Ep. 70 – Avoiding Unethical Solicitation After a Crash

David Craig – Host: Venture capital is coming into our industry. They make money by selling these leads, while the sales people who get the leads, they get paid by how well they’re performing. So the more leads they can generate, the more money they can make. And so you’ve got people who have no rules of ethics, they have an incentive to do whatever they can to get this lead in the door.

I’m Attorney David Craig, managing partner and one of the founders of the law firm of Craig, Kelley & Faultless. I’ve represented people who have been seriously injured or have had a family member killed in a semi or other big truck wreck for over 30 years. Following the wreck, their lives are chaos. Often, they don’t even know enough about the process to ask the right questions. It is my goal to empower you by providing you with the information you need to protect yourself and your family. In each and every episode, I will interview top experts and professionals that are involved in truck wreck cases.

In the Ask David episodes of After the Crash, we switched things up. Instead of me asking questions, I answer the questions. Nothing’s off limits. And they ask me about truck safety, about truck accidents, about semi-truck litigation, about commercial motor vehicle wrecks. You name it, I talk about it. This is After the Crash.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of After the Crash. This is one of those Ask David series. And so today we have Carissa Swalls, one of our board-certified paralegals, board-certified in truck accident law, and she is going to flip the script on us, and she’s going to be asking me questions. So take it away, Carissa.

Carissa Swalls: This is exciting. I’m so excited to do this. So we are going to talk about unethical solicitation today.

David Craig – Host: All right.

Carissa Swalls: So my first question is, in your experience, what issues or trends in truck accidents would bother you the most right now, especially when it comes on how other attorneys are handling and pursuing clients after a truck accident?

David Craig – Host: I mean, it’s great. It is something that, really, is very frustrating to me right now. It’s a growing problem. It always has been a problem. So, historically, for ladies and gentlemen, folks that aren’t attorneys, they need to know that first of all, there are rules. There are ethic rules that apply to us getting business. And basically, in almost every state, it is improper to personally solicit someone who’s been involved in a truck accident or a personal injury case. And the rationale behind that is that it is a very vulnerable time for the victims. Their lives are turned upside down. They’re grieving, they’re injured, they may be financially hurt or devastated. And so most, I guess, every state bar association says we don’t want to make those problems worse by having a whole bunch of lawyers personally soliciting the case from these folks. And now there are exceptions to, like, you can send letters, you can send stuff in the mail because people can just throw that away, and they’re not pressured or coerced.

And some states have, like Indiana has a 30-day waiting period, so you have to wait 30 days until after the accident. So that gives some grace period. And there’s other exceptions, like if the client has an attorney-client relationship with the attorney or their family member or a past client, or there’s some kind of relationship, some states will have exceptions and say, “Okay, you can personally solicit or you can at least contact the people if you have some type of relationship.” But if there’s no relationship, you don’t know these people, there are no prior attorney-client relationship, there’s no current attorney-client relationship, then you’re prohibited. A lawyer is prohibited from personally soliciting, either directly or indirectly, that case.

And I think that’s a great rule. I really do believe that’s a good rule. I think mailing stuff out is fine after the 30-day grace period or whatever the state rule is that of your state. I think that’s appropriate because you can always throw it away. You’re not coerced, you’re not unduly influenced. But personal solicitations are different. And unfortunately, Carissa, I see people personally soliciting these cases more and more, and it’s becoming a bigger and bigger problem. There used to be what they call runners, and a runner might come with a police report to a hospital and say, “Here’s a copy of the police report. My business is collecting police reports. I knew you would need this. Here’s a copy of it. And then, oh, by the way, there’s a lawyer’s card in the back stapled to it, and that lawyer’s really good.”

That’s a personal solicitation. That’s inappropriate. A lawyer couldn’t do that themselves, nor can they do that through a runner. And so you used to see runners. Sometimes doctors’ offices will do it, sometimes chiropractors’ offices; it’s not as applicable in trucking cases. But still, you would have medical facilities reach out to clients directly because some of these companies, they don’t have the same rules. They don’t have a professional responsibility. They don’t have a license. And so they can, or maybe they’re the medical board, or they don’t have different rules on personal solicitation, so they can solicit and then refer the case to an attorney that they’re working with.

So that’s kind of how it’s done. But I think it’s a huge problem because if a lawyer is unethical enough to violate the rules of ethics, then I think that’s a real bad sign because if they’re unethical about that, what else are they unethical about? Are they unethical about selling you out short? Are they unethical about taking your money? I mean, if they don’t have a good moral compass, then that says something; that’s a reflection of the attorney who’s personally soliciting. And I think that’s horrible, and I think that’s bad.

And I think lawyers that do that should be disciplined or thrown out of the profession because we all agree that it’s not good. I think, to be honest with you, I’m seeing it more now, and I think it’s because of lead generation companies. We’re seeing it more often than ever because of lead generation companies, which is pretty new into the marketplace. There are a lot more of them than there used to be. And I think that’s why I’m seeing a lot more personal solicitations, is because you have these lead generation companies that are not law firms, they’re not lawyers, and they’re out trying to drum up business to refer to lawyers or sell to lawyers.

Carissa Swalls: Well, that takes me into the question. You recently wrote your book on “It’s Never Been Easier to Hire the Wrong Attorney”. So in that book, what inspired you to write that, and what key lessons do you hope that your listeners will take away from that?

David Craig – Host: Yeah, I think that’s the main reason I wrote it was because I was seeing more solicitations. I was seeing people, and not necessarily, it was also marketing. I mean, just because someone’s a good marketer doesn’t make them a good lawyer; because someone’s a great marketer doesn’t make them a great lawyer. That doesn’t mean they’re not, but it doesn’t mean they are. And so my hope was, by writing the book, was that people could read the book and learn what questions they should ask. What does make a good lawyer versus a bad lawyer? What are the rules of soliciting, and how do I go about picking somebody? I mean, I know if someone asked me who a great divorce lawyer is or who is a good criminal defense lawyer or who is a good corporate lawyer, who’s a good tax lawyer, I would know who to refer people to. Who’s a good estate lawyer, wills and trusts, personal injury, who’s a good truck wreck lawyer?

In any state, I would be able to help somebody find the right lawyer. But the ordinary folks who aren’t in this business or aren’t in this profession, don’t work in it. They have no way of knowing who’s good and who’s bad. And they’re bombarded with marketing, and because they’re bombarded with marketing, it’s very simple to pick the wrong one. You can do a Google search or an AI search, and you’ll have somebody who’s potentially really good at marketing but you don’t know, and you may click on them and then all of a sudden they’re going to follow you forever. And they’re going to continue to pop up and maybe even reach out to you, send forms to you, or whatnot. And that doesn’t mean that they are the right lawyer for your case. And back to the, it’s kind of going along the line is that even when, since I’ve written the book, lead generation has even become a worse problem.

So, ladies and gentlemen, what a lead generation company is, it’s some company that has a lot of money behind it that’s very good at marketing and SEO [search engine optimization], and they are out there trying to get cases. So if you Google who’s the best truck accident lawyer, they may buy ads above and so that their ads will show up on top of the real lawyers. So this company, this lead generation company, is not a law firm, but you can’t tell it necessarily by looking at their ads. You think you’re clicking on—it says if you’ve been in a truck accident, you need to hire an attorney right away. And then you click on it, and then they get your information, and then they sign you up sometimes, and then they refer you to a law firm. But they’re not even a law firm; they’re not even screening.

They don’t even know, legally, what’s involved in the federal motor carrier safety rules or what’s in a commercial motor vehicle driver’s manual. What are the requirements or restrictions to drive a commercial motor vehicle? They have no idea what that whole area of law is. They don’t care. All they’re trying to do is get the case so they can sell that case to a lawyer. And they don’t really care whether that law firm, a lot of them don’t care, whether that law firm is good or bad. They just, can you afford to pay for each lead? If you’re in a law firm and you can afford to buy the lead, you may not have any experience doing truck cases at all. And yet, you can have a lead generation company sell you leads, and then you contact the clients that they sell the lead from and get the case.

And that may be the worst decision. And my thought process is that that’s not how you go about picking lawyers, is hiring somebody through a lead generation company. That is really scary that you could get stuck with somebody who doesn’t have the experience, who’s never tried a truck case, who’s never handled a truck case or who doesn’t handle very many, doesn’t know the rules, doesn’t know what they should do, they don’t understand the coverages, what the minimum limits are, who are the other responsible parties? Is it a shipper involved? Is there a broker involved? Is there different people insuring the trailer, the tractor? There’s so many different things that somebody who doesn’t do trucking day in and day out, who doesn’t specialize in trucking, doesn’t know. And yet I’m seeing more and more. And what’s happened is like venture capital. So you’ve got these folks with lots of money, and so they’re dumping this money into lead generation.

They’re dropping this, they’re doing commercials, they’re doing radio, they’re doing a lot of Google advertising, a lot of Google search terms. They’re buying keywords, they’re advertising on good truck lawyers, like myself. Sometimes you’ll see them pop up. Somebody will type in Craig, Kelley & Faultless, and a lead generation company will pop up, and it looks like it’s almost like our firm when it’s not. And so do not pick a lawyer. If you find out that you clicked on something and you find out that that’s not a law firm, you need to hang up, unclick it, not follow it, not contact, not let them talk to you. You need to look for a lawyer, not a lead generation company.

Carissa Swalls: So why do you think it’s so critical for someone that’s involved in a truck crash to hire the right attorney? And what do you think the big difference is from them going to the lead generation and just going to any attorney then—

David Craig – Host: There’s so many law firms out there that all they care about is turning over these cases. So a trucking case may be a fairly significant size case, and so they’re looking for a quick settlement. They’re looking for, “let’s turn this thing over, quickly”. Whereas a good truck accident attorney, I’m not going to force my clients to settle, but I’m also not going to force my clients to go to trial. By being prepared to try the case, preparing every single case as if it’s going to trial, I can get you maximum recovery. And I’m not the only good truck accident attorney out there. There are other good truck accident attorneys. There are other attorneys that are board-certified in truck accident law. There are four in the state of Indiana, two of them are in my law firm. And you can look in each state and see who is board-certified.

In order to be board-certified, you have a certain level of experience. You have to have a certain level of cases, a number of cases, percentage of your business has to be truck accidents. You have to be vetted by an organization that is part of the ABA [American Bar Association] and the national board. And so they look at this, and then they vet you, and then they give you a test. And not only in my law firm do you have lawyers that are board-certified, you’re one of the paralegals that are board-certified. I have two board-certified paralegals, and that’s through the ATAA [Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys]. And so the reality is that the way to get the best value is to make sure you have the best lawyer or the lawyers that are qualified, capable, and have the experience, knowledge, and resources to handle these cases. And it just frustrates the heck out of me when I see lead generation companies selling leads to lawyers who aren’t as experienced, who aren’t board certified, who don’t have the knowledge, expertise, or resources to handle these cases.

And I think how tragic it is. It’s bad enough that there was this tragic wreck that has taken someone’s life or has caused catastrophic injuries. And then the next catastrophic mistake is hiring the wrong lawyer. And in your livelihood, your family, nothing’s going to bring back a loved one, nothing’s going to make those injuries go away. But the reality is that you deserve to be compensated for all the harm that’s been caused. And certainly money can help that. And the other thing I would tell you about good trial lawyers or board-certified trial lawyers in trucking is that they often look for ways to make the road safer. And there’s other board certification, you can be board-certified in trial work. And I think that’s also helpful, but getting someone who’s board-certified helps protect the clients, and the good lawyers out there are looking to say, “Is there an avenue, an angle we can try to get this company to change their policies or procedures so that things are safer for the rest of us on the roadway?”

So oftentimes, even if it’s confidential, oftentimes they will make that a part of the settlement. I think you have one decision to make that’s critical, and it needs to be made quickly after a horrific accident. And it needs to be what lawyer should I hire? And you want a lawyer that has the education, background, knowledge, resources to handle the type of case that you’re involved in. You want, not only a lawyer, but you want to know their staff has the ability to handle those cases. Because you’re not going to usually have, just the attorney’s not going to be doing everything on a file.

You’re going to have paralegals, you’re going to have investigators, you’re going to have, we have a rapid response team. I have private investigators; I have a whole team of people who help protect my clients. And somebody who a lead generation company sends the lead to, they may not, in all likelihood, they don’t have board-certified paralegals. In all likelihood, they do not have a rapid response team. In all likelihood, they don’t have the resources and the expertise to hire the right experts immediately to preserve evidence. And so I think it’s just sad that at the worst time in people’s life, they are approached and sometimes tricked, and they’re hiring the wrong attorneys.

Carissa Swalls: So, for people that are approached unethically after a crash, whether it’s by phone, by hospital, or third party, as you mentioned, what do you think they should do in that moment?

David Craig – Host: Yeah, I think you should report it to the Supreme Court. I mean, I think each state has a Supreme Court disciplinary commission that kind of monitors and follows the rules. And I think that, I just saw, lawyers have listserv and we talked to each other on personal injury lawyers. And a lawyer recently, one of his clients was contacted by telephone, and they were soliciting and said, “Have you been in any accidents? Do you have any injury cases?” And when they said, “Yeah, and here’s the lawyer,” and the lawyer’s a very, very good lawyer, a very experienced trial lawyer, very, very knowledgeable, has the resources, has the ability, has the knowledge, expertise to handle the case. And this phone call lawyer said, “I bet you I can get the case settled quicker than that lawyer.” And that’s just completely inappropriate. And I know that lawyer, and maybe you get it quicker, but it’d be the wrong number.

It would be a horrible number. When the lawyer that they had is somebody who will protect them and get them the right value and get the right number. So I think that is just horrible. But unfortunately, people just don’t know. And that’s the point of this podcast, that’s the point of my book, is to educate people because education is power. And then these people need to turn them into the disciplinary commission and say, “Hey, look, I had no relationship with these people, and they personally solicited me.” And then hopefully those lawyers will be punished. And lawyers who know who they are should also do that if, in fact, you can prove that there was personal solicitation.

Carissa Swalls: So what is the most common unethical solicitation practices you’re seeing right now in the trucking world? I know you said lead generation, but is there anything else that you’re seeing that really stands out?

David Craig – Host: No, I would definitely say it’s the lead generation. I mean, I think it’s completely changed because venture capital is coming into our industry. And so, there’s some states that are allowing non-lawyers to own law firms, and Indiana doesn’t have that. But there are some states that do. And even in the states where they don’t have it, these companies are generating lead generation. And you got these people who are trying—they make money by selling these leads. Well, the salespeople who get the leads, they get paid by how well they’re performing. So the more leads they can generate, the more money they can make because the company can make more money. And so you’ve got people who have no rules of ethics, they have no rules that apply to them. And then the law firms that use them, which I don’t use any lead generation companies, the law firms who do, oftentimes don’t know how the lead was generated.

So they don’t know that the person’s personally solicited someone to get that lead, but they’re not asking the questions either. Before I would ever use a lead generation company, we’d be like, “Well, how’s this lead generated? Is it ethical?” But some people would rather stick their head in the sand and just say, “Okay, I got a lead.” And these people, they have an incentive to do whatever they can to get this lead in the door and sell it. And the more leads they get, the more money they make. And so I think that’s the biggest problem I see right now in the trucking accident world, but also the personal injury world in general.

Carissa Swalls: So I know you gave a lot for the listeners to take away, but what’s the one thing that, if you take away one thing from this episode about protecting themselves and choosing the right attorney, what would you suggest?

David Craig – Host: I guess, I would say get my book. My book is a best-selling book. It’s available on Amazon, but you can reach out to my office, and my office will give you a free copy of it. Even if it’s a family law or criminal law, state law, whatever it is. If you’re looking for something, obviously, I don’t do any of those things. I do truck accident law. I do personal injury, serious injury, and wrongful death cases. And even if you don’t hire me, that’s fine, but if you read my book, it’ll at least give you some guidance on what to do, how to go about doing it. And I would encourage people to do that.

And like I said, you can reach out to my office 1-800-ASK-DAVID and ask for Suzanne, and Suzanne will give you a free copy of my book. If you buy it off of Amazon, all the money that I raised from the book goes to charity. So you’re helping charity as well. But it puts you in a position, it tells you, it explains board certification in the different areas. It talks about what you need to know, what you should avoid, and it also tells you how to interview a lawyer and what kind of questions you should be asking a lawyer.

Carissa Swalls: So I know we don’t ever want to be put in a position where we would have to hire a lawyer, but don’t you think that people should read that book anyway just in case they or someone they know [need it]? I mean, it’s still a good read. I mean, I hope I never have to hire a lawyer, but it’s also knowledge if it does come up, correct?

David Craig – Host: Yeah, I mean, I think it’s helpful to have, and certainly I wrote it, so it’s not hard to read. I don’t know any big words. So it’s a quick, easy read. And again, it’s something that lawyers know, but I wanted other people who aren’t lawyers to know that as well.

Carissa Swalls: Okay. Well, that’s pretty much all the questions I have, unless you have—

David Craig – Host: Thanks, Carissa. Thank you for flipping the script and interviewing me. I appreciate it. And I also appreciate everything you do on behalf of our clients. So, thanks.

Carissa Swalls: Thank you.

David Craig – Host: Hopefully, this information was helpful to folks.

Carissa Swalls: Have a great day.

David Craig – Host: This is David Craig, and you’ve been listening to After the Crash. If you’d like more information about me or my law firm, please go to our website, ckflaw.com. Or if you’d like to talk to me, you can call 1-800-ASK-DAVID. If you would like a guide on what to do after a truck wreck, then pick up my book, Semitruck Wreck: A Guide for Victims and Their Families, which is available on Amazon, or you can download it for free on our website, ckflaw.com.