Warning: Do Not Hire A Referral House Law Firm That is Merely a Glorified Referral Service
Referral-house law firms are really a lawyer referral service, yet often claim to be huge self-sustaining injury practice law firms, which is simply not the case. The only thing huge about them is their referral list of outside/non-affiliated law firms they refer to. Once they refer the case out, they are done with the case and just sit back and wait for their cut of the attorney fee. They survive by engaging in extensive glitzy marketing campaigns that can make any injury law firm look like a shining star in the injury firm arena. It is important to see through this possible misrepresentation and do your own research in picking the right law firm.
Many of these lawyers and firms are located across the state or across the country, even though they “appear” to be local. These firms are merely lawyer referral services, who refer you to another outside local law firm, of which you never selected and know nothing about. You do not even know if the outside firm specializes in personal injury law, you do not know their track record for winning personal injury cases, or even their results. You are just arbitrarily “assigned” to this outside law firm to handle your case. It is imperative that you research the specific law firm that will be personally handling your personal injury case. These type of non-local referral based law firms have huge marketing campaigns that can make an injury law firm appear gigantic and look like they are savvy specialists (internally) at practicing injury law across a state or in many states. In reality, all injury firms are NOT created equal, and you owe it to yourself and your family to dig deeper.
A law firm referring personal injury cases to a network of local attorneys across a state, across New England or across the country does not add to the size of the referring law firm. Neither is such a large referral network relevant to the quality of representation you will receive at the referred-to local law firm that was arbitrarily “assigned” to your case. In fact referral networks often lead to frustration, a poor fit, which can contribute to poor results. Why? Because you did not personally research, nor pick law firm and lawyer that ultimately are handling your case. Other Important factors are the quality, integrity and proven results of the local law firm that you hire, which should specialize in personal injury law and have proven results! If you are arbitrarily assigned to a local law firm, you know none of these critical factors.
Many of these heavily marketed referring law firms boast about their law firm’s large size, to connote size brings power and good results. Let’s dig deeper. The referring law firm size is mostly attributable to the large “referral network”. When you solely look at the referring firm’s size, they are often not huge as represented in marketing, nor are they a fully functioning and self sustaining law firm that practices law across many states. The size of the heavily marketed law firm’s referral network has nothing to do with the its firm’s size, power, reputation, quality, nor results obtained. Insurance companies and defense attorneys know this, so such firms are impressing no one, except for potential uninformed clients. Feel like rolling the dice to see what local law firm is next on their referral list for you to be assigned to? Don’t let a third party choose the law firm that represents you locally. Would you hire your primary care physician, a surgeon, your dentist or your CPA in this manner? Then why choose a non-local law firm who will refer your case out to an unknown local lawyer that you never chose and know nothing about?
Not only does the outside law firm pay the referral-house law firm’s a cut of the attorney fee when/if the case settles, but often times the outside law firm also must pay additional annual fees to “earn” the ability to be on a referral list of the TV marketing law firm. So the lawyer that is ultimately handling your case often pays to get these personal injury case referrals, instead of getting referrals based getting excellent results and having happy clients. As such, these smaller local firms often can’t generate enough local business on their own and need to pay a fee in order to generate new cases. This should speak volumes of such law firms. At Ellis Law Offices LLP, we do not pay marketing law firms referral fees as we generate are own business by getting our clients excellent case results, and they in turn refer friends and family to our firm. We think it wise to avoid the “pay to play” law firm networks. Google the law firm you suspect as being a referral service firm and read their Google reviews. Often times the reviews will be unfavorable and will also reveal the referral house nature of the firm.
Many of these referral based law firms are “specialist” in marketing and at developing a referral attorney network. Since these marketing law firms are located far away, they often do not have intricate local knowledge or access to local network of resources necessary in building a successful injury case. We have a comprehensive knowledge of the local area, such as the local Massachusetts court system, local arbitrators, local mediators, local experts, local medical specialists, engineers and accident reconstructionists. We have excellent working relationships with insurance companies, adjusters and opposing counsel. Hiring a local law firm often brings advantages, with better and more thorough case development, better attorney-client relationship, which ultimately means higher verdicts and settlements.
There are countless reasons to hire an established and locally based personal injury specialist law firm that actually practices law and has an in-house litigation/trial department. This promotes a seamless case handling process, where the client is fully informed along the way, and offers them the best opportunity to get a high settlement or verdict. We have been practicing injury law since 1963, we specialize in personal injury law and have over 100 years of combined experience. We are here to help! Call our office at 508-762-4334 or reach out online to get started with a member of our team.
