I understand that these cases can be ‘gold mines’ for law firms. But why are these the default advertisement? It seems no matter where you reside, these commercials/billboards are everywhere. Do these cases happen more often than the general public knows? Or is it just a way to get their name out there?
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I think that we see those advertisements a lot because they’re target audience is the general public, and they’re very common.
Personal injury law firms are the ones who tend to advertise, along with bankruptcy law firms. These are the ones who go after low knowledge clients that will be more impressed with a “famous” lawyer or call the one whose phone number is seared into their brain vs. making a decision based on more sophisticated criteria.
In a lawsuit where you are looking for compensation, the lawyer will generally not charge you unless you are awarded compensation ($) or settle out of court. In which case the lawyer’s fee is 1/3 of the award or settlement. So say you win the case and get $300K, the lawyer takes $100k of it. In a criminal case, the lawyer gets his money from hours worked on your case. It’s not so lucrative for them. That’s why they advertise for injury cases.
Never underestimate the scale of vehicular accidents in the USA. At 11.5 deaths per 100k people, there’s an easy way to visualize it: Walk into any sold out basketball game and 2-3 of those people attending the game with you will die this year in a car crash. Walk into a Packets NFL game, and 6 of those fans sharing the event with you will die of the same. Walk into a Cowboys game and 11 of them will die in the next 12 months to car related crashes.
Do you live in a small 1 million people city? 115 people will die from cars this year. Then, consider that accidents are far more often non fatal due to our medical technology and car safety features.
All of those factors combine to make car injury lawsuits the ultimate low hanging fruit of the legal advertising world.
My theory is that it’s kind of the sweet spot between “easy, but low pay” (Social Security applications, wills, estate adjudication, minor criminal law) and “complicated but pays really well” (corporate law).
I won’t recommend going without an attorney (and not just because I work for one) but it’s easy to how the overall similarities between cases (including the fact that most get settled well before things get complicated) allows law firms to roll through case after case.
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