Find another attorney that will really fight for the rights of their clients. . . We hired Howard Schmerin on the referral of an acquaintance. At first he was entusiastic and all gung-ho to take our case because he deemed it a cut-n-dry case because the cop found the other driver at fault and was given a ticket for the car accident my family was in. Eventually, it became very hard to get Mr. Schmerin himself on the phone. There was little to no communication on their part if we weren't the ones giving him a call for updates. We were often handed off to an assistant to address our concerns. Mostly, it was the receptionist telling us that Cindy, the assistant, will give us a call back, or Cindy or Mr. Schmerin was out of the office or with a client. We looked around and it had been 10 months since we had hired Mr. Schmerin to represent us in our "cut-n-dry" case. At the start of the case Mr. Schmerin said he would ask the insurance co. to pay in the tune of $120K because of the extent or our total injuries(neck, back, & arm). By the time we settled with the insurance co., we left away with a little over $7K between the 3 of us! Throughout the case, we felt there could have been better counsel, better communication, and more of an effort on their part to fight for our rights. There was a time near the end of the case, we were told by Cindy that our checks were in the mail & they should be receiving them any day now. Of course, we never got a call from them stating the checks were received. Instead, we had to call them and ask what's the hold up since it had been over 2 wks since we were told that the insurance co. had sent our checks. Upon speaking to someone else who was not Cindy or Mr. Schmerin, we were informed that the adjuster for the insurance co. told them that he was waiting on Medicare & Medicaid to confirm that we did not use them to pay for our medical expenses incurred by the accident. We don't receive either!! What was upsetting, was that they did not even bother to call and inform us that the checks were not really on their way. We were informed, yet again, that we had to wait on the insurance adjuster, so they didn't know when the checks would be in. After a few days had passed, we gave the law firm a call to check on the status of our checks. Again, Cindy was either busy or out of the office! Frustrated, we decided to consult with a family member who worked as an adjuster for an insurance co. At her advice, we called the insurance agency and asked them to let us know if a settlement check had been issued. Because the agent at the insurance co. was unsure what she could relay to us legally because we had retained a lawyer, she said she would find out and give me a call back. Within 10 minutes of hanging up with the insurance co., we received a call back from Cindy finally!!! What a coincidence! Our checks had been hand delivered by the claims investigator hired by the insurance co.!! We figured the insurance co. called our lawyer to let them know their client, us, called in reference to our settlement & since we were now raising eyebrows they decided they needed to pay up!! We went immediately to their office and picked up our checks!! Honestly, we didn't trust them to still be at that location the next day! Once in the conference room to sign over our checks and receive the portion that was to be ours after their legal fee and the doctors' fees, we noticed something strange! The original checks from the insurance co. already contained bank stamps and were dated for a date over 2wks ago!! After leaving their office, we drove to the nearest location of their bank and waited on baited breath in hopes they had money in their account to cover our payments. Thankfully, we had no trouble cashing them!! In all, I would never recommend or refer anyone to their services. You deserve a legal team that's willing to fight for their clients, who are responsive to their clients' needs, and are willing to challenge absurd figures the insurance co. is going to throw at them. Find better representation! read more
