Q: How does it go with when a lawyer who’s going after a insurance with 100k insurance policy But I don’t understand

A: You won't get $50k out of a $100k settlement. The attorney will take 33 1/3% to 40% as a fee. The attorney will be reimbursed for the costs incurred. The medical providers/insurer will be paid for the cost of care. At best, you will get about 1/3.

Nobody will tell you what your case is worth because no one knows yet. You think its $100k. The insurance company apparently doesn't think that. Everybody has to agree for a settlement to occur, or there will be an arbitration/trial and someone will decide "what it's worth" for you.

None of this is unfair to you. This is how personal injury litigation works. Your expectations are unreasonable.

A: I think you are raising legitimate concerns, and you are voicing a common problem clients have with their lawyers, which is a lack of communication, whether it be communication about the status of the case or simply providing education about options and outcomes. It is unfortunate because, in my opinion, a lawyer's job requires both advocacy for the client as well as counseling the client.

Let's try to unpack the information you provided:

First, the type of injuries you described are quite common in personal injury cases. Your attorney should be able to at least give you a range of potential settlement outcomes as well as what to expect in fees, costs and delay if your case went forward to litigation. For example, your attorney could say, "I think your case has a likely settlement range of $15-25,000 for this or that reason, and if we go to court, you will have to wait this or that amount of time to receive any money plus there will be $25-35,000 in costs to get there." If your case was unusual in some way, my opinion would be different, but personal injury attorneys handle cases like yours all the time. That said, and despite law firms with slick TV ads promising otherwise, most lawyers will not give a client a specific dollar value for a case for at least three reasons: 1) the attorney does not have a crystal ball to see the future; 2) the value of a case for settlement is not necessarily the same as the value of a case in litigation; and 3) at some point, many of us have given the client a specific number only to watch the client wrap their head around that number and then refuse to negotiate a compromise. You should feel comfortable sharing this concern with your lawyers.

Second, just because an insurance company wrote a policy with 100k limits does not mean that is what the company is obligated to pay on a claim. That number represents the maximum amount the insurance company has to pay, subject to a very limited exception. Insurance companies only have to pay on a claim when there is liability exposure for their insured; i.e., their insured is at least partially at fault. Even then, the insurance company will only pay for reasonable and necessary losses caused by the event that produced the injury. It is up to your lawyers to convince the insurance adjuster on the claim that their insured is (1) responsible, and (2) the losses you have suffered are reasonable and necessary given the facts of your case. The burden is on you and your lawyers to prove this; a defendant need not disprove anything. Moreover, insurance companies make it their business to pay out on as few claims as possible.

The fact you have had appointments with your lawyers and that they are evidently incurring costs on your behalf tells me that they are likely working up the case. You did not specify when your injury occurred or when you hired your current lawyers. However, you stated you have not worked for nine months to two years. That's quite a discrepancy of time. Has it been two years since your injury happened? If so, you are approaching the statute of limitations for an injury claim in California. Do you know if your lawyers filed a complaint in court? You should double-check the date you were injured and then ask your lawyers if they have "preserved the statute of limitations."

Third, and finally, the fact your lawyers are not helping you with an unemployment appeals matter is not unusual. You hired personal injury lawyers, not unemployment appeals lawyers (unless they also do employment law). If you hired me, I would not help you with an unemployment appeals matter either. If you have a problem with your heart, you see a cardiologist; if you have a problem with your vision, you see an optometrist/ophthalmologist. Lawyering is really not that different.

Good luck...

A: I'm sorry for your ordeal with the accident case. Although a policy might have high limits, there are many factors that go into arriving at net award. If an unemployment appeal is involved, you could ask your attorneys if they might be able to recommend an employment law firm to deal with that. Good luck