To find a pre-screened Attorney in Los Angeles, call the 24HR Lawyer Referral Hotline 661 310 7999

If I have an auto accident, do I have to stop?

Yes. California law says you must stop—whether the accident involves a pedestrian, a moving car, a parked car or someone’s property. If you drive away, you can be charged with hit and run even if the accident was not your fault.

You must also exchange information with the other driver—your name and driver’s license number, the vehicle identification number of the car you are driving, the name and address of the car’s owner, the name and address of your insurance company and your insurance policy number (or other evidence of financial responsibility, such as a bond posted with the Department of Motor Vehicles).

Hit-and-run penalties are severe. Depending on the damage or injuries, you may be fined, sent to jail or both. You also could lose your driver’s license.

If you hit a parked car or other property, try to find the owner or driver. If you cannot, the law says you may drive away only after you leave behind, in a conspicuous place, your name, address and an explanation of the accident, and the name and address of your car’s owner (if other than yourself).

You also must notify the local police or California Highway Patrol (CHP) either by telephone or in person as soon as possible.

You must call the police or the CHP if the accident caused a death or injury. An officer who comes to the scene of the accident will conduct an investigation. If an officer doesn’t show up, you must make a written report on a form available at the police department or CHP office as soon as possible.

What should I do if someone is injured?

The law requires you to give reasonable assistance to anyone who is injured. For example, you may need to call an ambulance, take the injured person to a doctor or hospital, or give first aid—if you know how.

If you are not trained in the appropriate first aid procedures, do not move someone who is badly hurt; you might make the injury worse. However, you should move someone who is in danger of being hurt worse or killed (for example, in a car fire) even if you do make the injury worse.

To help prevent additional collisions, try to warn other motorists that an accident has occurred. Placing flares on the road (only if there are no flammable fluids or items nearby), turning on your car’s hazard lights and lifting the engine hood are usually good ways to warn others on the road. Arrange to get help for anyone who is injured, and try not to panic.

How can I get help?

As soon as you can get to a telephone, call 911. Explain the situation and give the exact location of the accident, so that help can arrive quickly. Be sure to mention whether you need an ambulance or a fire engine.

Remain on the telephone until the operator tells you it is okay to hang up. Or, flag down a passing car and ask the driver to go for help. The driver may have a cellular phone in the car and can make an emergency call on the spot.

What information should I gather at the accident scene?

Since many records now are confidential under the law, you may not be able to obtain the information that you want from the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). So be sure to get as much correct and complete information as you can at the scene of the accident.

You and the other driver should show each other your driver’s licenses and vehicle registrations. Then you should write down:

The other driver’s name, address, date of birth, telephone number, driver’s license number and expiration date, and insurance company.

The other car’s make, year, model, license plate number and expiration date, and vehicle identification number.

The names, addresses, telephone numbers and insurance companies of the other car’s legal and registered owners—if the driver does not own the car.

The names, addresses, dates of birth, driver’s license numbers and telephone numbers of any passengers in the other car.

The names, addresses and telephone numbers of any witnesses to the accident. Ask them to stay to talk to the CHP or police. If they insist on leaving, ask them to tell you what they saw and write everything down.

Try to identify people at the accident scene, even if they will not give their names. For example, if someone who saw the accident drives off, take down his or her license plate number. Law enforcement officials can trace the owner’s name and address.

The name and badge number of the law officer who comes to the accident scene. Ask the officer where and when you can get a copy of any accident report.

A simple diagram of the accident. Draw the positions of both cars before, during and after the accident.

If there are skid marks on the road, pace them off. Draw them on the diagram, noting the distance they cover. Mark the positions of any crosswalks, stop signs, traffic lights or streetlights. If you have a camera with you, take pictures of the scene, and of the other drivers and occupants.

However, do not place yourself in a position of danger in order to complete an accident diagram. Be aware of traffic conditions and skip any measurements that could place you in a position of harm.

Make notes, too, on weather and road conditions.

If the accident happened after dark, note whether the streetlights were on. Estimate your speed and that of the other vehicle. Be sure to record the exact time, date and place the accident happened.

If I think the accident was my fault, should I say so?

Do not volunteer any information about who was to blame for the accident. You may think you are in the wrong and then learn that the other driver is as much or more to blame than you are. You should first talk to your insurance agent, your lawyer or both. Anything you say to the police or the other driver can be used against you later.

Do not agree to pay for damages or sign any paper except a traffic ticket (see #6) until you check with your insurance company or lawyer.

However, be sure to cooperate with the police officer investigating the case. But, stick to the facts.

For instance, if you were driving 30 miles an hour, say so. Do not say, “I wasn’t speeding.”

Opertations:

1000Attorneys.com Lawyer Referral operates as a telephone service and online service. Potential clients call the intake number, where they are screened by an intake specialist. If a referral seems reasonable based on information given by the caller, the potential client is given the name and number of an attorney. We work on an underlying rotation system, by relevant panel in the geographic area requested by the client. Sometimes special circumstances require referral out of the rotation. LRS does not refer on the basis of ethnicity, gender or other characteristic unrelated to the legal area. We do, however, refer for non-English language ability if needed and we can.

The intake staff members are not in a position to give legal advice or to decide the merits of a claim. They do, however, try to refer matters that seem to have minimal damages or that do not hang together to the Neighborhood Legal Clinics for an initial consultation, or to Small Claims Court if the claimed damages fit that jurisdiction. They also try not to refer matters where the caller cannot articulate a legal matter.

Benefits:

There are many benefits from joining a California Bar Approved lawyer referral service. Most importantly, you can have an immediate impact on your pipeline while avoiding any violations of the California State Bar code of conduct as it relates to attorney advertisign and marketing. Other benefits are:

Credibility Immediate access to hundres of cases in your area. Exposure. Additional Income. Access to peer to peer referrals.

Unique Call Rotation System: All calls are rotated evenly and effectively among each panel member.

Superior In-house Call Processing Center: Our trained legal analysts gather all necessary contact information and immediately forward the information to your office if it is determined that legal counsel is needed. Callers are either patched directly to your office or are given your contact information. You will also get an email or fax confirmation of every referral forwarded to your office.

Marketing Consulting Services: Free offline/online marketing and corporate identity support for all our members.

Dedicated Customer Satisfaction: You will be assigned a LRIS Coordinator specializing in your area of practice, who will contact you periodically to ensure quality of service.

Cost Efficiency: The service monitors all details of performance to ensure maximum results. Benefit from a large advertising budget for an entire market for only the cost of a single area in which you practice.

State Bar Compliance: Our lawyer referral program complies with rules and regulations set forth by the Bar and the Supreme Court to provide unbiased lawyer referrals.

Target Audience: Our Powerful Internet advertising positions our website at the top of all the major search engines and online directories; this generates immediate call generation to our call center. We partner with our panel members to strengthen and grow their practice through direct response Internet advertising.

Chiropractors are notorious for “keeping their patients coming back.” Many advise everyone to have their spine checked for “subluxations” and “adjusted” throughout life. Many chiropractors advise people whose symptoms have stopped to keep coming back for “preventative maintenance. Some chiropractors are networked with attorneys (and even medical doctors) to provide unnecessary tests and treatment to injured works and auto accident victims. Partly as a result, in many states, workers’ compensation programs has become so expensive that employers have asked their state legislature to limit the amount of chiropractic coverage.

In 1992, Florida Trend magazine published a cover story on “why chiropractors get blamed for fueling the cost of workers’ compensation.” The author concluded that, “Workers’ compensation is fraught with abuse, but no other players in the system rile business more than the chiropractors.” A spokesman for the American Insurance Association even said that, “Sometimes I think of workers’ comp as the chiropractic full-employment act.” Some health-insurance companies called for limits on chiropractic treatment, and some wanted chiropractors out of the WC system altogether. The main complaints were about exaggerated diagnoses, overtreatment, and aggressive marketing aimed at patient retention from cradle to grave. The author also noted:

Less scrupulous attorneys turn to chiropractors, hoping they will give injured workers the highest impairment rating and extend treatment for as long as possible. The chiropractors who play the game are then rewarded with a steady stream of clients provided by their unspoken lawyer/partners.

The payback for a lawyer comes in the medical expenses: The larger the expenses, the more the lawyer can expect, with legal fees paid by the insurer. . . . If a carrier disputes a claim . . . the lawyer can rack up hefty costs for time-consuming depositions and pre-trial appearances. Meanwhile, the chiropractor continues to provide treatment [1].

Two studies have focused attention on the problem in California. The first one, published by the Workers Compensation Research Institute of Cambridge, Massachusetts, analyzed 28,539 workers’ compensation cases involving back strains and sprains in California and four other states and concluded:

Chiropractic care could achieve the same outcome at lower costs if the number of visits were limited (see Figure A). Chiropractor-directed physical medicine care costs 30% more than physician-directed care and achieved the same outcomes as measured by duration of temporary disability. The higher number of visits that chiropractors use per case is the major driver behind the higher physical medicine payments. In Florida, chiropractic care achieved the same outcome at lower cost than physician-directed physical medicine care in Florida where reimbursement rules place strict limits on the number of chiropractic visits per case that will be reimbursed by workers’ compensation payors. The fact that treatment and billing practices by Florida chiropractors result in lower medical costs while achieving a similar duration of disability as physician-directed care may provide lessons that other states can draw from. Physical medicine services are most often used for back injuries, representing 41% of all injuries that receive such services. This is not surprising because back injuries — mostly strains and sprains — represent one-quarter of all workers’ compensation injuries, so they are disproportionately more likely to receive physical medicine services. In most cases, physicians manage care and arrange for physical medicine, either within or outside their organizations. Chiropractors are involved in about 13% of the cases, two-thirds of which are under the exclusive care of chiropractors. The average payment per workers’ compensation claim was 30% higher in chiropractor-treated cases in California, Connecticut and Texas to achieve the same duration of disability as they are in physician-directed care. That’s because chiropractor-treated claims involve more than double the number of visits, although the payment per visit is 19% to 24% lower. On average, chiropractors use 137% to 158% more visits that provide physical medicine services and 74% to 90% more visits for which office visits are billed. By contrast, in Florida, chiropractor-treated claims are 10% less expensive than similar physician-treated claims to achieve the same duration of disability. Medical costs per claim are 14% lower to achieve the same outcome. Florida chiropractors appear to treat and bill differently from chiropractors in other states. For example, Florida chiropractors treat with an average of eight visits per claim for claims with more than seven days of lost time from the job. Chiropractors in the other study states treat these cases with an average of 14 to 35 visits per claim. And Florida chiropractors are less likely to bill for office visit codes, and when they do, they bill for fewer visits. Part of the reason for the different results is that Florida law mandates absolute limits on the number of chiropractic visits per case — the lesser of 18 visits or eight weeks of treatment. Cases treated exclusively by chiropractors have much longer durations of physical medicine services. Nearly one-quarter have durations of 15 weeks or more. Only 35% have durations of 4 weeks or less. The shortest durations of physical medicine treatment involve cases in which physicians manage treatment. In these cases, physical medicine services are either provided internally, externally by physical therapists or through hospital providers. Between one-half and three-quarters receive two weeks or less of services and more than three-quarters receive four weeks or less. About 5% have durations of physical medicine services of 15 weeks or more. Cases treated by both chiropractors and physicians, either sequentially or concurrently, have the longest durations of treatment with 43% having durations of 15 weeks or more [2,3].

***Avoid fraud by unethical bankruptcy attorneys in the Los Angeles Metro area. If you need a pre-screened bankruptcy attorney, you must call a CALBAR approved lawyer referral service by calling 661-310-7999 or by visiting 1000Attorneys.com ***

San Fernando Valley: There have been many reported incidents in the San Fernando valley about unethical business practices by bankruptcy attorneys.

Specifically, these offices are violating rule 1-400 which prohibits lawyers from paying commissions to people who generate leads of potential clients. Moreover, these agents cannot act in behalf of any attorney to offer their bankruptcy services.

Anyone giving bankruptcy advise MUST be licensed with the California Bar Association.

Rule 1-400 from the California Bar Association clearly states:

(A) For purposes of this rule, “communication” means any message or offer made by or on behalf of a member concerning the availability for professional employment of a member or a law firm directed to any former, present, or prospective client, including but not limited to the following:

(1) Any use of firm name, trade name, fictitious name, or other professional designation of such member or law firm; or

2) Any stationery, letterhead, business card, sign, brochure, or other comparable written material describing such member, law firm, or lawyers; or

(3) Any advertisement (regardless of medium) of such member or law firm directed to the general public or any substantial portion thereof; or

(4) Any unsolicited correspondence from a member or law firm directed to any person or entity.

(B) For purposes of this rule, a “solicitation” means any communication:

(1) Concerning the availability for professional employment of a member or a law firm in which a significant motive is pecuniary gain; and

(2) Which is:

(a) delivered in person or by telephone, or

(b) directed by any means to a person known to the sender to be represented by counsel in a matter which is a subject of the communication.

(C) A solicitation shall not be made by or on behalf of a member or law firm to a prospective client with whom the member or law firm has no family or prior professional relationship, unless the solicitation is protected from abridgment by the Constitution of the United States or by the Constitution of the State of California. A solicitation to a former or present client in the discharge of a member’s or law firm’s professional duties is not prohibited.

(D) A communication or a solicitation (as defined herein) shall not:

(1) Contain any untrue statement; or

(2) Contain any matter, or present or arrange any matter in a manner or format which is false, deceptive, or which tends to confuse, deceive, or mislead the public; or

(3) Omit to state any fact necessary to make the statements made, in the light of circumstances under which they are made, not misleading to the public; or

(4) Fail to indicate clearly, expressly, or by context, that it is a communication or solicitation, as the case may be; or

(5) Be transmitted in any manner which involves intrusion, coercion, duress, compulsion, intimidation, threats, or vexatious or harassing conduct.

(6) State that a member is a “certified specialist” unless the member holds a current certificate as a specialist issued by the Board of Legal Specialization, or any other entity accredited by the State Bar to designate specialists pursuant to standards adopted by the Board of Governors, and states the complete name of the entity which granted certification.

(E) The Board of Governors of the State Bar shall formulate and adopt standards as to communications which will be presumed to violate this rule 1-400. The standards shall only be used as presumptions affecting the burden of proof in disciplinary proceedings involving alleged violations of these rules. “presumption affecting the burden of proof” means that presumption defined in Evidence Code sections 605 and 606. Such standards formulated and adopted by the Board, as from time to time amended, shall be effective and binding on all members.

(F) A member shall retain for two years a true and correct copy or recording of any communication made by written or electronic media. Upon written request, the member shall make any such copy or recording available to the State Bar, and, if requested, shall provide to the State Bar evidence to support any factual or objective claim contained in the communication.

[Publisher's Note: Former rule 1-400 (D)(6) repealed by order of the Supreme Court effective November 30, 1992. New rule 1-400 (D)(6) added by order of the Supreme Court effective June 1, 1997.]

Standards:

Pursuant to rule 1-400(E) the Board of Governors of the State Bar has adopted the following standards, effective May 27, 1989, unless noted otherwise, as forms of “communication” defined in rule 1-400(A) which are presumed to be in violation of rule 1-400:

(1) A “communication” which contains guarantees, warranties, or predictions regarding the result of the representation.

(2) A “communication” which contains testimonials about or endorsements of a member unless such communication also contains an express disclaimer such as “this testimonial or endorsement does not constitute a guarantee, warranty, or prediction regarding the outcome of your legal matter.”

(3) A “communication” which is delivered to a potential client whom the member knows or should reasonably know is in such a physical, emotional, or mental state that he or she would not be expected to exercise reasonable judgment as to the retention of counsel.

(4) A “communication” which is transmitted at the scene of an accident or at or en route to a hospital, emergency care center, or other health care facility.

(5) A “communication,” except professional announcements, seeking professional employment for pecuniary gain, which is transmitted by mail or equivalent means which does not bear the word “Advertisement,” “Newsletter” or words of similar import in 12 point print on the first page. If such communication, including firm brochures, newsletters, recent legal development advisories, and similar materials, is transmitted in an envelope, the envelope shall bear the word “Advertisement,” “Newsletter” or words of similar import on the outside thereof.

(6) A “communication” in the form of a firm name, trade name, fictitious name, or other professional designation which states or implies a relationship between any member in private practice and a government agency or instrumentality or a public or non-profit legal services organization.

(7) A “communication” in the form of a firm name, trade name, fictitious name, or other professional designation which states or implies that a member has a relationship to any other lawyer or a law firm as a partner or associate, or officer or shareholder pursuant to Business and professions Code sections 6160-6172 unless such relationship in fact exists.

(8) A “communication” which states or implies that a member or law firm is “of counsel” to another lawyer or a law firm unless the former has a relationship with the latter (other than as a partner or associate, or officer or shareholder pursuant to Business and professions Code sections 6160-6172) which is close, personal, continuous, and regular.

(9) A “communication” in the form of a firm name, trade name, fictitious name, or other professional designation used by a member or law firm in private practice which differs materially from any other such designation used by such member or law firm at the same time in the same community.

(10) A “communication” which implies that the member or law firm is participating in a lawyer referral service which has been certified by the State Bar of California or as having satisfied the Minimum Standards for Lawyer Referral Services in California, when that is not the case.

(11) (Repealed. See rule 1-400(D)(6) for the operative language on this subject.)

(12) A “communication,” except professional announcements, in the form of an advertisement primarily directed to seeking professional employment primarily for pecuniary gain transmitted to the general public or any substantial portion thereof by mail or equivalent means or by means of television, radio, newspaper, magazine or other form of commercial mass media which does not state the name of the member responsible for the communication. When the communication is made on behalf of a law firm, the communication shall state the name of at least one member responsible for it.

(13) A “communication” which contains a dramatization unless such communication contains a disclaimer which states “this is a dramatization” or words of similar import.

(14) A “communication” which states or implies “no fee without recovery” unless such communication also expressly discloses whether or not the client will be liable for costs.

(15) A “communication” which states or implies that a member is able to provide legal services in a language other than English unless the member can actually provide legal services in such language or the communication also states in the language of the communication (a) the employment title of the person who speaks such language and (b) that the person is not a member of the State Bar of California, if that is the case.

(16) An unsolicited “communication” transmitted to the general public or any substantial portion thereof primarily directed to seeking professional employment primarily for pecuniary gain which sets forth a specific fee or range of fees for a particular service where, in fact, the member charges a greater fee than advertised in such communication