LET US HANDLE YOUR CAR ACCIDENT CASE

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

• What is medical management?

  A: Medical management is the medical/legal review of your medical care by the law firm with the goal of making sure you receive quality, consistent and properly progressive medical care both to maximize your ability to recover from your injuries in as an efficient, inexpensive and painless manner as possible coupled with the oversight necessary to make sure the medical records accurately document your medical care, your injuries and reflect a reasonable and logical course of necessary treatment and care.

• Why should I hire a Board Certified Civil Trial Lawyer to handle my car accident case?

  A: Board certification recognizes attorneys’ special knowledge, skills and proficiency in various areas of law and professionalism and ethics in practice. Established in 1982 by the Florida Supreme Court, board certification helps consumers identify specialists in various areas of law. Certification provides an objective measure that a potential client can rely upon when selecting a lawyer. When you hire any professional, expertise matters – you don’t go to a family practitioner physician to evaluate and treat a suspected cancer. Similarly, when hiring a car accident attorney, it will not cost you any more to hire a specialist recognized by the Florida Bar as a civil trial expert.

• How long should a car accident case take to resolve?

  A: Every case is different and every injury heals and gets worked-up based upon the plaintiff’s medical care and recovery progress. That said, the average case usually requires between 4-6 months of treatment and medical visits before the plaintiff reaches what is called “maximum medical improvement”. That is the point where no further therapy, injections or medical intervention short of surgery will improve the injury symptoms or progress. It is at that point, a physician can evaluate the plaintiff’s disability and assign a disability rating. It is important to wait until that point before attempting to settle the case so that any settlement reached is based upon the full progress of the injury and recognizes the plaintiff’s permanent injuries.

• Does my lawyer have to wait until I finish my medical treatment before he files suit on my case?

  A: No. A lawyer can bring suit on your auto accident case the same day you retain him. Most firms will wait until you finish treating and then attempt to settle the case on a pre-suit basis. The business model of many plaintiff’s law firms is to settle most, if not all, of their car crash cases presuit, without ever filing the cases or ever taking any cases to trial. At Charlip Law Group, LC, our reputation with the insurance companies is that we file our cases early and we take cases we can’t settle for maximum value to a jury trial. We believe that such an approach benefits all of our clients because the insurance companies take us seriously and know that we will pursue our clients’ claims through every level of the judicial system.

• I see all these signs and advertisements about how much money certain lawyers got for a client, shouldn’t those results be important to my decision of which law firm I should retain for my case?

  A: No. The hiring of a lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely upon advertisements. You should speak with the lawyer and get a sense if he or she is someone you trust and is someone you can work with. You should speak with the law firm staff and get a sense of whether they are responsive and able to give your case the time and attention it deserves. You should evaluate the lawyer’s reputation, years of experience, credentials, expertise, awards and achievements. While a settlement of say $400,000 in a car accident case may seem like alot, without knowing or understanding the facts of that particular case, you cannot know whether that settlement was a good or bad result. The case might have actually been worth $1,000,000. For those reasons, settlement amounts contained in signs and advertisements should not be of any importance in deciding which law firm to retain for your case.

• I was seriously injured in my car accident but I am not sure I should file a claim because I may have been at fault in causing the accident. If that is true, can I still make a claim?

  A: Yes you can. First, determining the cause of an accident is often very difficult and is best left to experienced accident reconstruction experts and car accident civil trial lawyers. Any seasoned plaintiff’s lawyer knows that if you eliminate all the ways you potentially can lose a case, you can only have a successful outcome. For that reason, part of advancing your case involves minimizing any potential claims that you were contributorily negligent. A lawsuit requires proof and evidence. Your lawyer will assemble that evidence and evaluate what it ultimately can be utilized to prove. You should always let a well-qualified legal professional evaluate whether it makes sense to pursue your claim. You will pay no attorney’s fee if there is no recovery so consulting with a lawyer is always a high value proposition.