Legal Question in Personal Injury in Massachusetts

Re: Negligent Lawyer?

There are a number of things you can do.

If you are unhappy with your lawyer's performance, you are always free to take your case elsewhere.

You should keep in mind that - regardless of what your lawyer said - these things do not settle in a number of weeks. It usually takes months.

You can point out to your attorney that s/he has an ethical obligation to communicate with you (the client) and keep you informed of your case.

Re: Negligent Lawyer?

There are a lot of reasons why even an "open and shut" case might not settle as quickly as one would like, so I wouldn't necessarily fault your friend's lawyer on that account. And you don't mention any other dates, like when the accident happened, when the lawyer was first retained, when your frined reached a "medical end result", etc., all of which have a bearing on whether or not your friend's case is being handled properly and expeditiously by her current attorney.

What does concern me, though, is your report that the atorney does not respond to multiple requests for updates and frequently cancels scheduled appointments with your friend for such unprofessional reasons as "babysitter" problems. Perhaps this is a "part-time" attorney?

I am also concerned that the comment about not being able to push the insurance company (which technically is true) implies that the attorney has sent a demand letter, yet your friend doesn't have a copy of one--so perhaps one was never sent and the attorney is covering for that fact with a generic comment about not being able to push the insurance company. The idea that the attorney still doesn't have a list of your friend's doctors suggests this might be the case--how can an attorney send a demand without first collecting all the medical records and analyzing them? Depending on the circumstances, it might be perfectly understandable that an attorney has not yet collected the medical records and prepared a demand package, but it is never appropriate for an attorney to mislead his client as to the status of her case and the reasons for the lack of better progress.

I think what your friend needs is an attorney who is not only full-time, but also a specialist in car crash-personal injury cases. I would be happy to speak with her--no strings attached--if she'd like more detailed advice.