search before deciding to accept the insurance and drop the claim.

There is a lot of bad information about asset searches.  From my experience, they are not worth the money, not accurate or reliable.  First of all they cost several hundreds of dollars.  The validity of the search is misleading.  Why:  Because the search leaves out a whole tun of stuff.  It is impossible to know if the Defendant has a big trust, bank accounts, or stock brokerage accounts, or jewelry.  Those types of assets are not public record.  Deeds to real estate can be found, but who knows where to look?  An asset search in Flagler County will not reveal deeds owned in Volusia County.

Getting the Defendant to sign an affidavit disclosing assets is also unreliable.  Even if they agree, how can you REALLY know the defendant is telling the complete truth?

Also, if you insist on finding out the true assets, it may take  a final judgment before you can get subpoenas issued to know what the defendant owns.  Getting a final judgment may take a year or two.  During that time you do not have the use of the settlement, and are stressing out over a trial.Is it really worh it?  Unless you are suing Donald Trump, I don't think so.

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Lots of people have driver's licenses.  Most of them are physically and mentally able to take control of a car and drive it.  Due to momentary distractions they cause accidents.  They are texting, talking on their cell phones, rubber necking, listening to the radio, looking at the pretty girl in the car next to them,etc.

Sometimes the person driving is not medically able to drive and continues to drive anyway.  All  sorts of medical and mental problems can interfere with driving ability.  Like near blindness and black out spells, delusions, etc.  When those sorts of problems are present, the driver should know better than to try and drive. In fact, family members and doctors should and often do report them to the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles in Tallahassee.  The report is confidential and will result in an investigation.  It may require the driver to go through a driving test, or to get a report from the family doctor.  If the license is pulled, they can not drive anymore.

The loss of a license is a terrible inconvenience.  It is the loss of independence, a change of life, and is a discouraging part of life.   There is a moral duty to turn in suspected incompetent drivers but family pressures often make the family members look the other way.  Florida law allows ANYONE to report a suspected bad driver to the Department of Motor Vehicles.  Any and all reports are confidential. Here is a link to the official website which tells all about how to report the suspected incompetent driver to DMV.

As the holiday season approaches, it is a good time to be thinking about bad drivers.  I hope you and your loved ones not only survive, but actually enjoy Christmas this year!  If you have been worried about a loved one's ability to drive safely I encourage you to consider asking DMV to get them checked out.

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