With this topic concerning client medical care, Scholle Law Firm’s Atlanta personal injury lawyers add an important piece to their Georgia Personal Injury & Accident Guide Knowledge Center. Specifically, the attorneys at the Scholle Law Firm wish to remind prospective clients and the general public that injury lawyers are not doctors and do not have the expertise or ethical ability to direct anyone’s medical care. Specifically the law firm discusses why it is important to let trained medical professionals help decide appropriate care and not to assume lawyers are the appropriate people to make such decisions.
Lawyers Are Not Doctors
Lawyers are lawyers. Nowhere on a law school campus or during the bar exam will future attorneys learn how to diagnose or treat a client’s injuries. It may sound funny, but it is not. Prospective clients will occasionally call an injury lawyer to ask them whether they should go to a doctor. Other times you hear a prospective client indicate that they thought it was part of their lawyer’s job to immediately get them to a doctor or chiropractor. Nothing could be further from the true responsibilities a lawyer owes to an injured client.
Unfortunately some lawyers may try to direct their client’s care. When they do that they are not only making an ethical misstep but they are also doing their clients a great disservice; an injury lawyer’s primary focus always must be to focus on getting the client the best result possible. While a lawyer can encourage injured clients to get medical care and explain why it is important, it should never be their job to pick the way that a client treats for their injuries. Additionally insurance companies and potentially juries are never going to be favorable towards cases that show signs of medical treatment directed and dictated by attorneys.
Personal injury lawyers know the importance of reasonable and necessary medical care. They know that the driving force behind a potential settlement is injuries and subsequent treatment. While attorneys should never dictate the care a client receives, attorneys are able to help with treatment related issues when it comes to helping clients that may have a problem securing treatment due to no health insurance or other financial difficulties. Attorneys should always be in the loop with their client’s treatment plans and can also serve as a resource to their clients. For instance they may be able to recommend a doctor or surgeon to a client that wants a second opinion from another doctor or surgeon.
Health Insurance Concerns
In Georgia, people with health insurance may have a more favorable result relating to their settlement. This is opposed to clients that may not have health insurance. While we encourage people to use their health insurance (see our article on this topic here) because of its positive impact on their bottom line, sometimes health insurance is not available or co-pays or deductibles are too much for an injured client to afford. If and when that happens, lawyers may have the ability to help find providers that will treat the client on a lien. Basically that means that the provider’s bills will be paid out of the client’s settlement. In other situations there may be some funding options that lawyers can assist with to help secure money for co-pays, prescriptions and even surgeries. Helping clients secure medical care is not the same thing as directing their care. This type of service and assistance an attorney can assist with is very important. Without it, many clients may not have the ability to get medical care following their serious injury.
We Only Represent Injured Clients
When we mentioned that medical care and medical bills are the driving force behind a case’s value, we need to clarify that this explicitly means the medical care for legitimate injuries. Unfortunately there are lawyers out there that will try to convince people to get medical bills and treatment just for the purpose of having bills to support a potential demand for settlement for an injury claim. Insurance companies see this coming from a mile away. Many lawyers that engage in that type of conduct work with medical providers that also have this type of reputation. While this is not only unethical it is also a tactic that insurance companies are always on the look for. Our office only works with people that are truly injured and in need of getting follow up care from their car, truck, motorcycle or work-related accident.
Injury Lawyers That Have What It Takes!
At Scholle Law Firm, our Atlanta personal injury lawyers work closely with our clients to make sure that we are aware of what is always going on with all of our client’s medical care. We hear horror stories from people all the time that speak about other Atlanta personal injury lawyers that work to rush people into doctors without really taking the time to ask the client about their needs and thoughts on their own medical care. We do not do this. We want our clients to make the choices regarding their medical care that are right for them. If we can help them secure treatment if they need, that we will, but we will never do so just for the purpose of creating a bunch of medical bills.
Our office has been around for over two decades and we do have some great working relationships with some very good providers. We are happy to recommend them but we will never push anyone to go to a certain doctor. That is just not how we operate. It is our opinion that being a resource for clients recovering from serious accidents is enough. Truly injured people do not need lawyers telling them the things they expect to hear from a doctor.
Call Our Lawyers For a Free Case Evaluation
We know that our clients are injured because we take the time to ask them. We always address their concerns and do everything we can to help them with this issue and anything else that we can do to make their life easier as they recover from their injuries. This process starts with a free case evaluation. A call to our office results in a conversation with an experienced personal injury attorney. The last thing you will hear from us is a demand to go to a certain doctor. What you will hear is a compassionate and professional demeanor from an Atlanta personal injury attorney that wants to help you. Call or contact us today for your free case evaluation.