Dietrich Law Firm PC Jed Dietrich How to Choose The Best Injury Lawyer After a Car Accident

This week we spoke with attorney Jed Dietrich about the importance of contacting an attorney in the case of an auto accident. Well this morning let's talk about why that decision is important and how to go about choosing the right one and of course your calls and questions are welcome at 644-9840. I was just asking Jed if he had a dog because you know we push that on this show but you're an early morning exerciser huh? So a dog would work out great for you. Yeah well we love dogs in our family. We had three dogs when I was growing up so that was great and we went to the SPCA and picked up the dogs and we saved them which i think is very important because there are a lot of animals out there and if you can save an animal along the way and have a good experience that's great.

But what we're talking about here today Linda is choosing the right lawyer. Yes. When it comes to an auto injury or car accident and you hear about a lot of the folks on TV and the advertising “oh call me because I'm an advertising lawyer and I specialize or I handle auto injury cases,” and as a lawyer not supposed to say specialize but we handle this type of case or that type of case. It's important to have a lawyer who's going to look you in the eye and tell you what they're going to do for you what they can't do for you and say hey if I don't know the answer to a question I'm gonna look it up and get back to you. That's the important thing it's just like hiring are they're going in to see a doctor I mean because really a hire doctors many doctors out there the many lawyers out there.

You want a relationship that's a personal relationship a relationship that's based on trust and when you have a relationship like that the arrangements going to work out properly. So I say when you're gonna hire any lawyer, especially when you have an auto injury, you need to sit down with the lawyer interview the lawyer everybody works for free until the case is resolved at the end. Doesn't cost anything in my office we work on a contingency arrangement just like the other lawyers out there when it comes to personal injury cases so you want to sit down talk to somebody and get the lay of the land in terms of an auto injury. Because your medical bills are paid by No-Fault and your insurance company is gonna pay your medical bills but there are certain steps that need to be taken your rights have to be preserved you need a lawyer to find out about those types of things so that's what I like to say.

It's important to sit down have a proper relationship have a level of trust between you and that person that you're that you're sitting across the table from so that when you move forward and you call them up and you say “hey what's going on with this or what's going on with that,” they give you a straight answer and that that's important because some of the folks out there when it comes to advertising lawyers or when it comes to choosing any type of a professional you hear a marketing campaign and you don't know if that marketing campaign is going to ring true down the road as you're working with someone. So I'm available for a free consultation at 716-839-3939 and if folks have calls this morning I'm willing to take those. And we can talk about that. There's an awful lot of car accidents out there just because of the crazy conditions and everybody has to relearn those skills again but it's interesting Jed because I look at you like you're you're an attorney that is like the newest wave of attorneys that sees maybe what attorneys in the past did wrong and doesn't want to run a business like that.

Well yeah that I think the point you're trying to make and I try to make and I appreciate you bringing it up is that I treat others the way I want to be treated. Yeah. I mean and that's I live by that golden rule and I think if we as a society work that way together we'd have a lot less problems so when someone calls me I return their calls one business day I personally do I give every single client my cell phone number so that if they have a problem on the weekend or at night they'll call me up and I've heard other lawyers say “oh why would you give someone your cell phone number like that I don't want people bothering me.” You know what the folks that I choose to work with they have the capacity and the judgement to call me when it's important and then they don't call me when it's not important and I had a client call me over the weekend and it was a prospective client and when you call my office you can directly be patched through to my cell phone I have that set up it's just push a button it goes right through you call 716-839-3939 on the weekend go right to my cell phone.

Someone calls me and they say “I had an accident three years ago and I've had another lawyer working on it and I'm disgruntled and they're not getting me my money in time,” I've made an evaluation about that person right from the get-go so it's got to be a relationship that goes back and forth and that's the thing. A lot of these folks out there who are advertising for personal injury cases some of them will take any case that comes in the door I mean I don't take every case but the cases that I do take I work on and I try to give the person on the other end of the line and the person that's working with me the proper care and respect so they come away from the legal experience with a positive outlook on it. Because years ago that the folks didn't have that. Or how disappointing to think that you're watching an ad “oh I'm gonna work with this person,” and then you find out you'll never even see that person.

That's exactly right I meet with every client that comes to me and that's one of my trademarks. All right we have a phone call for you either a question or a comment. Good morning. Good morning. Go ahead please. Yeah I was wondering when you get a lawyer, like we're listening to Jed and he says that you don't have any costs until he wins the case. Who pays for like the court costs and all the other expenses incurred by the case? That’s a great question and what happens in my office and it's traditional in my field is that the personal injury lawyer will front the the expenses in the beginning for the filing cost, to hire an investigator, to file the lawsuit in the Supreme Court, to hire a person to go out and serve the papers and then at the end of the case when the case is over with those disbursement so those costs are taken from the top of the case and then the attorney’s fee comes and that's 1/3 and then the resulting figure is for the client. So the good thing is I mean you can call my office 100 times and I don't charge you for phone calls and on charger for letters it's just the 1/3 fee and that's the thing.

So many folks are out there in terms of other lawyers we're gonna do this for you we're going to do that for you and then you hear about a negative experience and it looks bad on our whole profession so I'm driving this force behind trying to treat people the way you need to be treated. And that's one of the first things that will come up in that first consultation with someone so nobody leaves with a lot of questions. That's right. I wonder about - no get those questions answered. And I'm not going to say I know the answer to every single question but I mean my philosophy is if you don't know the answer it's my job to go look it up and you back to the person in a timely fashion usually within one day so I'm not going to profess to be an expert on every area of the law but when it comes to the personal injury law I’ve focused on that with my practice for more than 10 years I've been exclusively doing that and when it comes to a specific area there if I don't know the answer I'm going to look it up and get back to you and usually put it in writing. All right Jed well I'll tell you if this sounds good to you this is where you want to call the Dietrich Law Firm (716) 839-3939. (716) 839-3939. You may also go online you can go to www.calljed.com and his office is located at 101 John James Audubon Pkwy in Amherst. Jed we'll see you again soon alright. Thanks Linda my pleasure.