• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Accident Attorney Ads

It must be great to be in the accident attorney business. At least, that's the conclusion I draw from the sheer number of them advertising on Atlanta radio.

On certain stations, it seems the accident attorney spots far outnumber any other category, A couple of days ago, I was listening to V-103 and heard one accident attorney commercial after another. (No competitive separation that stations used to provide between directly competitive advertisers.) Power 96-1 is another station that attorneys just love.

I am told that the big accident attorneys keep only the potentially most lucrative cases and make a ton of money selling their other leads to smaller companies.

I'm glad that radio apparently is getting big results for them.
 
I am told that the big accident attorneys keep only the potentially most lucrative cases and make a ton of money selling their other leads to smaller companies.
Many accident attorneys make their money because: 1) They're selective of the cases they'll accept, at times only agreeing to take on those they have a strong chance of winning, and; 2) In many cases they also reach out to potential clients with a "no-risk" proposal: If they take on your case and they win no settlement for you, you owe them nothing - BUT, if they win your case, then the law firm gets a fairly large chunk of the settlement...After all, it's they who are assuming the risk here with the "no-risk" proposal, not the client. Also, the agreement often comes with the understanding that they can use the outcome of your case if they win, in future advertising collateral.
 
What blows my mind are the number of insurance/annuity salespeople masquerading as financial advisors on WSB.
 
am told that the big accident attorneys keep only the potentially most lucrative cases and make a ton of money selling their other leads to smaller companies.
Rules vary per state but not sure if they are “selling” other leads. However in many states a lawyer referring to another lawyer gets a referral fee. Not paid when case is referred but a portion of the fee referral attorney receives. So if referral attorney wins and gets 1/3 or 40% of settlement to client and referring attorney gets 25% (or some percentage) of winning attorneys fee, that can add up quickly.
 
It must be great to be in the accident attorney business. At least, that's the conclusion I draw from the sheer number of them advertising on Atlanta radio.

On certain stations, it seems the accident attorney spots far outnumber any other category, A couple of days ago, I was listening to V-103 and heard one accident attorney commercial after another. (No competitive separation that stations used to provide between directly competitive advertisers.) Power 96-1 is another station that attorneys just love.

I am told that the big accident attorneys keep only the potentially most lucrative cases and make a ton of money selling their other leads to smaller companies.

I'm glad that radio apparently is getting big results for them.
The RBDS on almost every Atlanta station has an advertisement for some accident attorney between showing the names of the songs.
 
Last edited:
A friend of mine was on the other side of the big, most well-known accident attorney.firm in Dayton, Ohio. The one that would be on the cover of the phone book when that was a thing. all over radio, TV and Billboards. "We're the tigers! We'll get you every penny you deserve from those evil insurance companies!". My friend's attorney (defending on behalf of his insurance company "the (above-mentioned) law firm comes in and huffs and puffs, but they settle for whatever everybody else settles for".
 
They are also really big here in Florida. One firm - Anidjar and Levine - sponsors the "studio" for iHeart stations from Jacksonville to Miami.
 
I'm going to hijack the thread I started because our conversation reminded me of something. Last Thanksgiving week, I drove to Maryland and saw that Mark Spain had expanded into North Carolina in a big, big way.

On I-85, Mark Spain literally had multiple billboards within a quarter mile of each other. I spent a night in Durham, and Mark Spain commercials were all over the news on WRAL-TV.

I realize this is a radio board and of course Mark Spain is a heavy user of radio. I'm sure this also is the case in North Carolina.
 
those in the Boston MSA have been getting bombarded with Jim Sockalove ads for decades.

Long before M&M showed up

Jim Sockalove tried exactly ONE case and lost, then he figured out he could just bring in the business and schlep it off to other willing law firms and take a percentage.

Jim has been retired for more than a decade yet his firm keeps advertising... he is 78 years old now

"Despite his prodigious success and his omnipresent image as a bulldog attorney, Sokolove hasn’t seen the inside of a courtroom in nearly three decades. Truth be told, he’s argued only one case before a jury; it was back in the early 1970s, and he lost. It wasn’t tenacious lawyering that allowed Sokolove to build a legal empire, but rather his prowess as a businessman and an innovator. He and his staff of 80 don’t try cases; instead they connect prospective clients to other lawyers, who pay Sokolove a cut of their fees for ginning up business. As the American Bar Association Journal once described it, Sokolove is America’s “middleman of lawsuits”—a distinction that hasn’t made him particularly popular."

That quote is from Boston Magazine, circa 2008, the rest of the story is here:


I guess if you are a station owner, those ambulance chasers are a needed client

But I wish the A.B.A. had kept their rule that Lawyers could not advertise, but a 1977 Supreme Court ruling killed that
 
Last edited:
It's because they are spending money, and every sales department is trying to hit quarterly goals. Morals need not apply.

If a manure salesperson walks up with a million dollars to spend, your studios are going to be sponsored by "Al's Pooper Scooper".
 
Jim Sockalove tried exactly ONE case and lost, then he figured out he could just bring in the business and schlep it off to other willing law firms and take a percentage.

Jim has been retired for more than a decade yet his firm keeps advertising... he is 78 years old now

"Despite his prodigious success and his omnipresent image as a bulldog attorney, Sokolove hasn’t seen the inside of a courtroom in nearly three decades. Truth be told, he’s argued only one case before a jury; it was back in the early 1970s, and he lost. It wasn’t tenacious lawyering that allowed Sokolove to build a legal empire, but rather his prowess as a businessman and an innovator. He and his staff of 80 don’t try cases; instead they connect prospective clients to other lawyers, who pay Sokolove a cut of their fees for ginning up business. As the American Bar Association Journal once described it, Sokolove is America’s “middleman of lawsuits”—a distinction that hasn’t made him particularly popular."

That quote is from Boston Magazine, circa 2008, the rest of the story is here:


I guess if you are a station owner, those ambulance chasers are a needed client

But I wish the A.B.A. had kept their rule that Lawyers could not advertise, but a 1977 Supreme Court ruling killed that

Long before M&M showed up
Funny, but when John Morgan says his firm is the largest and therefore you should use them, it has the complete opposite effect on me. I would be afraid my case would get lost and would prefer a much smaller company where my case would get more attention.
 
Those ads are so annoying. They are heavy on the Urban stations and even include rap jingles. Most of those ads are referral services. Off the top of my head, 800-411-PAIN or 800-HURT-123 are the most common ones i keep hearing.
 
I will admit, listening to the Braves radio broadcasts on the MLB app recently, I got a chuckle from one of the lawyer’s websites being Atlanta Happens dot com.
 
I'm going to hijack the thread I started because our conversation reminded me of something. Last Thanksgiving week, I drove to Maryland and saw that Mark Spain had expanded into North Carolina in a big, big way.

On I-85, Mark Spain literally had multiple billboards within a quarter mile of each other. I spent a night in Durham, and Mark Spain commercials were all over the news on WRAL-TV.

I realize this is a radio board and of course Mark Spain is a heavy user of radio. I'm sure this also is the case in North Carolina.
I was at the closing table a few years ago and we were waiting for the bank to wire the money. The lawyer for the other side makes a comment about Mark Spain and I say, "He may be a great real realtor but I wouldn't be putting my face on a 14 foot billboard...I'm just sayin'". The realtor across from me proceeds to tell me that Mark's wife is her best friend. After I removed the size 12 foot from my mouth, I apologized for my rude comment.
 
Unfortunately some of my family members tried to settle their claims directly with the insurance companies. The bad hands people wouldn't even give my mother-in-law the blue book value of her car when their driver ran a red light and T-boned her car. Both she and the other diver were with the same insurance company. The taxpayers (Medicare) ended up paying her hospital expenses. They did pay the ambiance bill after she threated to call the state insurance commissioner. My Brother-in-law got smart after his wreck.. After the insurance company tried to low ball him on the value of his car, he used one of the TV lawyers and his settlement (after the lawyer's one third) was 4 times what the insurance company first offered.

IMHO if the insurance companies would step up and pay "fair" settlements at the start, these lawyers would have to find some other line of work.
 
One of the items in Newt's 1994 Contract with America that never got off the ground was the "loser pays" legislation, designed to stifle frivolous lawsuits. Can you imagine the howling from One Call, Strong Arm and Size Matters if they knew they'd be on the hook for the slips & fall cases that they lost? It wouldn't be good for Channel 2 and Channel 5's daytime sales volume either.
 
One of the items in Newt's 1994 Contract with America that never got off the ground was the "loser pays" legislation, designed to stifle frivolous lawsuits. Can you imagine the howling from One Call, Strong Arm and Size Matters if they knew they'd be on the hook for the slips & fall cases that they lost? It wouldn't be good for Channel 2 and Channel 5's daytime sales volume either.
I'm not sure Gingrich's plan would've been the answer, but I fully agree that frivilous lawsuits need to go away, as do the insane amounts people are awarded, especially when the opportunistic lawyers sometimes get the biggest chunk of it. For one, the reason why medicines and healthcare are so incredibly expensive in the USA when compare to other countries is the cost of malpractice insurance and the effects of so many at times unwarranted claims and lawsuits, and the amount of compensation paid out on them.
 
Last edited:
I know a doctor that told me he charged $130 per visit with insurance and $25 without. The difference is largely payroll for the paper trail insurance requires and all the things he has to do in a certain way to get something approved.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom