attorney responsible?

[dickerson3262]

If an attorney for the pl. is handed paperwork for an insurance claim for an auto accident, are they not required to view all the information before filing anything? The attorney filed a claim in Indiana for an auto accident that happened in Ohio! I asked them to send me paperwork from the crash report and it was from Ohio. Is that considered negligence?

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Originally posted by dickerson3262
If an attorney for the pl. is handed paperwork for an insurance claim for an auto accident, are they not required to view all the information before filing anything? The attorney filed a claim in Indiana for an auto accident that happened in Ohio! I asked them to send me paperwork from the crash report and it was from Ohio. Is that considered negligence?

To begin, it's difficult to say that anything is negligence without hearing all the facts of the case and not hearing the attorney's reasons for performing a certain act -- and it may be well justified and possibly preferable.

That said, I can think of several reasons why an attorney might file a claim in Indiana instead of Ohio, where the accident happened. The plaintiff and defendant may both reside in Indiana and it could be a 'convenient' court (a term of art.) Additionally, there could be other strategic reasons for doing so.

If the attorney filed the case in an incorrect state then the case might get moved to the convenient court in Ohio. I'm not sure that it will have a major impact on the case and you can read about many cases in the newspaper whose forum is moved, e.g. high profile cases are moved to locations where the court feels the bias might not be as strong. Bottom line is that if you don't feel confident in the attorney then use someone else and, if there are any damages, deal with them as you feel necessary. Until then, if the damages are negligible, then there is no need to make a federal case (or one with the bar) out of it.