You’ve visited the offices of several Hyannis personal injury lawyers but none of them want to take your case. What could be the problem?
When a personal injury lawyer does not want to take your case, it’s usually because of four reasons which we shall discuss here.
Reasons Hyannis Personal Injury Lawyers Won’t Take Your Case
Your Case Has More Problems Than It’s Worth
If your case has serious problems, your Hyannis personal injury lawyer might not want to waste his time pursuing it. They might also not want to touch your case because it has liability problems. If you are mostly or partly responsible for your injuries, your lawyer won’t take your case unless your damages are worth more than $100, 000. Also, if the law specifically cited that you were fully at fault in your accident, your lawyer won’t take your case.
Your lawyer might also reject your case if it’s only worth hundreds of dollars. Remember that most personal injury lawyers are paid on a contingency fee basis so it’s highly unlikely they will take a case that doesn’t have significant damages.
Your lawyer might reject your case if it has insurance problems. If the person you are filing a lawsuit against doesn’t have insurance, this presents your lawyer with a huge problem. There’s no guarantee that you’ll get paid and there’s no guarantee that your case will go to trial.
You are Suing a Prominent Member of Your Local Community
Most lawyers try as much as possible to avoid cases targeting prominent people in the community. This is because the person you are suing could be a valuable resource of client referrals or they act as expert witnesses for local lawyers. So chances are high the local Hyannis personal injury lawyers you’ve been talking to don’t want to burn bridges.
Lawyers might also fear retaliation. For instance, if you are suing local law enforcement, they might not want a negative encounter with any officer because they are handling your case.
If you are suing a prominent person and you have a hunch that Hyannis personal injury lawyers are rejecting your case because of this, you can always seek another alternative by looking for lawyers in nearby cities.
Your Case Involves A Legal Niche They Don’t Specialize In
Personal injury cases are not limited to car accidents only; they include other things like product liability, slips and falls, libel and slander among other things. The lawyers you are talking to may not be willing to take your case because they don’t specialize in that niche for a number of reasons.
For example, if your case involves libel and slander, many lawyers might avoid them because most of the time such cases involve a lot of hurt feelings than actual damages. If your case is a product liability one, some lawyers might avoid taking it because such cases take up too much time and are too expensive.
Don’t Expect All Lawyers To Tell You Why They Won’t Take Your Case
A personal injury lawyer may not want to handle your case because it “sucks”. If they told you that your case sucks, they fear this could cost them future potential clients not mentioning that it could hurt your feelings. So instead, they’ll lie to you and tell you they can’t take your case due to a “conflict of interest”.
This is the best excuse because they are not legally obligated to tell you what the conflict is because that would be breaking attorney-client privilege. And it’s the best way to reject your case without hurting your feelings. Unfortunately, this leaves you oblivious as to the reason why nobody wants to take your case.
What We Think
At Kevin P Landry, we’ve found that telling clients why we are not interested in their cases takes much lesser time than trying to come up with a good excuse. If we feel your case has more problems than its worth, we will tell you. We’ve seen people who come to us afterwards to thank us for our honesty.
We also refer clients to lawyers who specialize in niches that we don’t. If you want to find out if your case is strong enough for us to take on, you can call us at 508-775-1660 or visit our Hyannis offices for a free initial consultation. Alternatively, you can call us and we will come to you wherever you feel comfortable meeting.
