Personal injury attorneys are often called ambulance chasers. Some only do this type of case, like dog bites, accidents, med malpractice, fights etc. But others practice more diversified law. The defendants can be people or insurance companies or corporations.
Delays are very common in courts. A given really. Judges only care when they are worried about their stats. But civil cases routinely last for YEARS.
Attorneys change when payment is an issue or if one party tires of the other. If an attorney doesn’t feel a case worth it, they’ll give the client a choice. This happened to me. My dad was part of a class action filed around 1993 about a local landfill causing cancer. My dad ended up with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia so he filed. He never had to take meds, it never got bad. But he retired just as I was starting my career. Had he stayed I might have had a little nepotism in my corner as he was a big boss. But he retired.
I notified the attorneys of his passing in January 2020. Later that year, after 30 years the case went to settle. I had done an impact statement but all I could say was that his early retirement didn’t help my career.
When settlement time came the attorney contacted me that they wouldn’t continue as attorney of record. I was free to get a new attorney but as his CLL didn’t cause his death or affect him other than freaking us out we got dumped after 30 years.
And that was that.
So these things can happen.
Sometimes attorneys retire. Or downsize. Or just don’t like you.
