Vetting an Attorney Based on Trial Experience

[llworking]

I realize that most cases settle out of court on the eleventh hour. However, some settle for much more than others, obviously for an endless amount of reasons.

I ask this because I watched about 6-8 ten minute talks by personal injury lawyers who give their introductions on U-tube. You may think those speeches are cheesy or untrustworthy but they do identify themselves and are putting their best foot forward for their firm. It is far more than anyone who posts here is willing to do. Actually, the only one that comes even close is Aaron...but he rarely posts and I've never seen him represent his firm by speaking into a camera. I'd like to see it though.

Anyway, what several of the attorneys are saying is that the insurance companies know which attorneys will try a case. Therefore, they are more apt to make larger offers to those attorney who WILL take the case to trial. So, how do they know which ones will litigate a case? And, why make a high offer to a bluffing attorney?

Every attorney wants a slam dunk case but are there actually some that totally avoid the courtroom...and public record documents that? Remember, it's all public record so why wouldn't there be a trackable record of it?



First, I am not looking for an easy way to hire an attorney. I am curious if there is data on lawyers and their success rate in the courtroom?

I disagree with the above bold statement. If most attorneys settled out of court 90% of the time, and a defendant found itself facing an attorney that settled out of court only 70% of the time, it is clear you are facing an attorney who is ready, willing and able to litigate a case. Since most insurance companies do not want to try a case, that attorney would be feared more than a bluffer. He would be made a more serious offer. At least that is what several of these attorneys are saying.

So, are they FOS and tooting their own horn?

Insurance companies have to have an attorney of their own, who is licensed in that state, who works in that venue to handle their side of the case. Its THEIR attorneys who are familiar with the opposing attorney and know who will take a case to trial or not.

[llworking]

Answer the simple question then. How can public record not be public?

Unblock your PM and I will 'educate' you.

Also, I have substantiated why I doubt you.

You are assuming that if something is a public record, that it is required to be available on the internet. A public record is merely a record accessible by the public. Sometimes that means you have to access the record in person, at the courthouse or the agency where it is housed.

[Brian57]

Nobody said the data was public. Just that there isn't at this point in time a way to look up what you asked for.

Really? Court docs are not public record? Then please explain how a poster here furnished a particular lawsuit after I merely mentioned the intersection it occurred at? Or the name of the victim?

[llworking]

Really? Court docs are not public record? Then please explain how a poster here furnished a particular lawsuit after I merely mentioned the intersection it occurred at?

From the way his second sentence was worded its clear that he meant to say "Nobody said the data wasn't public".

[free9man]

Really? Court docs are not public record? Then please explain how a poster here furnished a particular lawsuit after I merely mentioned the intersection it occurred at?

I think Payroll misspoke there but I'll let them address that. As stated prior, not all court docs are records that are publicly available. The majority yes but not all.

[Brian57]

Insurance companies have to have an attorney of their own, who is licensed in that state, who works in that venue to handle their side of the case. Its THEIR attorneys who are familiar with the opposing attorney and know who will take a case to trial or not.

So you are also saying, from experience, that unlike real estate search engines, there is NO proprietary search engine accessing court docs?

I can tell you how many properties a person owns and who he borrowed the money from. You are saying an attorney has zero access to how many times another attorney filed a lawsuit and how many times that lawsuit was settled/dropped without a trial?

[free9man]

So you are also saying, from experience, that unlike real estate search engines, there is NO proprietary search engine accessing court docs?

There are services (not really search engines) that can locate some court documents, usually appellate level stuff. They include Google Scholar, Westlaw, Lexis, and there are probably more. Most have fees involved. They do not have access to all court records. No such system exists nationwide or on a state level. None will have anything that can help you find the statistics you asked about in your original post.

[Taxing Matters]

So you are also saying, from experience, that unlike real estate search engines, there is NO proprietary search engine accessing court docs?

Of course there services with data bases containing court decisions, though those are primarily appellate court decisions, not trial court cases. If you access the trial court directly it may have a data base of its cases that you can search for trial court information. But what you won't find is a database in which someone has compiled statistics to try to assess attorney performance. One of the reasons for that is that the nature of law practice makes it difficult to develop meaningful objective statistics to do that.

[llworking]

So you are also saying, from experience, that unlike real estate search engines, there is NO proprietary search engine accessing court docs?

I can tell you how many properties a person owns and who he borrowed the money from. You are saying an attorney has zero access to how many times another attorney filed a lawsuit and how many times that lawsuit was settled/dropped without a trial?

I am saying that there is no public database that has gathered the information that you want, in a searchable mode on the internet. There are lots of databases that are only available to attorneys and judges, but those are local, closed system databases. There may be some local court system, in some states, who have made similar databases available to the public, but they are likely few and far between.

Even case law is difficult to find sometimes if you are not an attorney who has paid for access to Lexis Nexis or some other paid for use search engine. Its out there, but you have to check many different sources to find it.

Do you realize how much work, cost and effort it would require to put all of the information you would want in an accessible database? That is why they are usually NOT free.

[Brian57]

There are search engines that can locate some court documents, usually appellate level stuff. They include Google Scholar, Westlaw, Lexis, and there are probably more. Most have fees involved. They do not have access to to all court records. No such system exists nationwide or on a state level. None will have anything that can help you find the statistics you asked about in your original post.

You are now on my ignore list for overgeneralizing, saying nothing of substance and only repeating what others say.