If you were seriously injured in a car accident, semi-truck crash, fall, or another accident in Illinois, choosing the right personal injury lawyer may be one of the most important decisions you make.
It may also be more confusing today than ever before.
Turn on your television. Drive down an Illinois expressway. Search Google for an Illinois personal injury lawyer, Chicago truck accident attorney, or car accident lawyer near me. You may see the same law firms over and over again.
Some are established Illinois firms. Others are high-volume firms headquartered hundreds, or even thousands of miles away that have entered the Illinois market with enormous advertising budgets.
The personal injury marketplace has changed. Significant amounts of money are being spent on legal advertising, lead generation, litigation financing, and the acquisition of personal injury cases.
But injured consumers should understand one important point:
The law firm with the biggest advertising budget is not necessarily the law firm best equipped to handle your injury case.
How Do You Choose the Best Illinois Personal Injury Lawyer for your case ?
Start by looking beyond the advertising.
Whether you suffered injuries in a semi-truck accident, car crash, motorcycle accident, slip and fall, premises liability accident, negligent security incident, sexual assault, catastrophic injury, or wrongful death, find out who will actually be responsible for protecting your rights.
Ask whether the attorney handling your case is licensed in Illinois. Ask where the firm handling your case is located. Ask whether the firm regularly files and litigates personal injury lawsuits in Illinois courts.
Most importantly, ask:
What happens if the insurance company refuses to pay a fair settlement?
The answer may tell you more about a personal injury law firm than its advertising ever will.
Why Are So Many Out-of-State Personal Injury Firms Advertising in Illinois?
Large personal injury firms can spend millions on television commercials, billboards, Google advertising, social media, call centers, and internet lead generation.
That makes it possible for firms located far outside Illinois to aggressively market to Illinois accident victims.
There is nothing inherently wrong with an out-of-state firm advertising where legally permitted. But seeing a lawyer constantly advertising in Illinois does not necessarily tell you whether that lawyer is licensed here, whether that lawyer will handle your case, or whether your case may eventually be referred to someone else.
Before signing a contract, ask:
Are you licensed in Illinois? Who will actually handle my case? Where is that lawyer located? Does your firm regularly litigate in Illinois? If a lawsuit becomes necessary, who will file and prosecute it? Could my case be referred to another firm?
You have every right to know exactly whom you are hiring.
Outside Money and the Changing Personal Injury Business
Significant outside capital has entered the broader personal injury marketplace through litigation finance, marketing, lead generation, and other financial arrangements.
Illinois ethical rules protect a lawyer’s independent professional judgment and generally restrict nonlawyer ownership and fee sharing.
Those protections matter.
A lawyer’s professional judgment should be exercised for the client and not for an investor, marketing company, or financial backer.
From the client’s perspective, the most important question is simple:
Who is making the decisions about my case, and whose interests are driving those decisions?
When enormous amounts of money are spent acquiring personal injury cases through advertising, those expenditures eventually have to produce revenue. Consumers should therefore understand the difference between a law firm built to litigate serious cases and a high-volume operation built primarily to acquire and process large numbers of claims.
What Is a Personal Injury “Settlement Mill”?
The term “settlement mill” is sometimes used to describe a high-volume personal injury practice that relies heavily on resolving cases through settlement rather than extensive litigation.
Not every large personal injury firm is a settlement mill. And settlement itself is not a bad thing. A good settlement is often exactly what is best for an injured client.
The real question is:
Was your case settled because settlement was in your best interest, or because quickly settling cases is part of the firm’s business model?
A high-volume system can be very efficient: sign the client, obtain the medical records, submit a demand, negotiate the insurance company’s offer, settle the case, collect the fee, and move to the next file.
That may be an efficient business model.
But serious personal injury cases do not always fit neatly into an assembly line.
Insurance Companies Know Which Lawyers Actually Litigate
Insurance companies evaluate risk for a living, and part of that risk is the lawyer representing the injured person.
They know which firms regularly file lawsuits. They know which attorneys take depositions, retain experts, pursue corporate records and electronic evidence, and prepare cases for trial.
An insurance company can evaluate whether a law firm is genuinely prepared to put a case before an Illinois jury.
Think about it from the insurance company’s perspective:
Why should an insurance company pay maximum value if it believes the plaintiff’s law firm doesn’t want to file a lawsuit?
Litigation creates leverage. Preparation creates leverage. The credible ability to take a serious injury case to a jury creates leverage.
Don’t Confuse Advertising Power With Illinois Litigation Experience
There is nothing inherently wrong with attorney advertising. Mancini Law Group advertises our services too.
Advertising can introduce you to a lawyer.
It shouldn’t choose your lawyer for you.
A law firm can buy television commercials.
It can buy billboards.
It can buy Google advertisements.
It can buy leads.
It cannot buy Illinois personal injury litigation experience.
That experience is earned through years of investigating accidents, representing injured people, filing lawsuits, conducting discovery, taking depositions, working with experts, dealing with insurance companies and defense lawyers, and preparing cases for Illinois judges and juries.
The question isn’t how often you’ve seen the law firm’s commercials. The question is what that law firm can do when the insurance company refuses to pay.
Big Settlement Numbers Don’t Tell the Whole Story
Personal injury advertising can sometimes resemble a scoreboard:
$1 Million. $5 Million. $10 Million. $20 Million.
There is nothing inherently wrong with a law firm discussing a significant settlement or verdict. An exceptional result can demonstrate the type and magnitude of litigation a firm has handled.
But there is a difference between occasionally discussing a significant result and building an advertising strategy around a constant stream of settlement numbers.
When you see a large number in an advertisement, ask what you aren’t being told.
What were the injuries? Was the client permanently disabled? Was it a settlement or jury verdict? How much insurance was available? Were there multiple defendants or claimants? Was liability contested? Were other law firms involved? Was a lawsuit filed? What legal work produced the result?
Without context, a large settlement number may make impressive advertising, but it tells you very little about what a lawyer could accomplish in your case.
Someone else’s settlement is not the value of your case.
Your Settlement Is Also Your Financial Business
There is another issue worth considering: privacy.
A personal injury case can involve some of the most private information in a person’s life. Information such as medical conditions, surgeries, disabilities, inability to work, lost income, and financial hardship.
A client may choose to authorize a lawyer to disclose information about a case or its result. That is the client’s decision.
But before agreeing to have a settlement, and particularly your identity, used in advertising, ask yourself:
Do I really want the public knowing how much money I received?
At Mancini Law Group, we believe there is a difference between demonstrating experience through an exceptional case result and unnecessarily turning a client’s identity and personal financial recovery into an advertising commodity.
A substantial result may demonstrate experience.
The client’s identity doesn’t have to become part of the advertisement.
Your medical history is personal. Your financial circumstances are personal.
Your recovery is your business.
Choosing an Illinois Truck Accident Lawyer
Choosing the right attorney becomes especially important after a serious semi-truck or commercial vehicle accident.
A truck accident is not simply a bigger car accident.
An experienced Illinois truck accident attorney may need to investigate the driver’s qualifications, hours-of-service records, electronic logging data, truck “black box” data, GPS information, maintenance records, dispatch communications, cellphone evidence, cargo issues, motor carrier safety policies, hiring and training practices, FMCSA safety records, and potentially the conduct of other companies involved in the transportation operation.
Some evidence can disappear or be overwritten.
The objective should not simply be to obtain medical records and send an insurance company a settlement demand.
The lawyer should be asking:
Why did this truck crash happen? Who was responsible? What safety rules were violated? What evidence proves it? And are there other companies that may share responsibility?
Serious Injuries Require Serious Litigation
The same is true for catastrophic injuries.
A traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, severe fracture, amputation, burn injury, or permanent disability may affect someone for decades.
A properly developed catastrophic injury case may require physicians, surgeons, economists, vocational experts, life-care planners, engineers, accident reconstructionists, and other specialists to establish future medical needs, lost earning capacity, disability, disfigurement, pain and suffering, and loss of a normal life.
The lawyer must understand not only what happened yesterday, but what the injury may mean five, ten, twenty, or thirty years from now.
A catastrophic injury case should never be treated like just another file moving through a settlement pipeline.
Questions to Ask Before Hiring an Illinois Personal Injury Lawyer
Before signing a contract, ask whether the lawyer is licensed in Illinois and who will actually handle your case. Ask about the firm’s experience with your particular type of injury, whether it regularly files Illinois lawsuits, whether it takes depositions and hires experts, and whether it is prepared to take your case to trial.
Also ask whether your case could be referred to another law firm and whether you will be able to communicate directly with an attorney about important decisions.
You are interviewing the lawyer. It’s not the other way around.
More Than 30 Years Representing Injury Victims
At Mancini Law Group, P.C., we have represented injury victims for more than 33 years.
Our philosophy is straightforward:
Prepare every serious case with the understanding that it may ultimately have to be presented to a jury.
That doesn’t mean every case should go to trial. A strong settlement can often be the best result for an injured client.
But there is a significant difference between choosing to settle from a position of strength and operating a business model dependent upon settling cases.
We investigate. We identify responsible parties. We preserve evidence. We develop the medical case. We retain experts when appropriate, and we litigate when necessary.
If you or a family member has suffered a serious injury in an Illinois car accident, semi-truck accident, commercial vehicle crash, slip and fall, premises liability accident, negligent security incident, sexual assault, or another incident caused by negligence, ask questions before choosing a lawyer.
Know who you are hiring. Know who will actually handle your case. Know whether the lawyer has Illinois personal injury litigation experience.
And most importantly:
Know whether that law firm is prepared to fight when the insurance company refuses to pay.
Mancini Law Group, P.C.
Maximum Justice. Maximum Results.
We fight… They pay.
