Myth: All personal injury lawyers try to steal cases from each other.
There is a new and disturbing trend that we are seeing in our industry, where California personal injury lawyers are seeking out clients who are already represented by other attorneys. While this is unfortunately happening more and more, it is important to remember that lawyers are held to a high ethical standard and poaching cases from other lawyers still is not the norm.
Unlike some of the attorneys you see on television commercials, radio advertisements, or billboards, our firm is not looking to try to take cases from other attorneys. In fact, when a potential client calls us and wants to switch attorneys to us, the first thing we will do is look to see if the current attorney-client relationship is sustainable, or if it has reached a point of no return. Attorney Robert Walch will frequently see what he can do to revive the existing relationship, rather than take another attorney’s case.
Just recently, Robert successfully handled a Los Angeles car accident case for a client and that client referred a friend of his to Robert. The new referral had a strong case and was not happy with his attorney for many reasons. Robert reviewed the file for the potential referral free of charge and found certain errors in the file. Although this was the type of case that Robert would normally take (a Los Angeles motorcycle accident injury claim), instead of taking it, Robert told the new referral what he should do to revive his relationship with his current attorney, so that he would not need to switch attorneys.
The potential referral followed Robert’s advice and was very thankful for the help provided. Sometimes, however, we have found issues so problematic with the work of some other attorneys, that just giving some advice is not enough. In those rare circumstances, we have taken over certain cases, as we felt it was 100% in the CLIENT’S best interests. That is what is most important to us, that those who are seriously injured receive the best possible representation. That is our goal for every one of our cases. We always offer a free consultation to determine in what way we can help you.