Most New Yorkers have probably heard of the term “ambulance chaser.” But what does it actually mean?
An ambulance chaser is an attorney who unethically pursues personal injury cases by relentlessly seeking out clients, sometimes to the point of following ambulances carrying auto accident victims to the hospital in order to slip them a business card. Sometimes the attorney will employ “runners” to do his or her dirty work instead, who are then paid a commission for each client they direct to the attorney’s office. Medical practitioners can also be involved in the scam for kickbacks of their own.
While attorneys advertising their services is perfectly legal, aggressively pursuing personal injury and wrongful death clients and paying out commissions for referrals is decidedly not. All of the parties in these illegal schemes open themselves up to criminal convictions and loss of licenses to practice law or medicine.
Attorneys who are motivated simply by greed take on massive caseloads and are eager to settle cases for a fraction of their worth in order to move on to the next file in their caseload. They have neither the time nor the resources to fully evaluate and litigate each case on its merits to make sure that their clients are in the best legal position for a positive outcome.
At our law firm, we never solicit our clients. Our reputation as ethical, hardworking and dedicated legal professionals speaks for itself. At Paris & Chaikin, PLLC, you will never have to worry that you are simply “just another client.” We carefully consider each personal injury case that we take on. We keep in mind the time constraints of each individual case to make sure that our attorneys can devote their full attention to seeking justice for each and every one of our valued clients.
