Injured people deserve a lawyer. Not a case manager.
Case managers and paralegals are invaluable members of a personal injury team. This isn’t a criticism of them. Every great law firm relies on talented non-attorney staff.
The problem arises when attorneys stop being the ones actually driving the case.
Over the years, I’ve met prospective clients of other lawyers who told me they had never spoken with their lawyer despite their case being open for months.
I’ve met others who said they didn’t meet their lawyer until 10 minutes before their deposition, and that brief conversation was the entirety of their preparation.
I’ve heard from clients who couldn’t get legal questions answered because they were always routed to a case manager instead of the attorney they hired.
Those stories aren’t the fault of the case managers. They’re the result of a business model that asks one attorney to supervise hundreds of files while non-lawyers handle most of the day-to-day work.
I’ve seen attorney job postings where one lawyer is expected to supervise six to 10 case managers, with each case manager responsible for 50 to 100 cases. That’s a structure designed to maximize volume and efficiency, not value and personal service.
Personal injury cases require legal judgment, strategy, experience, counseling clients through difficult decisions, preparing them for depositions, working with experts, negotiating from a position of strength, and trying cases when necessary.
Those responsibilities belong to lawyers.
When someone hires a law firm, they should expect and deserve an attorney who knows their case, knows their injuries, and is personally invested in achieving the best possible outcome.
Injured people deserve a lawyer, not just a lawyer’s signature.
Would you agree? Join this and other conversations with me on LinkedIn.
Related:
Friends Don’t Let Friends Hire Bad Lawyers!
