Why Did an Attorney Turn Down My Case?
There are several reasons a personal injury or medical malpractice attorney might decide not to take your case. Often, they won’t explain why because giving an opinion on your claim’s strength could open them up to legal risks.
This article outlines common reasons why an attorney might not represent you. However, it’s not legal advice and doesn’t determine whether you have a valid claim. All examples used in the article are for illustrative purposes only and should not be interpreted as an adverse opinion regarding the merits of your claim.
This article is intended to inform and empower, but should not be considered legal advice. Please see our full Site Disclaimer and Privacy Policy.
How Cases Work:
Most personal injury cases involve proving the following formula:
Legal Duty + Breach of Duty + Causation + Damages = Case
If any part of this formula is weak, an attorney might decide the case isn’t strong enough to pursue. Sometimes, even if one element is weak, an attorney may still take the case if the other elements are strong.
Reasons an Attorney Might Decline Your Case
No Legal Duty:
If there’s no legal obligation (Legal Duty) for someone to act in a certain way, it’s hard to prove a case. For example, while healthcare providers must treat patients with care and drivers must follow traffic laws, a regular person generally doesn’t have a legal duty to help a stranger in peril. If your claim is based on someone not helping you, this might be why an attorney turns down your case.
No Breach of Duty:
If there is a Legal Duty, the next step is to prove that the duty was breached, also known as Negligence. For instance, a doctor who makes a mistake that deviates from standard care, or a driver who disobeys traffic laws, may have breached their duty.
In medical negligence cases, attorneys will often turn down cases where the complained injury was one that is a risk of procedure . This means that even when doctors do everything correctly, sometimes the injury can still occur. Just because a patient suffered an adverse outcome doesn’t mean the doctor did something wrong.
Example: A patient experiences sensory nerve damage after a major surgery. Frequently, sensory nerves are damaged from surgical trauma, and often doctors don’t do anything out of the ordinary to cause that. Experienced medical negligence attorneys have a good handle on which injuries result from negligence, and which are unfortunate but unavoidable results.
No Causation:
Causation links the Breach of Duty to the damages (injuries) you suffered. You must show that the mistake caused your injuries.
For example, if you were in a car accident caused by someone else and were injured, the causation element is met. But if you had a pre-existing injury, it might be hard to prove the accident made it worse, especially if your treatment didn’t change after the accident.
In medical malpractice cases, it’s common for attorneys to turn down cases if they can’t prove that the doctor's mistake directly caused your injury. EXAMPLES:
Infections after surgery are difficult to prove as negligence because they can happen for many reasons.
If a doctor fails to diagnose cancer or another dangerous condition, you must show that the failure to diagnose or treat caused the worse outcome. It can be extremely difficult to prove that it was the delay in treatment which caused or exacerbated poor outcomes.
When you have a preexisting condition like obesity, diabetes, smoking, or other adverse health conditions, Causation is harder to prove because these conditions cause a lot of poor outcomes by themselves, and they can make procedures more dangerous in general.
In wrongful death cases, an attorney may not take on a case if there is no autopsy, or if the autopsy shows that the death was caused by something other than the Breach of Duty. Sometimes, the cause of death is obvious without an autopsy, but attorneys almost always prefer to have them.
Be advised that in Minnesota, if someone is injured due to negligence but then dies of unrelated causes, their estate may still have a claim for the negligence before their death.
Insufficient Damages:
Damages are the harm you suffered, such as medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering. If your damages are minor, an attorney might decide it’s not worth the time and cost to pursue your case.
This is especially true for medical malpractice cases, which are expensive to pursue. If your injuries were minor or you made a full recovery, the damages might not be high enough to justify the effort of taking on the case.
Other Possible Reasons for Denial:
Attorney Availability: They might be too busy to take on new cases.
State Laws: Laws in your state might make your case difficult to win.
Client Behavior: Being uncommunicative, unhelpful, pushy, or rude can also be reasons for rejection.
Final Word:
Attorneys do not have to tell you why they didn’t pursue your claim. They can even get in trouble when they do. Unfortunately, this can lead people to feel frustration and confusion regarding whether they have a case. Hopefully this article has given you a better understanding of the factors an attorney considers when deciding whether to take on a client.
