Mistakes Lawyers Make in Arkansas Injury CasesNumber one, they don't provide information to their clients about their cases. They're inaccessible, they don't return their phone calls, they don't let their client know about his/her case. And they don't have anybody on their staff who is authorized or capable of letting the client know what's going on. They just don't communicate well. The first thing that I do that other people don't do is that I talk to the client. I conduct the initial interview and spend usually an hour and half with each client at the beginning. I give them the names of who to call on my staff if they have any questions, or if any problems come up. I tell them that if they have an emergency they can reach me 24 hours a day, either during office hours or calling my answering services after office hours. If we don't hear from a client every two to three weeks I write them a letter. I say call us, let us know. We need to know what's going on. If something goes bad with their case and I have to drop it because I can't get them any money, I tell them why I dropped it. I just try to communicate. The second most common mistake is that lawyers try to do personal injury as part of a general practice rather than concentrating on just personal injury. And that often causes the personal injury cases to be neglected. Emergencies occur in a general practice every week. The attorney is not able to consistently invest the time in your personal injury case that it needs so that it can be resolved for its value as soon as possible. The third biggest mistake is that lawyers do not plan for the worst. Some lawyers are pollyannaish about their cases, believing that they'll be able to settle them rather than having to try them. And they don't do the things on the front end that need to be done if the injury case has to be tried to a jury. They do not investigate it, they don't get pictures of their client's injuries or of vehicles or equipment or location of where the injury took place. They do not identify, locate and interview witnesses. They do not investigate the actual mechanics of the injury. I'd say that the fourth mistake lawyers make is that they don't investigate and obtain records of prior injuries and/or prior medical treatment. This is tremendously important because that determines whether you have a claim for essentially a new injury or there is a claim for the re-activation or worsening of a medical condition or problem that the injured party already had. It's new versus what lawyers call aggravation of pre-existing condition. And that is critical because it's a trap for the client. Because if the client deliberately or carelessly presents his injury as a new injury to their doctor or their specialist or their lawyer or the jury, and it turns out that it's an aggravation--it's something that was made worse by their injury--then they're going to get destroyed. Their credibility is going to be damaged. Arkansas law provides full compensation for BOTH new injuries and for worsening of prior medical problems and conditions. However, the injured party must tell the medical provider about these prior medical conditions and problems. On the other hand, if the attorney is thorough at the beginning of the process, this problem of the injured party's lack of believability can be avoided. But lawyers take what their client tells them at face value, and then they and their client gets blown away. So I guess this comes back to they don't obtain enough information about prior injuries at the beginning. I think the fifth mistake that some lawyers make is not being realistic with the client about the value of the claims. So there are a lot of clients that are disappointed with what they receive and think they were sold out. This is a failure of communication and preparation of the client about the realistic value of the claim. A sixth common mistake lawyers make in PI cases is that they do not start them immediately. One way to compare the way most lawyers work on PI cases is to compare them with the way that adjusters for insurance companies work. An adjuster for an automobile insurance company immediately goes and obtains pictures of the vehicles and the scene, and has telephone interviews with the injured party and any witnesses. They have a checklist and they do everything on the checklist as soon as possible. They do it because it's important to collect this information shortly after the accident while details are still fresh in everyone's mind. Some lawyers put off doing the actual nitty gritty of the investigating of the case until just before trial--which is a terrible mistake. Attorney Childs is interested in cases involving:
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