They May Seem Concerned, But Case Runners Are Only Out for Themselves

Should you be concerned if you are solicited by an unknown person in a hospital or in your home who claims to have a good lawyer who can help you with your Connecticut auto accident claim?

What does this say about this particular law office that hires people to unethically solicit accident victims who have suffered personal injuries to bring a claim against a negligent driver’s insurance company?

These are two questions that I will address in this article.

Assume that you have been seriously injured in an accident and it has caused an incredible amount of disruption to your daily life. Most people have never had to make a claim with an insurance company due to injuries sustained through the fault of someone else. So this is new territory. It is confusing. And it can be stressful.

Yet, before you know it, you could be approached by a very friendly person who promises to help you get a lot of money for your injuries. You have never met them before but all of a sudden they care deeply about your accident injuries. They know a “great” lawyer who can help you. This “case runner,” as they are called, seems to know a lot about the claims process. And they seem to really care about your case. They may even share your same ethnic background or speak your native language.

Case or ambulance runners are third-party agents who are paid to search out possible victims of negligence, for example car accident victims here in Connecticut or in other states, and try to steer them towards a particular attorney. They solicit victims usually in the hospital or even at their homes.

Clients represented by lawyers who use case runners are unknowingly conned into thinking they are working with an ethical lawyer. Before hiring a personal injury lawyer consider the following:

• Don’t sign with a personal injury attorney until you’ve been to their office, to verify that he or she has one.
• If anyone contacts you after an accident, other than the involved insurance company, there’s a good chance they are a case runner looking to make easy money off of you.
• Hire a local Connecticut attorney for a local Connecticut case and be sure you are working with the lawyer you actually hired and not his or her legal assistants. You want to be sure a licensed lawyer is handling your case and dealing with the insurance company and not some non-lawyer assistant.
• If you want a referral, ask your friends or a reliable source for a referral.
• Be sure your lawyer is competent to handle your auto accident injury case and will not just sell you out to the insurance company for much less money then you should receive for your injuries and pain and suffering.

If you have been in an accident and want a professional and ethical attorney to handle your case, make sure you are the one who contacts the attorney first. Ask yourself this question: if this lawyer working with the case runner is really so good, why do they need to pay someone unethically to convince me to go to that office?

We are here to answer any questions you have and give legal advice concerning auto accident injury, personal injury and work injury cases.