What does a personal injury case manager do?
If you’ve read any of my blog posts, or talked to me about a legal matter before, you know that I like to give long answers and short answers to questions; I’m a firm believer that things are rarely as simple as we’d like them to be.
Having said that, let me answer this question: What does a personal injury case manager do?
First, the long answer (you can scroll down for the short answer if you want):
If you’ve ever had a car accident and hired an attorney for your injury claim there’s a good chance you went with a big firm that you saw on television. When you did, you hired an attorney, but do you remember talking to that attorney after you hired him? If your case settled I would be willing to bet you never talked to that attorney again. In fact, I would be willing to bet that someone with the title of “case manager” worked on your file – reading and summarizing your medical records and compiling your demand brochure – and maybe even negotiated the case with the adjuster. So not only did your attorney not talk to you, he didn’t even talk to the adjuster. Attorneys are trained advocates and negotiators. But what have case managers learned in that field? What have they learned in any field, for that matter?
That “case manager” did not got to case management school. You know how I know that? Because there is no such thing. The dirty secret of many big personal injury law firms is that the vast majority of work is done by case managers with no educational training or legal background. These folk essentially did all the work that you assumed your attorney would be doing. Who are these people? What training do they have? In what way are they more qualified to handle a personal injury claim than you are?
If you ask me those questions about myself, I can answer them all quickly and easily. If you asked the other attorney with the case managers all over his files, he could answer them about himself as well, but if a case manager is working the files, what do his answers matter?
Wouldn’t you rather have the attorney you have hired and entrusted with your very valuable legal claim work on that claim personally, and not pass it off on someone with no formal training?
If you hire me, you get me. I work your case from the beginning of our relationship to the end. Granted, my assistant might type up a few letters for me, but I’m the one researching your case, reading and summarizing your medical records, compiling your demand brochure, writing your demand letter, and negotiating your claim.
SHORT ANSWER: Personal injury case managers do lots of the work you wish your attorney would do so that he or she would be more intimately familiar with your case.
If you’re thinking about hiring an attorney for an auto accident case, find out if there’s a case manager working on your file. If so, there’s a good chance that the case manager will know more about your case than your attorney, so why are you paying the attorney?
Hire an attorney who works his own files for his clients.
Call me: 919-929-2992.
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