SOMETIMES ALL IT TAKES IS JUST A LITTLE EXTRA EFFORT-PART II

One of my first blog posts was about an approximately $10,000 settlement we obtained for a client after her prior law firm (again, don’t ASK me who it was) dropped her case because it didn’t represent easy money. The firm was a large advertising firm (although dropping cases that take some extra work isn’t unique to them (but probably a lot more common by them than smaller firms).

About four months ago a doctor we work with told us about a patient of his that had just been dropped by her lawyers (again, a large advertising firm). It was a parking lot case with extremely minor damage. As I’ve mentioned before, minor property damage can be a major detriment to settlement if you don’t know what arguments to make and if your aren’t willing to put in the work.

The doctor asked if we might take a look at the case. Of course we said yes. We met with the client. She is a lovely, hard working young lady. After reviewing the facts we happily agreed to try and help her.

Fast forward five months. After obtaining the file and sending a settlement demand we were able to get her case settled for about $20,000. Is this an earth shattering settlement? No. But, it is an important settlement. Why? Because it means something to our client. It was an important case to her that her prior lawyers dropped because they knew it would take some extra elbow grease to get it done. There is a lot of lazy out there (and it just isn’t unique to lawyers). We try our best not to fall into that category.

The moral of this story- make sure whomever you hire to represent you has an excess supply of elbow grease somewhere in his office. At some point your case IS going to need it. And, as a secondary moral- bigger isn’t always necessarily better. Be a smart consumer when looking for a law firm to represent you. Ask questions and don’t be afraid to listen to your gut.