"Before hiring a law firm look at its website. If it doesn't have one, ask questions. If its website has a lot of fluff and doesn't contain information about the rating of the law firm or multi-million dollar cases it has handled, decide if you want to look elsewhere for an attorney."
You might have seen a one-half page display ad in the Sunday, December 10, 2006, edition of the Milwaukee Journal soliciting the injury cases of Falk workers. You might have thought the ad appeared too soon after three workers were killed and dozens of others injured in the explosion at the Falk Corporation in Milwaukee on December 6th. You might have wondered who the lawyers are. They don't list an office address or a local phone number. Most people reading the ad probably never heard of the law firm, saw an ad for it on television, or in the Milwaukee Yellow Pages. I know of no worthwhile causes it has suppported in the City of Milwaukee.
The law firm that ran the ad may be a very good firm but what the ad doesn't tell you is the law firm is in Houston, Texas. Further, it doesn't tell you that the lawyers in the firm are not licensed to practice law in the State of Wisconsin.
There are several very good law firms in Wisconsin. Some have handled complex cases, resulting in awards of tens of millions of dollars or more. We are not accusing the Houston law firm of doing anything improper. But, do injured Falk workers and their families need a law firm one thousand miles away?
Do the families of Curtis J. Lane, Thomas M. Letendre and Daniel T. Kuster need to go as far away as Houston, Texas, to find a lawyer capable of representing them?
Our advice is not to hire a lawyer based only on an advertisement.
Frank Advice About Lawyer Advertising You Will Not See Elsewhere - We Are Committed to Protecting the Public
Hausmann McNally law firm Senior Partner, Charles J. Hausmann, with offices in Milwaukee, Madison, and Appleton, Wisconsin and Decatur and Peoria, Illinois, has continued to practice law for more than 2-1/2 years after pleading guilty to criminal charges in Federal Court in June of 2002. In fact, as of January 10, 2005, he still has his license. He went to Federal prison at Oxford, Wisconsin on November 28, 2003, for defrauding approximately 200 of his firm's personal injury clients. His law firm is still sending letters soliciting personal injury cases to people who have been involved in motor vehicle accidents. The lawyer's partner sends out a 28-page brochure telling accident victims they should "Find a lawyer and law firm they can really trust." What the brochure does not tell you is that his partner was convicted of conduct that betrayed the trust and confidence placed in him by his clients. Click here to read June 10th, 2002 article about lawyer sentenced to prison for defrauding his clients. Click here to read December 13th, 2003 article about the same attorney.
The Office of Lawyer Regulation finally got around to having a disciplinary hearing in October, 2004. As of January 10, 2005, Hausmann still has a license to practice law and is still telling people to "hire a lawyer they can really trust."
Another lawyer who advertises on television every day and appears in his own commercials hasn’t lived in Milwaukee for 20 years. Another lawyer who advertises both on television and by direct mail may never have tried one personal injury case in thirty years.
There is nothing illegal or unethical about what any of these lawyers are doing. If you ask the State Bar about any of these lawyers, they would tell you that they are all expert advisors. In fact, you would be told by the State Bar that all 20,000 lawyers in Wisconsin are “expert advisors” without limitation as to time in practice or field of practice. How can this happen? First, with regard to lawyer advertising, any lawyer can advertise for personal injury cases saying he is an “expert advisor.” Many of the letters you get from lawyers after you have been in an accident may be from small one-man law firms which don’t “concentrate in” personal injury law. How many law firms that you receive direct mail from tell you what their qualifications are?
There are many good law firms that advertise on television and by direct mail, including ours. However, be careful and ask questions before you hire a lawyer. You may find out that your lawyer has been sentenced to prison, hasn’t lived here for twenty years or has never tried a personal injury case after it’s too late.
How can the State Bar claim that all lawyers are “expert advisors?” Some years ago, a new law firm in Milwaukee ran a full page advertisement in the Milwaukee Journal claiming that the lawyers in that firm had a high level of legal expertise. I complained to the Board of Attorneys Professional Responsibility that this was false advertising. I believe one of the lawyers claimed he was an “expert” even though he had never tried a case. Both were charged with unprofessional conduct and I testified at the hearing against them that I thought the advertising was unprofessional and misleading.
Amazingly, the lawyers narrowly escaped discipline and were exonerated. Based on this decision it appears that any lawyer in Wisconsin can claim he is a “legal expert.” Lawyers are “expert advisors” but not all lawyers are and no lawyer is an “expert” in all areas of the law.
Posted September 12, 2006
On August 30, 2005, the Wisconsin Supreme Court suspended the law license of Charles J. Hausmann to practice law for one year. Hausmann has applied to the Supreme Court for reinstatement of his law license. The name of Attorney Hausmann's firm was changed from Hausmann-McNally, S.C. to McNally Law Offices, S.C. Attorney John F. McNally, partner of Charles J. Hausmann prior to the above suspension, has taken over the law firm. No lawyer but Charles J. Hausmann was charged with any wrongdoing.
Posted May 31, 2007
On May 17, 2007, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ordered the reinstatement of Attorney Charles J. Hausmann's license to practice law in Wisconsin and further directed him to pay the costs of the reinstatement proceeding.
Editor's Note: Lawyer Claims It's Unfair For Me To Warn You
Update: October 8, 2004
I've been advised that Attorney Charles J. Hausmann claims that it is unfair for me to warn you that he went to Federal prison for sixty days for mail and wire fraud and conspiracy involving a secret kickback scheme with a chiropractor to whom he referred numerous clients. He claims it is unfair for me to tell uninformed accident victims that when they receive a brochure from a law firm telling them 51 times they should hire a trusted lawyer, it is from the same law firm whose senior partner went to Federal prison.
Hausmann claims that it is not civil for one lawyer to say this about another lawyer and that, because he is an ex-convict, public policy is that he should not be restrained from making a living. He claims that he shouldn't be discriminated against because of his criminal record.
I am not discriminating against him. Public policy in this state is that lawyers not betray the trust and confidence of their clients. In order to keep society fair and balanced, the U.S. and Wisconsin Constitutions guarantee us all free speech, and, when a lawyer tells uninformed clients that he should be hired because he is a "trusted lawyer", the public is entitled to know the full story.
I'm not accusing twenty thousand lawyers in Wisconsin of being missing in action when one of our own pled guilty to mail and wire fraud and conspiracy over two years ago. I may not be the Bill O'Reilly of the legal profession in Wisconsin, but I have to wonder how and why Hausmann has kept his law license after being convicted of the above conduct over two years ago. In the meantime . . .
Dozens of lawsuits have been filed against Pre-Paid Legal Services (PPLS) in at least three states alleging fraud. The plaintiffs allege that PPLS, which claims to offer “legal service plans to provide access to justice for middle-income individuals and families”, made promises it did not and could not possibly keep. The nationally known law firm of Lieff Cabraser Haimann & Bernstein, LLP sued Prepaid Legal Services, Inc. in Federal Court for the Western District of Oklahoma on March 1, 2002. Plaintiffs are current and former plan members and sales associates of Prepaid Legal Services, Inc. To go to the Lieff Cabraser website article about this important case, click here.
Prepaid legal service programs are offered nationwide for a nominal monthly fee. The advertisements promoting these services, directed towards the working middle-class, promise full-service legal assistance. They are promoted by a sales force and fulfilled by participating attorneys across the nation. With 1.4 million consumers signed up, wherein lies the problem?
First, you get what you pay for. At under $20.00 per month, the quality of assistance offered by an attorney assigned to a client may leave something to be desired. The attorneys that participate in the program are typically not exclusively prepaid legal service providers, so when a client paying full-price needs attention, he gets it. In addition, the participating attorneys are assigned thousands of prepaid clients. These attorneys are relying on the probability that many of the prepaid clients will not need any assistance. In the event that clients do need assistance, the attorneys’ time is devoted to them on a first come, first-served basis. Left with little recourse and lingering problems, the prepaid clients could be in a worse position because they have paid a fee and may receive little legal assistance.
Second, the contracts are so far skewed from the advertisements that the service providers have been sued numerous times for fraud. While the promotional advertising creates the impression that the prepaid plan is all-encompassing, the contract’s fine print delineates the numerous situations that are not covered, including, in most plans, filing a lawsuit.
Third, most plans do not allow clients to choose between the participating attorneys. Therefore, clients are assigned to an attorney that may or may not have any knowledge, let alone expertise, in the area of law in which he or she is having trouble. The law is so intensely diverse that it could be devastating to a client’s potential case to be paired with an attorney not skilled in the specific area of law needed.
Lastly, the sales forces are organized similarly to a multilevel system. The initial group sells and markets the product to consumers and potential sales directors. Commissions are received from each recruit and the monthly sales of the recruit in addition to the base commission received from the director’s own sales. The recruits then sell and market, retaining a commission on their sales and anyone they are able to recruit. This process builds until interest dissipates. The reason that the service providers are able to charge so little is because the money is constantly coming in due to new clients. The money is pooled, much like insurance, and disbursed when needed. While there are currently enough assets to satisfy the service companies’ contracts with attorneys, the market is becoming saturated, and the consumer demand is decreasing. As there become fewer interested consumers and consumer awareness of the pending litigation against these service providers heightens, the case inflow will decrease and eventually run out. The lack of incoming cash from new clients will cause a deficiency, the attorneys will halt service, and the multilevel system will cease to exist.
While the courts have failed to recognize prepaid legal services sales initiatives as a pyramid “scheme”, the view among non-participating attorneys is that these plans are a waste of people’s money. Attorneys are in the business of going to great lengths to provide care tailored to their clients’ needs; prepaid legal services are in the business of handling clients from start to finish over the phone. Though the concept of paying a flat monthly fee for attorney services sounds enticing, the service received is incomparable to that received by a firm that charges a retainer or contingency. Back to the top
Personal injury lawyers represent people who have been injured in automobile accidents, as the result of medical malpractice, because of dangerous products, and in a variety of other ways. Hopefully you will never need a personal injury lawyer.
You will probably want a lawyer who has had years of experience and handled hundreds of personal injury cases to represent you.
However, if you are involved in an accident, it is important to have a good personal injury lawyer who can see that you receive all the money that you are entitled to. Insurance companies are not in the habit of paying more money than they have to - your lawyer should see that they pay you all the money that you should receive.
How you go about choosing a personal injury lawyer may determine whether your claim is handled properly. The United States Supreme Court has said that lawyers can advertise. I strongly suggest that you not choose a lawyer just because you have seen his advertisements on television or elsewhere. Advertising gives lawyers an opportunity to tell the public what types of cases they accept. Unfortunately, the law allows all lawyers - good and bad - to advertise. It is possible for lawyers who have never tried a personal injury case, or who haven't tried one in twenty years, to advertise themselves as personal injury lawyers. Before retaining a lawyer in a personal injury case, ask him or her how many such cases they have successfully tried and when they last went to court with such a case. You may further want to ask if the lawyer has ever lectured or written on the subject of personal injury law and whether they have been involved in novel cases that require imagination in ingenuity.
Since no lawyer can give a guarantee of the results he or she will obtain for you, it is best to select a lawyer with a good reputation and a proven track record. Do you have a friend who has a similar case? Was he satisfied with his lawyer? Layers' reputations are usually based on the type of results they get for their clients. You will probably want a lawyer who has had years of experience and handled hundreds of personal injury cases to represent you.
Rules that I would suggest you follow in selecting a good personal injury lawyer are the following:
1. Does the lawyer have the experience and competence to handle your case that can be gained only by taking such cases to court?
2. Has the lawyer had enough years of experience to competently handle your case?
3. Has a friend been satisfied with the lawyer's services?
4. Is the lawyer willing to take your case to court if the insurance company will not offer a settlement you are satisfied with?
