Auto Insurance Claims: Settlement, soft tissue damage, legal aids

Question
My wife was involved in an auto accident last December.  She was driving down a four lane street and was t-boned by a driver who was pulling out of a parking lot.  She had soft tissue damage which required 6 months of therapy from various doctors.  Her medical bills came out to $11,198.60.  We hired a lawyer to work on our behalf and one of his legal aids presented us a settlement offer of $15,500.  Now after the reduced medical bills and attourney fees, we'll have about $4000 left.  We told the legal aid that we would not accept the settlement and that we wanted to talk to the attorney that we hired.  That was a couple weeks ago and we have not been able to talk to our attorney yet.  We were neither presented the settlement package nor had a meeting about the package before it was submitted to the other insurance company.  According to our research, using the "Specials" method and the "Per Diem" method, our settlement should be between $16,797 and $44,700.  What do we do when our lawyer will not talk to us, the legal aid seems incompetent, and we think that the settlement is unfair?  After all, my wife was stuck in bed for Christmas, New Years, and our son's 3rd birthday.

Answer
Hi Al,
The contract that you signed allowing the attorney to represent you gave him full power to present the demand, and negotiate a settlement.
He had a moral if not a legal obligation to keep you informed every step of the way.
It's not quiet clear from your question, but did he actually enter into a settlement and accept a check on your behalf?  You did not mention your state of residence, but in my state, I, as the injured party would have to agree to accept the settlement offer and sign a release of all claims before a check would be issued.
When his legal aide presented your wife with the settlement offer of $15,500 was she asking your wife to sign the offer or telling her that this was the amount that the claim had been settled for and trying to present her with a check?
If this was the case, that means that the attorney was given to power to sign a release and accept payment on your wife's behalf and the case is settled and closed.
The most recent statistics that I have read state that only 15% of licensed attorneys have actually presented a case before a jury.  This means that 85% of the attorneys practicing personal injury law simply write demand letters and negotiate with the insurance companies.  When a company says 'OK, this is our final offer', they simply agree to accept it because they don't know how to find the courthouse door in order to file a lawsuit.
You need to file a complaint with the American Bar Association in your state against the attorney.  The fact that he failed to keep you informed on a regular basis and now is unwilling to even talk to you on the phone is totally unacceptable behavior.
On the other hand, reading between the lines of your statement  "She had soft tissue damage which required 6 months of therapy from various doctors", leads me to believe that your wife treated with Chiropractors.  If this is true, you should be made aware that all insurance companies are extremely anti-Chiropractor.....this includes Auto, Health and Medi-Care.  When trying to settle an injury claim with an auto insurance company based solely on Chiropractor treatment, the insurance company will normally consider no more than 50% of his charges toward the settlement.  This means they have reduced the 'specials' to about $6,000 and a settlement offer of $15,500 does fall
within what would be considered a 'reasonable' offer.
The attorney is fully aware of the problem of settling a claim based on Chiropractic services and could have fully informed you of this fact.  It appears that he was more concerned with getting your wife's signature on a legal services contract and guaranteeing himself of 1/3 of the settlement than properly informing you and your wife of how the system works and keeping you up to date on the progress of the claim.
I hope this has been of help, please write again if you have more questions.
Your feedback by rating my answer will be appreciated.
Sincerely,
Bennie
San Francisco Bay Area 11-29-07 12:18 AM PST