One day on a farm, there was a chicken and a pig talking about what to have for breakfast. The chicken wanted bacon and eggs. The pig didn’t. The chicken asked the pig, “Why don’t you want bacon and eggs?” The pig replied “If you were me, you’d understand.” The chicken then said, “Well, I’m not you, could you explain why?” The pig said “You are just involved in making the breakfast, while I am committed to it”
What does this long-standing story have to do with being a client? There is a big difference between being involved in a case, and being committed to a case. In every personal injury case, someone is hurt from the action/inaction of another. This injured client hires an attorney to help get the compensation the law allows. Should the client stop there once a personal injury attorney is on the case? NO!!! The client who stops is merely involved and not committed to the case.
As a trial lawyer representing those who are injured, I want my client to be committed to their case. I have made the conscious decision not just to represent them, but to invest my time, my office staff’s time, and my resources (both financial and even emotional), to winning their case. It is normal to have over $10,000.00 of my firm’s money invested in a case that is ready to be tried in front of a jury. If I have invested my own money in a client’s case, I want my client to be just as invested in their case as I am. That being said, how can a client be committed and not just involved in their own case?
Tell me everything. Don’t just think you know what I need to know. You have hired me due to my experience, let me be the judge of what’ important to the case. Tell your doctors everything. A doctor who forms an opinion about your injury after knowing about all of your treatment history is a doctor who can not only help you physically recover, but lays the factual groundwork for a more favorable financial compensation since his/her opinion is based upon a complete physical history, and not an edited one. Follow doctor’s orders. If you are not to lift over 25 lbs., then don’t. If your doctor wants you to try 12 weeks of PT, try 12 weeks of PT and don’t give up after 3 sessions because it isn’t convenient to continue to attend those sessions. As questions come up as your case progresses, ask them/e-mail them; don’t assume they don’t matter.
I often tell client’s that they now have another job – their case. When a client approaches their case with the seriousness of a job, and not just an afterthought, the end result is much more satisfying. Those who are hurt, who are honest/straightforward, and those who are committed are the client’s who routinely will have the most satisfactory end result to their accident case.
