Is there a database of lawyers that can be used to find one without a conflict of interest?

January 15, 2008 6:48 AM

My mom is worried she won't be able to find a lawyer who doesn't have a conflict of interest. How can I help her?

My father had a serious accident while on the job. My parents are finally at the point where they want to hire a lawyer.

The first lawyer my mom approached has a conflict of interest since he's represented the employer (a hospital) before. She's worried she won't be able to find a lawyer in the area who hasn't represented the employer before. In a city with a population of 100K, how likely is this? If it is likely, is there a database of lawyers to help find one without a conflict of interest?

posted by bleary to law & government (7 comments total)

I think you'll be able to find a lawyer, if not one in your city, then one in the next town over. The US has about one lawyer per 300 people, so there are about 300 lawyers in your city (although of course many will not be appropriate for your case).

Martindale Hubbell is the main lawyer-finding site, although there won't be an immediate way to weed out lawyer who have a conflict of interest.
posted by jedicus at 6:54 AM on January 15 [1 favorite]

One thing you might do is look for court records to see who has sued the hospital before, and hopefully won. They are less likely to have a conflict of interest in the same fashion.
posted by grouse at 7:01 AM on January 15 [1 favorite]

In my experience, it should not be difficult at all to find a lawyer who only represents injured workers and not their employers. Where I practice (North Carolina) in fact it would be pretty rare to find an attorney who practices both sides of the worker's compensation fence.

As far as a database goes, one place to start would be your parents' state organization of trial attorneys. Most states have one and they are comprised of lawyers who do only plaintiff's work or criminal defense work. Again, in North Carolina, to be a member, one has to certify that one does not represent employers and insurance companies.

Another database to check out would be to see if the State Bar Association certifies specialists in worker's compensation law. Some of those specialists will be defense lawyers (i.e. work for the employers and insurance companies) but most will be plaintiff's lawyers.
posted by pasici at 7:01 AM on January 15

Generally, there are plaintiffs' lawyers and defense lawyers. You need to find a plaintiffs' lawyer.
posted by amro at 7:03 AM on January 15

Plus, any organization that handles legal matters regularly - like a hospital - is going to find lawyers it likes and stick with them, rather than trying out every single one in the metro area.
posted by Tomorrowful at 7:28 AM on January 15

No. Lawyers do not pool their conflicts information; to do so would probably even be a breach of attorney-client confidentiality rules in many jurisdictions. You'll have to call around a bit. But each lawyer you call - if he or she is competent - will ask you about all the parties up front, and will let you know immediately if there is a conflict or potential conflict.

Generally, personal injury & insurance lawyers organize themselves into "plaintiff" firms (who work for injured or otherwise aggrieved individuals) and "defendant" firms (who work for employers and insurance companies), for precisely these reasons - once someone works for insurance company X, he's unlikely to be able to prosecute suits against that company subsequently. So, ask or look specifically for plaintiffs' firms.

Also, no one should be charging for the initial interview and conflicts check, if that's been an issue. 100K is a smallish city, but I bet you're only a few phone calls away from someone who can help.
posted by rkent at 7:29 AM on January 15

rkent is spot-on about pooled conflict data. In addition to all the ideas posted here, just note that conflicts checks will probably be a quick process for a lot of practitioners. I'd be surprised if most solo's couldn't tell you in the first in the first 5 minutes whether they had a conflict with the hospital.

Keep in mind that attorneys with conflicts, or at least the decent among them, will probably refer you to opposing counsel they respect and know to be conflict-free. Once you have some references to good, conflict-free attorneys, you can usually parlay that into a sense of their competence. If you or your mother or any of her friends or your friends know a practicing attorney, he/she can probably call some folks and get a sense of how good they are.

A day of phone calls should give your mom a few good candidates for her to meet with so she can see how they get along.
posted by averyoldworld at 9:52 AM on January 15