Are you hiring an Injury Attorney or a Marketing Company?

Advertising for personal injury attorneys has been prevalent for years on TV, radio, billboards and now social media.  Especially in big markets like Chicago, it’s impossible to miss.  Recently, new “firms” have decided to dump buckets of water on an already saturated market in an effort to entice injury victims to hire their “firms”. 

Illinois has long held a rule that only attorneys may be equity owners of a law firm.  This is because attorneys are held to higher ethical standards and a professional code of conduct.  We have ethical duties to clients and ethical standards of conduct that separate us from most business models who blindly place profits over customers or clients.  Once non-attorneys start to own law firms then it follows that those law firms would blindly place profits over clients, as the owners are not obligated to follow the attorney’s code of conduct. Some states have loosened these restrictions on non-attorneys owning or investing in law firms.  It has allowed some of them to develop a franchise model where they form in another state and then sell their marketing packages and clients obtained through their marketing to their local franchise or licensee.  Attorneys that handle the cases have no real link to the person or firm you see on television.  They dump money into a market and then charge commissions based on a local firm’s revenue for back-office services at a rate based on the firm’s fees.

Still others you see in these prolific ads are not even law firms.  They are merely lead generating marking companies who take in these cases and then try to sell the clients to law firms who want to buy their “leads”. 

Some of these ads are propelled by private equity firms that dump money into advertising for a specific firm and then charge them for “back office” services at rates that fluctuate with the profits for the firm, thereby exploiting a loophole by earning a percentage of the fees, without directly getting a percentage of the fee.  In Illinois, a fee can be shared only with another attorney who maintains professional and ethical responsibility for the handling of a case.  The Illinois legislature is at the forefront of trying to root out and prevent these “Management Service Organizations” who are seeking to share in profits and place finances over ethics for Illinois personal injury firms.  HB 5487 is currently awaiting the governor’s signature and represents a rare bill that has the support of both Plaintiff attorneys and Defense attorneys statewide.  Illinois is at the forefront of protecting vulnerable injury clients who run the risk of falling victim to these firms backed by outside money.

Most of these heavy advertising “firms” simply refer cases to other attorneys who actually do the work or take in seemingly easy cases that they try to settle quickly for short money and then refer them out to actual law firms to litigate if they can’t be settled.  The case is usually handled by case managers with dozens of case managers being “supervised” by a supervising attorney, and clients typically don’t know who the actual attorney is “supervising” their case, much less ever speak with that attorney.

At Adeszko Abate & Green, we strive to separate ourselves from these “firms.”  Any client who has worked with us knows the attorney handling their case and has an open line of communication with that attorney.  Our attorneys handle cases from intake through trial, communicating with and guiding our clients every step of the way.  We are in constant daily communication with our support staff and can ensure that if they speak with a client, the attorney is fully informed of communication on a regular basis.  All decision making and guidance given to our clients is done by our attorneys, and you need to look no further than “Adeszko”, “Abate” & “Green” to know who your attorney is.  This positive experience is exactly why our current and past clients continue to be our number one source for new clients.

So, the next time you see one of these television ads or billboards, ask yourself what they are trying to sell and who is really the attorney handling their cases.  If you have a friend or family member who may be considering calling an attorney they saw on TV or a billboard, share this with them.  Our attorneys at Adeszko Abate & Green would be more than happy to discuss their case with them.