A Personal Injury Network
Get your maximum with the network!
A Personal Injury Network's Testimonials
Most of our clients at the Law Offices of Gary S. Benson are familiar with our work in real estate law, business law, and estate planning and probate. But there is another area of law where we have enjoyed success which we want you to be aware of - Injury law - whether personal injury, medical malpractice, products liability, worker's compensation, or related claims.
In fact, we have created a highly effective approach to these types of cases which gives our clients the greatest probability of getting a satisfactory result in their injury case. How have we done this?
By assembling a Network of more than a dozen well-known and successful injury attorneys who work with us in the prosecution of any injury claim. Among this group are attorneys with the highest settlements in the history of the Cook County and Lake County court systems. We call our Network of top lawyers The Personal Injury Network.
Consider this: The key decision for the consumer in maximizing his or her recovery in an injury case is the choice of the proper attorney to handle the claim. Who is better qualified to help you choose the correct personal injury attorney than your own personal attorney - and then, I work with that personal injury attorney throughout the pendency of your case (from intake to settlement or verdict) and I monitor and supervise that attorney's performance in the matter.
All of this can be done for the same customary fees generally charged for the handling of an injury case, at no additional cost to the client for the additional services.
To illustrate how this would work, let's consider two scenarios:
Scenario No. 1: A member of your family is in a serious automobile accident. During the lengthy hospital stay, a friend of yours suggests that you contact an attorney. Not knowing any personal injury attorneys, you contact one who advertises in the Yellow Pages. It turns out that while this attorney does handle some personal injury cases, more than 95% of his caseload is made up of worker's compensation cases. He has never actually tried a personal injury case to verdict. You hire that attorney not knowing all the facts, and he proceeds to obtain a settlement offer for $75,000.00. He pressures you to settle for this amount, telling you that this is an above-average settlement. You are at a loss as to how to assess your situation. You're not clear as to how to proceed. You accept the settlement.
Scenario No. 2: Same facts as above. You contact my office. I evaluate your circumstances and recommend an attorney from my Network (or several attorneys for you to interview if you choose). The attorney I recommend is one, for example, who handled dozens of automobile accident injury cases in the past several years and tried numerous cases to verdict. He undertakes to handle your case and advises both you, as the client, and me, as your personal attorney and co-counsel, of the progress of the case. He advises us after some months of the $75,000.00 settlement offer. After numerous consultations among the three of us, we decide not to accept the settlement offer. Instead, we demand trial. As the trial commences and the jury is being picked, the attorneys for the defendant increase their settlement offer to $250,000.00. After further negotiations, they agree to our demand for a $325,000.00 settlement and the matter concludes.
The point is this: As your personal attorney I am in a far better position to help you make decisions as a consumer of legal services. I can better evaluate which injury attorney is best suited to a particular case - AND - I can better evaluate whether an injury attorney is doing the job.
Let me share one "war story" from my practice which best illustrates these concerns and really is a key source of this idea of this service we can provide to our clients:
A client called me one day several years ago with a concern about the attorney who was handling the Worker's Compensation case relating to her husband's death. Her husband had worked in a factory where he was exposed to hazardous asbestos substances which appeared to be a significant factor in his ultimate death. The company that he worked for was large enough to be "self-insured" (without commercial insurance coverage) - but they were also, unfortunately, involved in federal bankruptcy proceedings through which they were seeking to avoid liability. The attorneys handling the case for my client had been enthusiastic about the case, but now they told the client in essence: "The bankruptcy of the defendant corporation makes the case valueless. We do not think that you should continue to assert your claim."
My client, after relating this story to me, stated that she had decided to drop the case and proceed no further. I suggested she let me check into things before giving up all hope. I reviewed the case file and related documents. I contacted a few of the worker's compensation attorneys and products liability attorneys in The Network to discuss the matter. We developed a new approach to the case that included a products liability claim. The Bottom Line: We ultimately settled the multiple claims we brought through the assembled team of Network attorneys for nearly a Half-Million Dollars.
That "war story", where we turned another Attorney’s surrender into a Half-Million Dollar Victory, says it all.
There are many more examples. Recently we obtained a nearly Two Million Dollar settlement ($2,000,000.00) where the proof of liability was difficult, but the damages were great. Our client had lost her leg. The person who caused the loss of the leg had left the scene of the accident, but with some very creative and diligent lawyering, we were able to locate the Wrongdoer and prove that he was indeed the Guilty Party.
Feel free to ask me about some other cases where very creative and aggressive lawyering turned some hopeless or difficult situations into positive results. In fact, we recently had another substantial settlement in a case where liability was aggressively defended. Creative lawyering overcame those defenses. As part of the settlement demands of the defendants, I can only discuss the results in the most general terms, but feel free to ask me about it.
Please feel free to call me if you are ever faced with the difficult circumstances of a serious injury claim.
Best regards,
Gary S. Benson
Attorney at Law