Legal Question in Personal Injury in Virginia

Re: How do I get my lawyer to return my calls?

Your lawyer has an ethical obligation to return calls. Now, as an attorney, I know full well that there are times when I cannot get back to my clients as quickly as they might like. I might be in trial, working on a brief, taking depositions out of town, or any number of things. However, if you have called and left messages multiple times, sent emails, and otherwise attempted to communicate and you have not gotten any response, that sounds like you need to pin things down.

At this point, presuming that you are correct when you say that you've been in litigation for 3 years, you and your attorney should both have a lot invested in the matter.

I presume that by now there have been depositions, motions, discovery, expert witnesses and many other activities that have been undertaken.

So, you don't want to throw out the baby with the bath water. There may be a reasonable explanation for your attorney's actions. If he has been properly preparing your case, trial should be somewhere on the horizon, so the last thing you want is to go with someone new unless you have to.

If you cannot reach your attorney on the phone, you should send an email and letter, both indicating that you have been having difficulty reaching him/her on the phone and stating that you want to set up an appointment to meet with him to review the file, the status of the case, the state of preparation for trial, the current state of settlement discussions, and the best estimates as to the most likely outcomes at trial given the facts as they have been developed through discovery and other efforts.

If you receive no response or an inappropriate response to your phone calls and then your written letter/email then you may consider asking another attorney to call your attorney on your behalf to inquire as to the state of affairs.

If that doesn't produce the good results that you want, then obviously you'll have to switch horses, even though that may be difficult.

I am curious what state you live in and what type of lawsuit you are pursuing.

drop me a line if you want to chat about finding a way to make sure that your attorney is on track.