Law firms and lawyers love to brag on websites about a lot of things.
Much of it is useless fluff ("experienced" or "aggressive"attorneys, whatever the hell that means) and some of it can even be quite misleading. Many of those "seven figure settlements" or verdicts a firm lists are not even the product of their own work or expertise. Many firms refer those cases out to another attorney or firm.
All that aside, today was not one of those "seven figure" days for me. In fact, today was a freebie for an elderly couple. Weeks ago their car got hit by a real gem of a nice guy who fled the scene. They weren't hurt but their car was totaled.
The driver was driving someone else's car, so there was a delay of a few weeks in getting the owner's insurance company to appraise the car and investigate the claim. In the meantime, the storage fees on the car exceeded $1,000, through no fault of the elderly couple.
This particular insurance company, who I have had consistently HORRIBLE dealings with, tells these nice folks: "we're only paying half of the storage bill since it's too much." They offered him $1200 on his car, and told him he could pay the rest of the storage bill out of the $1,200 offer.
They did this for one reason: they could. They figured they could strong arm these folks into caving in, because no lawyer would take their case over a $500 storage bill dispute.
They called me after an Internet search, and I told them to come in after hearing their story. I had an idea. I told them that if I call the adjuster on their behalf, it would probably go nowhere because the first thing out of his mouth would be "it's company policy," followed by "go ahead and sue if you want," figuring that no lawyer would do that over such a small amount.
So here's what I told them: "Go down to the local municipal court, take out a small claims petition, and bring it back. I'll help you fill it out and then take it back and file it. THEN I'll call the adjuster and my guess is that it will get worked out, since now they'll have to send a lawyer and an insurance rep to the hearing."
Almost a week later, I finally get a return call from a new adjuster. After haggling over a few facts, I told him that my clients sued their insured and if they did not want to pay the storage they could tell the magistrate at the hearing why a nice elderly couple should have to incur any storage fees for a hit and run driver and a delayed insurance investigation that led to the high storage bill.
And I told them I would be at the hearing representing these folks for free.
Next day, it's the adjuster on the phone: "we'll pay the storage bill."
Happy ending. Clients got what they wanted, and weren't out anything in the process.
I made no fee but made new friends. I guess it's a good sign that after 25 years, what happened to some nice folks still ticks me off enough to help with a practical solution to the problem. No burnout yet. Still like what I do.
It's certainly not headline grabbing. And it won't pay any overhead. But it sure is satisfying as hell. Call it a "zero figure settlement." Now there's some real bragging.....
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