Get in an accident, call an attorney.
Then call your auto insurance company.
More often than not, that is how things are going these days, according to a report from the Insurance Research Council (IRC), released Tuesday, that found that the percentage of personal injury claimants in auto cases represented by attorneys rose to 36% in 2012, more than double the rate in 1977, and up from 31% in 2007. For bodily injury claimants, the rate rose slightly to 50%.
“The attorney involvement trends shown in this study undercut two of the envisioned benefits of no-fault auto injury systems: a less adversarial settlement process and more timely payments,” said Elizabeth Sprinkel, senior vice president of the IRC. “The role of attorneys is implicated in many of the factors driving up the cost of auto insurance.”
According to the report, claimants who were represented by attorneys were “much more likely” to receive medical treatment for their injuries, were more likely “to be involved in apparent claim abuse,” and received lower net payments on average than those who did not hire attorneys. And location plays are role, too. More than half of PIP claimants in Florida hired attorneys, for example, unlike Kansas, where only 12% did.
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