Best Car Accident Lawyers in Brentwood, NY

There are many factors that can affect how long it will take to get your settlement proceeds. Every state has its own rules as to the timing of the payout of a settlement and some states have special rules if the defendant is a governmental entity. For instance, in New York, the law requires that the party agreeing to pay the settlement has 21 days to make payment. If the party agreeing to pay the settlement is a governmental entity then the time frame to pay is longer. The lawyer handling your case should explain the settlement details which should include the time frame in which you will receive your settlement proceeds.

Most law firms will front the costs and expenses necessary in order to handle the case. These costs and expenses are recovered at the end of the case. Some states allow for expenses to be recovered prior to the calculation of the attorneys fees and some take their attorneys fees prior to the deduction of expenses. For example, in New York, the attorneys fee is calculated after the deduction of the costs and expenses. In New York, the contingency fee is 33 1/3%. If the case settles for $10,000 and the costs are $1,000 then the costs would be subtracted first and then the attorneys fee would be calculated from the $9,000 resulting in a recovery of $6,000 and attorneys fees of $3,000.

A class action is a lawsuit that allows a large number of people with a common or identical interest to sue. Class actions allow individuals to bring suit together where the matter in controversy may not be economically feasible to bring as an individual. Class actions usually require common questions of law and fact amongst the class members, the class must be so numerous as to make individual suits impractical, the claims of the class members must be typical and the class representatives must adequately protect the interests of the class. Many class actions are brought in federal court and are now subject to the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005. This Act reduced the ability of some class actions to be brought and remain in state court and allows the defendants that are being sued to move or remove state class actions to federal court depending on various factors.

As medical malpractice lawyers, we take calls every day from potential clients who describe stories about how they or a loved one were mistreated by doctors, hospitals or other medical care providers. Some are just terrible stories. But what we do is explain to our clients that there is a difference between bad treatment, bad results and medical malpractice. Bad treatment or a bad result does not necessarily mean that the medical provider has committed malpractice. Typically, medical malpractice is treatment or lack of treatment that departs from accepted practice in the medical community and which causes injury. What constitutes a departure from accepted practice in the medical community varies from state to state so it is important to speak to an attorney who can properly analyze the facts of your case.

This unfortunately depends on the law firm. Our experience tells us that many lawyers do not talk to their clients and leave that to their paralegals. We communicate regularly with our clients. There will be times we will be unable to take a call from one of our clients, but we always call our clients back.