Legal Question in Personal Injury in Georgia

Any legal recourse against insurance company or lawyer?

Two people were in a car that was rear ended.The other driver's insurance company refused to offer us a settlement that covered our claim for medical expenses and pain and suffering. They paid for the car to be repaired. We dealt with this case ourselves for 2 yrs. We went to small claims court and won our judgement. The judge advised us to get an attorney if the insurance company appealed, in which they did. We hired a lawyer who demanded our judgement be settled or be faced with an abusive litagation suit. The insurance company decided to pay our judgement awarded in small claims court. Now we have to give a high percentage of our judgement to the lawyer who was handed our documented case. Also, now we are not even getting our court cost as the judge also awarded us. We feel the insurance company has acted in bad faith throughout this entire ordeal and this was about the easiest money a lawyer could make. Is there any legal recourse we can take against the insurance company {or the lawyer}?


Asked on 1/23/06, 11:04 am

2 Answers from Attorneys

Scott Riddle Law Office of Scott B. Riddle, LLC

Re: Any legal recourse against insurance company or lawyer?

This is a matter that should have been addressed in your fee agreement, at the time you hired the lawyer and since no one here has that agreement or the other side of the story, I dare say no one here can give you an answer. It should be addressed with the lawyer, who will no doubt review the agreement with you. As for the insurance company, it looks like the case is over, so your lawyer will review that as well. For both of these issues, you don't generally get a second bite at the apple on agreements you made or cases that were resolved.

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Answered on 1/23/06, 11:10 am
Glen Ashman Ashman Law Office also dba Glen Ashman Attorney

Re: Any legal recourse against insurance company or lawyer?

Once a case is over and the time to appeal lapses, it's pretty much over. You're signed fee agreement dictates the fees, so you can't sign and agree and then complain later assuming he charged what you agreed to (your post makes it sound, even without hearing the lawyer, that he did a good job and preserved and collected your judgment, although we don't have details about why you are complaining that he won). Your mistake, if there was one, was in not hiring a lawyer at the beginning rather than creating a situation where you needed one in midstream.

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Answered on 1/23/06, 11:26 am


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