{"id":4477,"date":"2003-06-06T09:33:30","date_gmt":"2003-06-06T13:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/formerlyknownas\/2003\/06\/06\/let-your-fingers-walk-for-me\/"},"modified":"2011-08-05T15:00:56","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T19:00:56","slug":"let-your-fingers-walk-for-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2003\/06\/06\/let-your-fingers-walk-for-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Let Your Fingers Walk for Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Got a few a minutes for truth and justice?  Please grab your local Yellow Pages<\/STRONG> directory and open to Lawyers.  I’d like to know how many of the ads for<\/STRONG> personal injury lawyers <\/STRONG>state the percentage <\/EM>or share of the contingency fee to be charged or say the firm will negotiate fee options with the client. <\/P>
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You see, I’ve been challenged<\/STRONG><\/A> to demonstrate my claim that the average p\/i client<\/EM> is confronted by virtual silence about fee levels and is given only one real choice<\/STRONG> — accepting the local Standard Contingency Fee rate (and therefore handing over to the lawyer one-third or more of any injury award, no matter how much risk or work is involved for the lawyer). <\/P>
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I can’t do a major scientific study, but I’d settle for a small poll.  Given the rabid Yellow Pages rivalry for injured clients, my<\/STRONG> notion<\/STRONG> (after a decade as a crack antitrust theorist), is that we’d see fee levels mentioned in those fullpage ads, if<\/I> lawyers thought that even a small part of the public expected<\/I> to be able to shop or negotiate for percentage fees.   We’d also see fee levels mentioned if a serious (hungry?) competitor were willing to break ranks with his or her colleagues and attract clients with lower fees.  By never mentioning the size of a fee, the inevitability of the local Standard — which any adult walking down the street can quote you — is emphasized, as if it were etched in stone<\/EM>.<\/P>
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A May 26th article<\/A> <\/FONT>from the New York Times mentions a study by University of Virginia law professor Jeffrey O’Connell<\/B>, which found that only 7 of more than 1,400 advertisements by lawyers in twelve big city Yellow Pages directories stated the percentage to be charged.  The average fee in those 7 ads was 31 percent (and I bet that included malpractice and disability claims that are capped at 25% by law).  O’Connell’s study sounds about right to me, although I have looked through many telephone directories from across the nation, at my local Library, and have never<\/I> yet seen a fee level stated.<\/P>
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ethicalEsq?<\/I> would like to know what you find in your home town <\/B>Yellow Pages or similar telephone directory. Drop us a Comment or use our “Suggestions” Box to let us know<\/P>
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