Legal Question in Personal Injury in Alabama

Re: Automobile accident

You have been given good advice. Remember, you have a right to be comfortable with your attorney. You might wish to speak with an attorney in your area about this. Many attorneys will give you a free first consultation.

Re: Automobile accident

You can hire and fire as many attorneys as you want. However, you must be aware that an attorney can file an attorney's lien on your case for the amount of time and expense the attorney has in the case. So, your new attorney will have to deal with that.

Re: Automobile accident

You most certainly can fire this attorney. That's not to say you should do so based on what you've said. Most attorneys could be better at communicating with their clients - including myself. We get busy. But basically, your insurance company is definitely on the hook here and it is ethical for them make demands against them. That's what they are supposed to do. You have in your policy, as does every policy in the State of Alabama, a Uninsured/underinsured motorists clause which entitles you to recover against them for the injuries that another does to you if the other's insurance company is insufficient or non-existent. Also you have what is called medpay in your insurance which should take care of medical bills regardless of fault. Usually med pay is not counted for purposes of attorney fees as it is not normally contested by your insurance company.

While you ultimately control the case, sometimes insurance companies make such ridiculously low offers (especially to start with) that the attorney basically just says no way right off the bat. I've seen offers of $100 on medical bills totalling $5000 before. Obviously unacceptable. Technically though an attorney should inform the client of that offer and then respond. But if the offer is so ridiculously low that doesn't always happen as it should - the lawyer tells the adjuster to basically get lost right off the bat.

I'm not sure why the other Insurance company would deny coverage. Just because the driver was negligent doesn't mean that they can deny coverage. That's exactly what coverage is for! The only way that I think they can deny coverage is if in fact the insurance contract was not in place - say for failure to pay premiums or something like that.

You need some clarification from this attorney before proceeding with terminating them. Talk to them first and try to figure out what exactly is happening. It is not rocket science, but law can be complicated business at times.

Good Luck!

Sterling L. DeRamus

Attorney at Law

Birmingham, Alabama

Re: Automobile accident

Everyone else explained your situation as well as could be.

Please note that the majority of attorneys will not talk to you until AFTER you fire the other attorneys.