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Important Questions to Ask Before Hiring an Attorney | Colorado

Phil Harding | 713 Views | 01/27/2015

Well, most of us shop around for anything we want to spend money on – guilty as charged. You know, maybe you, too, search for the best deal on shoes, clothes, groceries, whatever. So why wouldn’t we want to invest some time and shop around when we’re hiring an attorney? All right, well, believe it or not, that many people, they just don’t. So here to explain why it is so important, is Colorado’s Best attorney, Phil Harding, from Harding & Associates. Phil, thanks for joining us this morning.  Sure, absolutely.  And for working up a sweat this morning on that bike.  I know, if I’m sweating, and water’s dropping down, don’t– Just ignore it.  We won’t judge at all. We know you work hard. Speaking of which, you were telling us that so many people were calling in and picking your brain on some questions, so what were people asking you? You know, we went over all different types of things. Some of the questions, though, I heard from viewers complaining about hiring an attorney, and once they hired an attorney, they were only dealing with the support staff in their office, and not the attorney. So today, I want to talk about what to do and what to look for when you’re shopping for an attorney. \And you really should shop for an attorney?  Absolutely. You know, I’ve got to tell you, if you’re injured and you hire an attorney, they usually work on what’s known as a contingency fee. Most of them charge in between a third and 40%. So here’s my question to you: if you get all attorneys for the same price, why wouldn’t you choose the one that’s just perfect for you?  Right, it’s personal. It’s like going to shop for a car, right? You don’t just choose any one off the lot. You’ve got to choose one that’s right for you.  Right. And if you walked onto the car lot, and the car salesman said, “You know what? You get to choose any car you want, same price,” you’d look and see, “Well, I’ve got a lot of kids, so I want an SUV,” or, “Single person, I want a sports car,” so you choose the one that’s right for you. And I got to tell you, we have a graphic here that’s going to talk about what to look for when you’re hiring an attorney. And so, first of all, you look at, and you say, does this attorney practice in my area of the law? So, an injury attorney, or if you want a contract drafted up, an estate attorney. Look and see if they practice in your area. And what’s the percentage? Next, look and ask them how many cases they have handled, and they’re handling right now. For example, if they say, “Yeah, along with your case, I have 70 other cases,” that’s too much.   The next thing, who are you going to be dealing with in their office? Are you going to be dealing directly with the attorney, or does he have a paralegal– he or she have a paralegal, or a case administrator that you’re going to be giving the information to?  Next, ask them how long you have to wait for them to respond, for that attorney or paralegal to respond to your questions, and finally, if that office doesn’t live up to these promises, can you fire them?  Yeah, these are really good questions, Phil, and I like that you’ve outlined them, so people can really take that away, and write them down, and use them next time. And speaking of that, communication’s so key. So what’s different about that with your firm?  Well, here’s the thing, and the promise that we make to our clients: when they hire us, they hire us, the attorney. They don’t hire a paralegal. They don’t hire a case administrator, so they’re going to be dealing directly with us. And I’ve got to tell you, when they contact us, and talk to us, they can communicate well with us, and then we can communicate their pains to the other side, to try and get top dollar. Do you remember when you were in kindergarten and you used to play the game called telephone, right?  Sure.  Yeah, you’d– and so, if you have to go through too many levels in communication– I mean, when I played this telephone, it would start off with, “The sky is blue,” and it ended up with, “What are you going to have for lunch?” , Good example. And, you know, it’s true, and communication is so key, so that was good just to kind of bring it home for us. Now, injury, that’s one type of cause here. What are other types of causes?  All right, so injury is the main reason my people will seek compensation, and I’ve got to tell you, when you are seeking an attorney, make sure that they’re someone knowledgeable, our first one is knowledgeable in that area, because you want to look– let’s say you’ve been involved in a car accident, and someone ran into you. You need to see their multiple layers of insurance, and I’ve got to tell you, just this week I had an attorney call and ask for my advice on how to stack these different things. And we have the graphic here that really demonstrates what you need to look for. And for example, let’s say you’re involved in a car accident. First you look at the owner of the car, because that may be different than the driver of the car. If they are, there may be two different policies that you can stack on top of each other.   Next is this thing called UM/UIM, which stands for Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist coverage. Do you have that on your car? The next thing, does anyone in your house have UM/UIM? Because if you have multiple cars, you may have multiple levels, so there may be four, five or more coverages that you can stack on top of each other. And I continually talk, and tell everyone about UM/UIM. Colorado law is so strong that it says, unless you signed a waiver, even if you went in to your insurance agent and said, “I want the cheapest stuff possible,” unless you signed a waiver, you have 25,000 of UM/UIM. And you want to know the reason why?  Why?  Our Colorado legislatures know that one in six people driving, has no insurance at all. And if that’s the case–  Oh, my goodness! That’s scary.  That is scary. So they said it’s mandatory, that unless you sign this waiver, you have this UM/UIM, you have another thing called Med-Pay, that will pay for medical damages, whether you’re at fault or someone else is. And it’s just so important to go over these and find someone, because I have people that come in to me all the time, and they say, “You know what, they told me I don’t have UM/UIM.” I get on the phone and I say, “Give me that waiver.” Unless they sign that waiver, and they can produce it, there’s 25,000 of UM/UIM. There’s 5,000 of medical coverage that’s there.  Right. That makes a lot of sense, and now I understand. Can you just remind viewers what that acronym stands for really quickly?  You bet. So, UM/UIM stands for Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist coverage. So if someone runs into you, if they’re uninsured or underinsured, you stack this on top of that.   Something to really consider. Phil, all great advice, and loved the charts again, so thank you. And now you know that Phil really does answer all of your questions. So, if you have a question for Phil, you want to pick his brain, go to Coloradosbest.tv, and send those questions in. He’s going to answer each one personally. Right, Phil?  I will.  All right. And if you’d like to contact Phil at his office, Harding & Associates, just call this number. Grab a pencil right now and write it down. 303-762-9500. You can get a free consultation any time, so why not do that? You can also find him online at hlaw.org.

By: Phil Harding

Important Questions to Ask Before Hiring an Attorney | Colorado

Well, most of us shop around for anything we want to spend money on – guilty as charged. You know, maybe you, too, search for the best deal on shoes, clothes, groceries, whatever. So why wouldn’t we want to invest some time and shop around when we’re hiring an attorney? All right, well, believe it or not, that many people, they just don’t. So here to explain why it is so important, is Colorado’s Best attorney, Phil Harding, from Harding & Associates. Phil, thanks for joining us this morning.  Sure, absolutely.  And for working up a sweat this morning on that bike.  I know, if I’m sweating, and water’s dropping down, don’t– Just ignore it.  We won’t judge at all. We know you work hard. Speaking of which, you were telling us that so many people were calling in and picking your brain on some questions, so what were people asking you? You know, we went over all different types of things. Some of the questions, though, I heard from viewers complaining about hiring an attorney, and once they hired an attorney, they were only dealing with the support staff in their office, and not the attorney. So today, I want to talk about what to do and what to look for when you’re shopping for an attorney. \And you really should shop for an attorney?  Absolutely. You know, I’ve got to tell you, if you’re injured and you hire an attorney, they usually work on what’s known as a contingency fee. Most of them charge in between a third and 40%. So here’s my question to you: if you get all attorneys for the same price, why wouldn’t you choose the one that’s just perfect for you?  Right, it’s personal. It’s like going to shop for a car, right? You don’t just choose any one off the lot. You’ve got to choose one that’s right for you.  Right. And if you walked onto the car lot, and the car salesman said, “You know what? You get to choose any car you want, same price,” you’d look and see, “Well, I’ve got a lot of kids, so I want an SUV,” or, “Single person, I want a sports car,” so you choose the one that’s right for you. And I got to tell you, we have a graphic here that’s going to talk about what to look for when you’re hiring an attorney. And so, first of all, you look at, and you say, does this attorney practice in my area of the law? So, an injury attorney, or if you want a contract drafted up, an estate attorney. Look and see if they practice in your area. And what’s the percentage? Next, look and ask them how many cases they have handled, and they’re handling right now. For example, if they say, “Yeah, along with your case, I have 70 other cases,” that’s too much.   The next thing, who are you going to be dealing with in their office? Are you going to be dealing directly with the attorney, or does he have a paralegal– he or she have a paralegal, or a case administrator that you’re going to be giving the information to?  Next, ask them how long you have to wait for them to respond, for that attorney or paralegal to respond to your questions, and finally, if that office doesn’t live up to these promises, can you fire them?  Yeah, these are really good questions, Phil, and I like that you’ve outlined them, so people can really take that away, and write them down, and use them next time. And speaking of that, communication’s so key. So what’s different about that with your firm?  Well, here’s the thing, and the promise that we make to our clients: when they hire us, they hire us, the attorney. They don’t hire a paralegal. They don’t hire a case administrator, so they’re going to be dealing directly with us. And I’ve got to tell you, when they contact us, and talk to us, they can communicate well with us, and then we can communicate their pains to the other side, to try and get top dollar. Do you remember when you were in kindergarten and you used to play the game called telephone, right?  Sure.  Yeah, you’d– and so, if you have to go through too many levels in communication– I mean, when I played this telephone, it would start off with, “The sky is blue,” and it ended up with, “What are you going to have for lunch?” , Good example. And, you know, it’s true, and communication is so key, so that was good just to kind of bring it home for us. Now, injury, that’s one type of cause here. What are other types of causes?  All right, so injury is the main reason my people will seek compensation, and I’ve got to tell you, when you are seeking an attorney, make sure that they’re someone knowledgeable, our first one is knowledgeable in that area, because you want to look– let’s say you’ve been involved in a car accident, and someone ran into you. You need to see their multiple layers of insurance, and I’ve got to tell you, just this week I had an attorney call and ask for my advice on how to stack these different things. And we have the graphic here that really demonstrates what you need to look for. And for example, let’s say you’re involved in a car accident. First you look at the owner of the car, because that may be different than the driver of the car. If they are, there may be two different policies that you can stack on top of each other.   Next is this thing called UM/UIM, which stands for Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist coverage. Do you have that on your car? The next thing, does anyone in your house have UM/UIM? Because if you have multiple cars, you may have multiple levels, so there may be four, five or more coverages that you can stack on top of each other. And I continually talk, and tell everyone about UM/UIM. Colorado law is so strong that it says, unless you signed a waiver, even if you went in to your insurance agent and said, “I want the cheapest stuff possible,” unless you signed a waiver, you have 25,000 of UM/UIM. And you want to know the reason why?  Why?  Our Colorado legislatures know that one in six people driving, has no insurance at all. And if that’s the case–  Oh, my goodness! That’s scary.  That is scary. So they said it’s mandatory, that unless you sign this waiver, you have this UM/UIM, you have another thing called Med-Pay, that will pay for medical damages, whether you’re at fault or someone else is. And it’s just so important to go over these and find someone, because I have people that come in to me all the time, and they say, “You know what, they told me I don’t have UM/UIM.” I get on the phone and I say, “Give me that waiver.” Unless they sign that waiver, and they can produce it, there’s 25,000 of UM/UIM. There’s 5,000 of medical coverage that’s there.  Right. That makes a lot of sense, and now I understand. Can you just remind viewers what that acronym stands for really quickly?  You bet. So, UM/UIM stands for Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist coverage. So if someone runs into you, if they’re uninsured or underinsured, you stack this on top of that.   Something to really consider. Phil, all great advice, and loved the charts again, so thank you. And now you know that Phil really does answer all of your questions. So, if you have a question for Phil, you want to pick his brain, go to Coloradosbest.tv, and send those questions in. He’s going to answer each one personally. Right, Phil?  I will.  All right. And if you’d like to contact Phil at his office, Harding & Associates, just call this number. Grab a pencil right now and write it down. 303-762-9500. You can get a free consultation any time, so why not do that? You can also find him online at hlaw.org.

By: Phil Harding