Personal Injury

Many law firms are set up to service as large of a number of clients as possible with as little overhead as possible. Generally speaking, attorneys demand higher compensation than a case manager. Because of this, plaintiffs firms (like those that advertise) use case managers to chaperone the cases. This means that clients at these firms will speak with a case manager and paralegal rather than an attorney. Don’t feel too bad. They even do this to opposing counsel in lawsuits!

While there are certainly capable case managers out there, most clients want to speak to the lawyer that they hire. At Weatherby Law Firm, P.C., we take a limited number of cases so that we can provide personal service to our clients. When our clients call, they speak with us, their attorneys, not a case worker or paralegal. 

In order to provide this service, we focus on serious injuries only. We specialize in Atlanta truck accidents, bike accidents, brain injuries, spine injuries, amputations, and similar serious injuries. We have extensive experience in these areas. We have the resources necessary to litigate them. And, we value helping those who need it most.

If you want to speak with your attorney directly, ask them. If you can’t get ahold of them, consider changing to a smaller firm that focuses on personal service like us. At our firm, we specialize in truck wrecks, fatal accidents, wrongful death, bike accidents, catastrophic injury, and class actions.

This depends on whether the lawyer is working for the plaintiff (the injured person) or the defendant (the person claimed to be at fault). 

Fees for a Plaintiff: When working for an injured person, the plaintiff’s attorney is generally paid on a contingent fee basis. A contingent fee means that the fee is “contingent” on the outcome of the litigation. If the litigation results in recovery, the attorney receives an agreed-upon percentage of the recovery. If the lawsuit results in no recovery, the attorney receives nothing. This is why you see a lot of advertisements that say “no fee unless you win” or the like. This means that the lawyer is receiving a percentage of the outcome of the lawsuit.

In general, percentages for personal injury cases vary between 1/3 to 1/2 of the recovery. The amount of the percentage depends on a number of factors. One of the key factors is the amount of work involved. A lot of lawyers increase their fees based on the stage of litigation. If the claim is settled pre-suit, for example, there will generally be a lower percentage than if it is settled after suit is filed. Other factors include the facts of the case, the likelihood of recovery, the expense involved, the risk involved and more. 

These percentages are at this level because there are significant risks for a plaintiff’s attorney. The attorney usually fronts the expenses for the case (which is typically in the many thousands of dollars). The attorney also usually works for a long time before receiving payment. If the case goes poorly, the attorney may lose significant resources in expenses and lost time. At the outset of your relationship, the attorney should explain to you the contingent fee contract and how it may affect your case.

Fees for a Defendant: When representing a Defendant, the fee is usually paid on an hourly basis. This means that the attorney will bill the Defendant hourly for the work incurred at an agreed-upon hourly rate.The various hourly rates are too many to list. It depends on the size of the firm, the size of the client, the amount of work estimated, the location of the lawyer/client/lawsuit, and the experience of the lawyer, among others. It will almost certainly be in the hundreds of dollars per hour. The lawyer will generally send bills to the client at an agreed-upon interval, every month or every few months. 

A defense attorney may require a retainer to begin work. A retainer is an amount of funds that the client advances toward the defense of the case. The lawyer, then, bills toward the retainer. When the retainer reaches a certain level, the lawyer may request that the retainer be replenished to continue work. The amount of the retainer varies significantly and depends on a number of factors, like those detailed above for hourly work.

There is a third type of defense arrangement, which is a fixed monthly rate. This is the least common arrangement and often used only by insurance companies or other businesses with significant, consistent litigation exposure. This is because the monthly fee only makes sense if litigation is consistent.There are a lot of different fee arrangements depending on the facts and circumstances of your case. Please contact us today for a free consultation on your legal issue.

When you are involved in a serious accident, whether it is a car accident, truck accident, pedestrian accident etc., there are often a lot of personal injury medical bills. If you are fortunate enough to have health insurance, all of your medical bills should be submitted to your insurer if at all possible. This is because, at the end of your case if you receive a settlement, you will have to pay for the medical treatment you received.

Rights of Health Insurers Under Georgia Law

Under Georgia law, in general, a health insurer has weaker rights to recover medical expenses paid than a hospital or doctor directly. O.C.G.A. § 33-24-56.1 (b) states as follows:

In the event of recovery for personal injury from a third party by or on behalf of a person for whom any benefit provider has paid medical expenses or disability benefits, the benefit provider for the person injured may require reimbursement from the injured party of benefits it has paid on account of the injury, up to the amount allocated to those categories of damages in the settlement documents or judgment, if:

(1) The amount of the recovery exceeds the sum of all economic and noneconomic losses incurred as a result of the injury, exclusive of losses for which reimbursement may be sought under this Code section; and

(2) The amount of the reimbursement claim is reduced by the pro rata amount of the attorney’s fees and expenses of litigation incurred by the injured party in bringing the claim.

In simple terms, this means that the insurer can recover funds only if the insurer can prove that the patient received more money than the claim of medical expenses and pain and suffering was worth. This is a tough road to hoe. Accordingly, in general, you will have to pay the health insurer less money out of pocket from your settlement.

In addition, the health insurer has negotiated rates with its medical providers that are lower than uninsured rates. This means the total amount owed will also be lower, making the amount you pay back less too.

Exceptions for ERISA Plans

There are exceptions to this rule, like with an ERISA employee-funded plan. ERISA plans are governed by Federal Law, and the plan terms often require full reimbursement. There still may be some arguments about the reasonableness of the charges or other arguments to reduce the amount owed. However, in general, a patient will be required to repay an ERISA plan more funds than a state-regulated insurer.

What if You Are Uninsured?

If you are uninsured, then the hospital or medical provider may provide treatment on a “lien.” Just like a contractor has a lien on their work on a home, a medical provider will have a lien on the treatment they provide. Sometimes the medical provider will require you to personally sign an acknowledging the lien. Other times, they will simply file the lien with the County or otherwise make you aware of it. In most cases, unless the medical provider messes up its lien rights, you will be paying back something to the provider. It will typically be more than an insurer due to the stronger rights of the provider and higher charges on the front end.

Can an Attorney Pay for Medical Bills?

In general, an attorney cannot pay for medical bills, in Georgia, except in very limited circumstances for diagnostic and related treatment. Because of the risk of a conflict of interest, most lawyers are hesitant to advance even those payments. In our experience, juries do not like it when a lawyer is involved in the medical care of a client.

Navigate Personal Injury Medical Bills with Legal Assistance

A knowledgeable Georgia attorney, like us, can help you navigate all aspects of your case, including these. We specialize in Atlanta truck accidents, bike accidents, brain injuries, spine injuries, amputations, and similar serious injuries.

If you or a loved one has been involved in an accident resulting in a serious (what we in the law label “catastrophic”) injury, one of the most challenging conversations to have with an attorney is the potential for recovery in your case. The most important thing is for you to get better, and, at the same time, there is a need to assess your ability to recover money for your injuries honestly. How do you do that?

We often use the analogy of a three-legged stool. For a stool to stand, it needs at least three legs. Similarly, a personal injury case (regardless of whether it is a brain injury, trailer wreck, bike accident, spine injury, or fatal accident case) requires three things.

Liability

The accident must be due to someone else’s fault. For most catastrophic injury cases, the other party is required to have done something wrong for you to recover. This is not true for certain product liability cases, where there is “strict liability” or liability just because the accident happened. However, in a typical Atlanta tractor-trailer accident, for example, the truck wreck must have been caused by the truck driver for there to be a recovery.

Damages as a Result of the Accident

The accident must have resulted in some injury to you. Having an accident, by itself, is not enough to recover financially from another party. There must be damages. In a personal injury case, this means there must be something physically that happens to you, as a result of the accident. For example, in an Atlanta brain injury case, the damage will be the diminished mental function, lost wages, medical expenses, and quality of life, of the plaintiff as a result of the accident.

Solvency

The Defendant must have a resource that the plaintiff can recover. There is nothing sadder in our practice than when a person who is really hurt or a family of a wrongful death accident comes to us, and the Defendant has no source of recovery. Unfortunately, the Defendant has to have some funds (like insurance or property) for the plaintiff to recover.

If any of these three “legs” are not present, the personal injury case (like a stool) cannot stand. If you think you have a truck wreck, fatal accident, pedestrian accident, bike accident, or catastrophic injury case, a knowledgeable Georgia attorney needs to review it to tell you for certain what you can and cannot likely recover.