About Us
Since 1997, attorney Ron Kramer has represented Utahns with their personal injury cases. The dedicated personal injury attorneys and staff at the Kramer Law Group are proud to help victims throughout Utah receive the full justice and compensation they are entitled to under the law, as quickly and expeditiously as possible.
Providing Strength For Victims in Difficult Times
Although we are not the largest injury law firm in the state, our accident attorneys and legal staff offer the knowledge, ability, and personal touch to make your experience with us a great one, one that we hope you’ll be proud to share with your family and friends.
You Have Questions, We Have Answers!
Depending on the type of case you have, you may not actually need a personal injury attorney. If your case is small, then there’s a good chance that you could get by on your own without having to retain one. Your case is a “smaller” if it meets the following criteria: (1) your vehicle was only lightly damaged, e.g., bumper scratch/dent, (2) the medical treatment was for a “soft tissue” injury and lasted only 2-3 months, (3) the bills were at least $3,000 (this is a Utah-state minimum level to make a claim) and were no more than $5,000, and (4) the injuries were not permanent. Cases that can qualify as “small” cases are typically rear-end collisions where there is only damage to the rear bumper that is less than $1,000.00, where the injured person only saw a chiropractor and was diagnosed as having a “soft tissue” injury, who recovered fairly quickly and had no long-term permanent effects. In these cases, it is possible to settle them yourselves, and quite honestly, people do this every day.
If you have a “larger” personal injury case, you can usually get what is called an “advance” on your case. This is usually easier to arrange in auto accident cases because issues of liability and damages tend to be more straightforward. You should keep in mind, however, that personal accident lawyers are never allowed to loan money. This is against the ethical rules that lawyers are required to follow in Utah (they are also the same in most states). There are a number of companies, however, that will do this. Be aware that their interest rates are quite high, so at the outset, you will want to be sure that this is what you want to do, doing your research on their rates and payback terms. Finally, they will only offers advances if you have an attorney, since the attorney has to pledge to pay back the company as part of the settlement of the client’s case. As an example, if a client wanted to get an advance of $1,500 with an advance company we have used in the past, they would owe the company $2,100 up to six months after the advance is given. While the interest is high, it is much less than that charged by some of the pay day lenders.
It depends. If your injury is significant and there is only a small amount of insurance money (say around $25,000 or $50,000), the settlement could happen quite quickly. In fact, in many situations, the insurance companies, once they learn of the severity of the injury, are actually calling us to see if they can pay their policy limits and settle the case. Honestly, in these cases, you really don’t need a personal injury attorney to receive insurance money—although you would probably benefit from having one for other reasons, such as negotiating medical bills or Medicaid liens. In situations where your injury is not as severe or where the policy limits are high (say $100,000 or more), then the claim will generally take longer to resolve. In these cases, we wait to see what the full scope of your medical treatment is. We wait until we have all of your medical bills. If the treatment looks like it will extend into the future, we will ask your doctor to give us an opinion letter outlining the expected costs of those procedures. In certain cases, we will also send our client for a medical examination to see what level of impairment they might have.
Firing your personal injury attorney is something that you should carefully consider. Sometimes, even if you feel like your attorney is not doing their job, the detriment to doing so may greatly outweigh the benefits to be gained. For example, if your attorney has started negotiating with the insurance company and they have made an offer, then that attorney will probably have a “lien” on your case. You can find out by looking at the retainer agreement that you signed with them. A typical agreement will allow the attorneys to have a lien of 30% on cases that they get a settlement offer on. Typical language also allows them to make a claim for the value of the time they have put into your case. So, if they can claim that they put 20 hours into your case, then at an hourly rate of $200 per hour, they have a lien of $4,000. Not a small amount. The problem arises for clients who have large liens because of the problem of finding an attorney who will want to take their case with a lien attached to it. This is so because the second attorney will basically be working for the first one to get their lien paid before the second attorney can get a fee on the case. Unless the lien is well below the expected value of the case, most attorneys will not want to get involved. Some attorneys don’t want to get involved anyway on the assumption that you are a “problem client” or “damaged goods.” This is why on a number of occasions, I have attempted to talk prospective clients out of leaving their attorney.
First, the $3,000 is used to cover medical bills which are directly related to the crash. (Some policies may actually have higher limits, although all must have at least $3,000 available.) This is why after the crash, medical providers will ask you to give them the name of your insurance company and the claim number. They ask for this because they will bill your insurance company directly. Some health insurance companies, such as IHC, will not begin to pay any benefits until they are satisfied that the $3,000 from your insurance is used up. Also, if your insurance company suspects that your treatment is not related to the crash, they might cut off benefits and have you examined by one of their insurance company doctors. You should keep in mind that this coverage is available to you even if you caused the crash to happen.
Our Client Satisfaction Guarantee
At the Kramer Law Group, we want to make sure that you are satisfied with the quality of our legal services. While no personal injury law firm can guarantee the final outcome in a case, the lawyers and staff at the Kramer Law Group are committed to delivering to you a level of service that we can be proud of.
At the Kramer Law Group, we believe that all initial consultations on injury cases should be free, no matter how long they go. This is how we’ve operated since we opened our doors over 10 years ago and still do to this day. This means that all initial consultations on a personal injury matter, auto accident, sexual harassment, or other injury case will not cost you anything.
We know that the public is suspicious and wary of personal injury lawyers. You’ve seen some of the tacky commercials out there and may be worried if the lawyer you hire will do a good job for you. To relieve your mind, we guarantee that if, in the first 30 days, you are not satisfied with the level of service we provide as your attorney, we will not charge you a single penny for the work that we have done on your case. This will allow you to “test drive” our law firm for 30 days with no obligation to remain a long-term client. We don’t think you’ll need to exercise this Guarantee but provide it to give you peace of mind about the abilities and results of our law firm.
Some law firms require you to pay money upfront in the form of a “retainer” before they work on your case. Other firms require that you pay for case expenses as the case goes along, such as money for filing a lawsuit in court. We understand that those who have been injured may not have the money to pay for these things. That’s why we will not charge you any fee or expense on your auto accident or injury case until we receive an acceptable money settlement or receive a trial verdict.
We have all heard stories about lawyers not returning their client’s phone calls. We feel that this is unacceptable and disrespectful to you, the client. We therefore guarantee you that we will return your phone call as soon as possible, but no later than one business day after you call. If we ever fail to do this, we’ll send you a free gift card to a restaurant in the area. We’ll additionally schedule a phone conference or in-person meeting with you to discuss your questions or concerns and to make sure your case is proceeding properly.
We know that some people who think they are hiring an attorney never actually meet with them! Often, especially with TV firms, they will send a “runner” or “investigator” out to meet with you and sign you up. That’s not how we operate at the Kramer Law Group. You will always have the opportunity to meet with one of our lawyers right at the initial consultation, as well as anytime during the case if you wish.
At the Kramer Law Group, our goal is to finish your case with you being satisfied with the results and the performance of our attorneys and staff. Reaching this goal can sometimes be a challenge and is something rarely discussed or offered by other injury law firms. However, our firm has set complete client satisfaction as a goal, and we intend to do our best to achieve it. Therefore, if for any reason you are not satisfied with the performance of our attorneys or legal staff, I personally want to hear about it so we can resolve it. While we cannot guarantee the final outcome, we believe that all attorneys should try harder to treat their clients with the understanding, fairness, and respect that they deserve.