Protecting the public from attorney solicitation phone calls and letters

Last week, I wrote about the problem of injury lawyers sending solicitation letters to car accident victims and new requirements designed to curb this practice. If you receive an attorney letter, solicitation or legal advertisement after being hurt in a car accident, and it does not meet these new requirements, you should report it immediately. The new requirements for ethical lawyer solicitation letters are here.

As to attorney solicitation, my own preference would be to see the “no contact time” increased to 90 days from the current 30 day ban.

But letters from lawyers and doctors is only the tip of the iceberg.  We have to stop the direct phone calls now. Anyone who reads this link from a woman who was in a car accident and after received weekly calls, most likely from an attorney, should be extremely troubled.

These so-called “accident services” who cold-call people out of the blue after car accidents need to be stopped now. I don’t know who makes up these various accident services companies, although I know there are many chiropractors who are now cold-calling accident victims at home or in hospitals immediately.  We — injury lawyers, doctors and chiropractors — need to stop phone calls and other forms of solicitation to accident victims. It is up to the professional associations to police their own, to protect the public and stop abuse.

Solicitation phone calls and letters need to be stopped now.

Have you received a phone call or solicitation letter within the first 30 days following a crash from an injury lawyer? Contact the Attorney Grievance Commission of Michigan and tell them about it. This is the only way to stop this unethical  behavior.

The contact information for the Attorney Grievance Commission of Michigan is:

Attorney Grievance Commission
Marquette Building
243 W. Congress, Ste. 256
Detroit, MI 48226
(313) 961-6585 general
(313) 961-5819 fax

Injury lawyers who solicit car accident victims lower the image of our profession.  And let’s face it, most of these lawyers sending these letters are terrible lawyers (which is why they are doing this to get business to  begin with).  Because these are terrible lawyers, the legal service and results they provided were also poor,  and accident victims were actually harmed rather than helped.

I’m hoping the new rule will now put some long-needed safeguards on attorney solicitation and legal advertising.  Most important of all, I hope it will raise the care injury victims receive.

- Steve Gursten is one of the nation’s top injury lawyers. He is head of Michigan Auto Law and has received the highest verdict in the state for a car accident or truck accident victim in 2008, 2009 and 2010, according to Michigan Lawyers Weekly.

Related information:

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Recent car accident FAQs

Do I have a car accident case in Michigan?

Michigan Auto Law is the largest law firm exclusively handling car accident, truck accident and motorcycle accident cases throughout the entire state. We have offices in Farmington Hills, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and Sterling Heights to better serve you. Call (800) 777-0028 for a free consultation with one of our personal injury lawyers.

Michigan Auto Lawyers

New rule curbs lawyer solicitation letters in Michigan

Let’s face it, there is nothing good about an injured auto accident victim being barraged by personal injury attorney solicitation letters in the mail days after a car crash, asking if they need an injury lawyer. It is incredibly demeaning to the legal profession, and especially to Michigan lawyers who practice personal injury law and auto accident litigation with integrity. I’m sure it leaves a very bad taste in the mouths of auto accident victims who received these solicitation letters.

What’s worse, the practice of injury lawyers sending FOIA requests out for police reports and then sending these solicitation letters to accident victims has been quickly spreading in the last couple years. I could easily tick off almost  a dozen personal injury law firms that regularly send these solicitation letters out today (because when I meet my clients for meetings, they show me these solicitation letters).

And what is still worse is that many of these solicitation letters are from personal injury lawyers who have no real qualifications or credentials to handle serious auto accident cases. Come to think of it, that’s  probably the best explanation of why these lawyers are sending solicitation letters in the first place. But in the last couple years, there were a couple well-known personal injury law firms that were also sending the solicitation letters and engaging in the process. It was becoming  a race to the bottom.

Now thankfully, there are some (minor) restrictions on the process.  At least it’s a start.

The new rule, which amends MRPC 7.3 on attorney solicitation says:
•    That an injury attorney must now wait 30 days to contact a potential client by a written communication after a death, injury or accident.
•    That the solicitation letters now need to have the words “advertising material” on the outside of the envelope, and at the beginning and end of the letter.
•    This requirement applies to any type of brochure, postcard, letter, pamphlet etc., no matter how it is written or delivered.

Tomorrow I’ll be blogging about the need to ban insurance company solicitation of car accident victims.

- Steve Gursten is one of the nation’s top injury lawyers handling auto accident lawsuits. He is head of Michigan Auto Law and has received the highest verdict in the state for a car accident or truck accident victim in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

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When should I contact an injury lawyer?

Michigan Auto Law is the largest law firm exclusively handling car accident, truck accident and motorcycle accident cases throughout the entire state. We have offices in Farmington Hills, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and Sterling Heights to better serve you. Call (800) 777-0028 for a free consultation with one of our personal injury lawyers.

Michigan Auto Lawyers

Let’s stop predatory auto insurance company solicitation of car accident victims too

Yesterday, I wrote about the new amendment to MRPC 7.3, which I support.  This amendment will  help curb lawyer solicitation letters to car accident victims.

Now it’s time to do something about the auto insurance companies and claims adjusters that are out there contacting accident victims immediately after a car accident has occurred.

Fact: Cases with an experienced accident lawyer settle for four times more than cases without a lawyer. This statistic is from the insurance industry,  and it is why it’s increasingly common to see insurance claims adjusters pop up at the homes of people to try to settle accident injury cases cheap.  Some claims adjusters literally camp outside the homes of people who have been seriously injured, waiting for them to come home from the hospital.

The trucking industry also knows this, and the major topic at the big trucking defense seminars is get to the victims of serious truck accidents as quickly as possible before they can hire a truck accident lawyer, because it can save the auto insurance company hundreds of thousands of dollars. From my own cases, I can say the greater the number of safety violations - whether they be driving past regulated hours, speeding, or prior truck accidents - the stronger the push by the insurance company to settle the case before an accident lawyer gets involved. In a catastrophic injury or truck death case, literally millions can be left on the table.

One trucking defense industry insider even wrote a law review article on this topic of reaching accident victims early. I’ve written in the past about the now notorious case, where an insurance company for a trucking company that caused a fatal truck accident settled a case with the surviving spouse for the death of her husband by buying the family a new car.

The larger point behind the amendment to MRPC 7.3 on lawyer solicitation is trying to protect the reputation of the legal profession and to protect auto accident victims who are unfamiliar with their legal rights and what compensation they’re rightfully entitled. That last point – protecting the public from abuse and those who would profit by taking unfair advantage of them – is why the ban on direct lawyer solicitation within the first 30 days after a car accident or truck accident was recently enacted in Michigan.

An amendment to MRPC 7.3 (that goes into effect on September 1, 2011), should and must include other groups as well. Unfortunately, this ethics rule change only effects solicitation lawyers who bombard auto accident victims with direct mail (often after getting their name from bribing a police officer, since waiting for the FOIA responses on traffic accidents has proved too slow with so much competition from other injury lawyers).

This rule change has no effect on the auto  insurance companies that unfairly target car accident victims for early settlement, and are calling these people up at home or sending claims adjusters and investigators to knock on their doors.

There are two common sense solutions that could work here.

1. The first is for Michigan to adopt what a number of other states, such as Washington, have done; and that is to say that these auto insurance companies and claims adjusters that contact accident victims immediately following serious car accidents are engaged in the unauthorized practice of law.

So far, nothing has been done along these lines, even though the situation is becoming increasingly common and widespread. But if a claims adjuster for an adverse party in interest – the insurance company that is required by law to pay fair compensation – can contact an injured auto accident victim by phone or at home and make representations as to what Michigan law is and what the injuries are worth is not the unauthorized practice of law, then I do not know what is.

2. The second common sense solution is to instill the same waiting period – 30 days at least –  for all parties who target (prey) upon the direct contact and solicitation of someone seriously injured in an auto accident.

I personally feel the 30 days is not sufficient. This is because for many injuries such as a traumatic brain injury, a spinal cord or herniated disk - or even a serious fracture – it’s impossible to know the full extent of the injury within 30 days.

But  30 days would at least allow an accident victim time to investigate what they are entitled to and what the law provides for them.  It at least allows people injured in car accidents a level playing field with the insurance company adjusters. It allows these accident victims to learn what their legal rights are. If our common aim is to promote fairness and justice, then it is hard to see how a no contact or solicitation rule of at least 30 days (and preferably 60 or 90 days) applied equally and fairly to all groups that are contacting injured car accident victims immediately after an injury accident fails to serve the public interest.

- Steve Gursten is recognized as one of the nation’s top car accident lawyers. He writes about insurance company abuse and the insurance laws in Michigan, and is available for comment.

Related information:

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Michigan Auto Law is the largest law firm exclusively handling car accident, truck accident and motorcycle accident cases throughout the entire state. We have offices in Farmington Hills, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and Sterling Heights to better serve you. Call (800) 777-0028 for a free consultation with one of our accident lawyers.

Michigan Auto Lawyers