800.770.7008

1505 Division Street | Waite Park, Minnesota 56387

PRACTICE POINTERS

ADVICE YOU SHOULD GIVE TO EVERY CLIENT

By T. Joseph Crumley and Brian Wojtalewicz

Bully Pulpit. Teddy Roosevelt called the U.S. Presidency a “bully pulpit.” Trial lawyers also enjoy a bully pulpit, and our congregation is our clientele. Obviously our first, and most important rule is to provide our clients legal advice pertaining specifically to their individual case. But smart lawyers will recognize that they have an opportunity to provide advice that may better the client, their practice, or even society as a whole.

Special Relationship. Trial lawyers have a special relationship with their client. For whatever reason, be it reputation, advertising or referral, that client has chosen to place a substantial amount of trust in you and your legal advice. This is not a trivial thing. There are hundreds of competitors out there providing similar services, but the client has chosen to place trust in you.

What this means is that the client will be more likely to listen to your advice than other sources of information. What you say and write on an issue carries more weight than what the neighbor says, what they hear on talk radio or television advertisements or in junk mail.

Hopefully, this article will inspire you to provide this sort of legal advice to every client.

Insurance. Do you provide your clients with generic insurance information? Why not? For most personal injury lawyers, this is an area of expertise. Like it or not, you are actually part of the insurance industry. You are probably the only person other than the client’s insurance agent competent to provide advice on insurance issues. There are often times when the insurance agent knows much less than you do about these issues; moreover, the insurance agent’s objectives and motives almost always differ from yours and the client’s.

A new client may be acutely aware of insurance policy limits, perhaps for the only time in his life. A person in the middle of an insurance claim suddenly learns the importance of insurance policy limits, and is suddenly more likely to pay attention and learn from advice given on the issue.

UM/UIM Limits

My first experience with this type of generic legal advice was with Schwebel Goetz & Sieben’s UM/UIM attachment. Every new client received, attached to the initial letter from the lawyer, a detailed explanation of uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage and recommended minimum limits.

The benefits of this practice are many. The client learns the importance of increasing these benefits, since these benefits are for her and her family. The client and the lawyer benefit in case, as so often happens, the client becomes a “repeat customer,” with herself or another family member injured in another crash and benefitting from the increased coverage levels. Here’s Mike Bryant’s language:

UNINSURED AND UNDERINSURED COVERAGE

You should carry as much as your policy and liability limits allow of uninsured motorist and underinsured motorist coverage. These coverages are inexpensive and protect you and your family members in the event that you are injured by the fault of another driver who may have inadequate insurance.

No-Fault Stacking. Similarly, why not inform clients about the benefits of no-fault stacking? Minn. Stat. §65B.47, subd. 7 requires an insurer to offer stacking of no-fault benefit from multiple insured vehicles. The premium is relatively cheap, but rarely do insurance agents recommend stacking.

Here’s our language:

STACKING

(COMBINING THE INSURANCE COVERAGE ON ALL CARS) - You should choose stacking of all of the vehicles in your household. Check the appropriate box on any application form. This will allow you to multiply the amount of your no-fault benefits by the number of cars in your family.

Liability Limits. As long as you are providing advice on insurance limits, it may be helpful to explain liability limits to your client. You may want to give more or less advice about the protection that increased policy limits provide. Here’s some recommended language:

BI/LIABILITY

Liability or BI (bodily injury) limits cover you if you or a family member causes injury in a car crash. It is important to maintain enough coverage to protect your assets. Most people should have at least $100,000/$300,000 policy limits or more if they have substantial assets that could not be protected in case of a serious injury. Additional coverage is remarkably cheaper as the limits increase.

Split Limits. Many insurers are now selling split limits, where the liability coverage is higher than the UM/UIM coverage. The client should definitely be warned against this because:

SPLIT LIMITS

If your UM/UIM limits are lower than your liability limits, you are shortchanging yourself. Liability limits provide money for other people to recover; UM/UIM is insurance that you and your family members can recover. UM/UIM limits should be at least equal to your liability limits.

Motorcycle UIM Coverage. Motorcycle UIM coverage is optional coverage and most policies that are sold provide for a Difference-of-the-Limits calculation. Many of these policies are sold for $25,000 or $30,000. Of course, Minnesota mandates minimum liability coverage of $30,000. A $25,000 or $30,000 motorcycle UIM policy is worthless in almost every imaginable scenario. If the defendant is insured, then she has at least $30,000 in coverage and the UIM provides no additional coverage (if the defendant is uninsured, the UM coverage would apply). You may want to advise your motorcycle clients:

WARNING

Minnesota UIM policies of $25,000 or $30,000 are often worthless. Ask your agent for higher limits.

Insurance Companies

Personal injury lawyers have unique insight into the claims handling behavior of various insurance companies. Many clients come to our office because they had been poorly treated by their insurer. In addition to the legal help they are looking for, many of them are also out shopping for a new insurance company. While it is probably not advisable to publish your opinion regarding specific named insurance companies in a widely disseminated form letter, it makes sense to tell your client that:

DO I NEED TO KEEP THE SAME INSURER?

Many people wonder if they have to keep the same car insurance company while their personal injury claim is ongoing. The answer is no. You may change auto insurers anytime after a crash and it will not affect the insurance company’s responsibilities to pay your benefits for the crash you were in. In addition, some insurance companies are a lot better than others when it comes to their handling of claims. After you have had an opportunity to compare prices among insurance companies, I would be glad to tell you about my experience in dealing with claims from these insurers.

Tort Deform

It makes sense to use our bully pulpit to educate clients about tort reform propaganda. This serves the dual function of educating the client and highlighting the effect of tort deform on the value of their case.

Insurers and corporations have spent millions and millions of dollars in so-called tort reform efforts. No doubt you have seen advertisements and heard talk radio hosts talking about so-called frivolous lawsuits and “greedy trial lawyers.” Unfortunately, you have now become the victim of this propaganda, since insurance companies and corporations tend to call every injury claim “frivolous” if they can get away with it. As a result of these widespread myths about tort reform, juries are very reluctant to award fair and just compensation. The next time you hear someone passing along a tort deform myth, tell them “I used to believe that stuff too until I got injured” and then explain your experience.

You may even want to provide your clients with copies of AAJ publications debunking these myths.

Politics

In a related area, you may even want to address politics in your client communications. This is obviously a very touchy area and should be handled cautiously. Frank, common sense factual advice should be well accepted:

Your elected officials have a major effect on the laws governing your case. Although there are some excellent pro-consumer Republicans, most Republicans tend to be pro-business and most Democrats tend to be pro-consumer. BE AWARE of your representative’s attitudes toward “tort deform,” especially during election season.

Methods of Communication

Most of these types of communications started off as supplement or attachments to standard client letters. This is probably still the most commonly used method of client communication, and it is efficient and cost effective.

However, many lawyers are now using e-mails, web sites and legal network-blogging sites such as www.injuryboard.com to disseminate these messages. Many of them can also be translated into effective advertising.

Take advantage of your Bully Pulpit and spread the word on issues important to your clients, our profession, the civil justice system and society.

Visit Our Personal Injury BlogREAD MORE »
Our Articles READ MORE »
E - News Letters READ MORE »
Advice for LawyersREAD MORE »
Web Resources READ MORE »
Firm OverviewREAD MORE »
Attorneys and StaffREAD MORE »
Our Awards and AffiliationsREAD MORE »
Our VideosREAD MORE »
 
Camp Lejeune LawsuitREAD MORE »
Paraquat LawsuitREAD MORE »
Hernia Mesh LawsuitREAD MORE »
Personal Injury Information CenterREAD MORE »

CONTACT US FOR A FREE CONSULTATION