re: Do auto accident lawyers on TV commercials represent guilty parties?

Which firm? And what’s the average fee? Now I’m interested

quote:

---

$2,500 with 200 files

---

I worked for a mill in a rural parish, but not on the mill side of the firm. The boss wanted ~ 5 files opened and ~ 5 files closed per week, per auto litigator, although almost all were "partners" (profit sharing).

That was about right for averages and caseloads 15 years ago. I would have thought with city courts getting more jurisdiction and the average policy limits creeping up, that it would be closer to a $4k or $5k average today, and more in places like New Orleans, BR, Shreveport and Laffy.

quote:

---

Oh, and I guess defense lawyers, insurance companies, and big business don't contribute to judges' campaigns. You are an idiot if you don't know that. Or a liar If you do.

---

Some defense lawyers do, but not nearly as much as PI lawyers. You don't get the same benefit.
I've never seen an insurance company contribute to a judicial campaign. Maybe in a Supreme court race. Same for Big Business. They just don't get involved in District Court races, and barely in Appeals court races. Just lawyers and family.

quote:

---

I don’t believe you. That many cases, even between 3 attorneys is borderline unmanageable

---

I watched it for 15 years.

The first key is screening and not taking crap cases. Next is a system designed around efficiency, it was the most efficient business I have ever been inside of. Possibly the most important factor is having staff that is intelligent, dedicated and paid very well. Many of the paralegals had been claims adjusters that they poached from the insurance companies. Keep in mind these attorneys had zero time tied up in litigation, my team handled all of that including WC and SDD hearings in front of ALJs and appeals work. When you take out the 10% of cases that take 90% of your time it isn't hard to move files.

quote:

---

I don’t believe you. That many cases, even between 3 attorneys is borderline unmanageable

---

No - that's pretty standard. 200 to 250 files per attorney in a high volume law firm is my experience as well.

It's lower on the defense side, for sure, because there are just fewer small files. Let's take a stereotypical smallish defense firm - 12 to 15 lawyers, roughly a third "partners" of all stripes, with 1 or 2 "boss" bosses. Each incoming file (mostly auto, but stuff like products liability and CGL stuff comes in from the same insurance clients) is assigned to a partner and an associate. Since an associate does 75% or more of the pretrial work (maybe 95% in some places), each associate is going to have 80 to 100 (ranges vary, but I'll stand by that) files that he is primary on. A partner may have 300 active files at various stages of development, closer to 250 I would think would be normal. (ETA: Now that I hash that out - 200 to 250 is probably right on both sides of the aisle.)

I'm sure there are extremes at both ranges, but for routine litigation that many firms are engaging in, I'll bet my numbers are close.


ETA: Keep in mind that in a plaintiff firm, the staff does an extraordinary amount of work in most places. The attorney, because of caseload, only does "attorney only" stuff, signing pleadings, depositions, court appearances, mediation, etc. A bunch of back and forth communication is automatically done by a good staff working the case list and calendar aggressively.

On the defense side, that isn't so dramatic, because the hourly rate for paralegals is lower and the insurance companies don't want to pay for sub-paralegal staff time at all. "That's your overhead, not ours."