Attorney Referrals & Resources for Illinois Semi Truck Accident Lawsuits

For more than two decades, the majority of our great cases have come by referral from other lawyers. If you are an attorney who is considering affiliating with co-counsel, I ask that you consider sending a spoliation letter to the responsible motor carrier and its insurer as soon as possible.
Attorneys who are preeminent in bankruptcy, real estate, securities, probate or corporate law readily acknowledge when they need to refer a client to a lawyer who specializes in tort law. Similarly, we refer matters outside the scope of practice to experts in those specialties.

Often Illinois attorneys refer to us cases that do not fit their practices. Attorneys in large corporate law firms outsource to us the handling of plaintiffs’ personal injury cases that their firms do not handle.

Attorneys in other states frequently refer to us their clients who have catastrophic injury or wrongful death cases in Illinois.

Illinois Rule of Professional Conduct 1.5(e) recognizes that clients are best served when lawyers can bring in other attorneys with needed areas of expertise, and still share in the responsibility and the fees. It provides:

(e) A division of a fee between lawyers who are not in the same firm may be made only if:

1. the division is in proportion to the services performed by each lawyer or, by written agreement with the client, each lawyer assumes joint responsibility for the representation;
2. the client is advised of the share that each lawyer is to receive and does not object to the participation of all the lawyers involved; and
3. the total fee is reasonable.

Fully complying with this rule and documenting the client’s consent to an appropriate allocation of fees and responsibility between counsel, we generously share fees with referring attorneys.

We work closely with referring lawyers, who may have as much or as little involvement as they wish. A lawyer who practices in another state or another area of law may net a greater fee than if they had done all the work themselves.

But the main thing is that a referring lawyer can know that the client is in good hands.

Professional reputation is a key to your comfort level in entrusting your client to another lawyer. To discuss a possible case referral, call Andreano Law at 815-723-0628.