Atlanta Injury Lawyer Blog
Many of us personal injury lawyers here in Atlanta, Georgia actively discourage the practice that some lawyers unethically engage in of using “runners,” or individuals whose job it is to place accident vicitms with an attorney. These unscroupulous lawyers hire individuals to “run” cases for them, i.e., to go out and find car accident victims and deliver them to the unethical lawyer for the handling of a personal injury case. Then the unethical lawyer pays the hired lay individual, which is, by the way, illegal, for bringing the personal injury case to him. These “runners” often sit and wait in police departments, just waiting until police reports on car wrecks are filed,and then they get your contact information off the police report. These attorneys and their “runners” are truly the “ambulance chasers” of the profession and, unfortunately, have alot to do with giving lawyers a bad name.
Georgia law actually makes this practice illegal under Official Code of Georgia Section 33-24-53, yet anyone is rarely proscecuted under it. There has been at least one instance where an ethical lawyer and his client who had been previously contacted by one of the “runners” helped the Cobb County District Attorney’s office in an undercover sting to nab these illegal “runners,” and it worked. To watch a short news video about this case, click here. But such instances are few and far between.
If this ever happens to you after you have been in a car wreck in the Metropolitan Atlanta area, or anywhere in Georgia, call the Solicitor or the District Attorney for your county and report it. It is a crime and the use of these so-called “runners” in Georgia is a disservice to the Georgia public. You should not hire an attorney who has used the illegal services of a “runner” either. More than likely, you will not get good, attentive legal representation from any attorney who resorts to using illegal tactics to get cases in. Instead, ask for referrals from friends, families and lawyers you know who may not handle personal injury cases and do some reserach on the internet.
