Here at Bollwerk & Associates, we love to co-counsel with other attorneys. For many years, a good portion of Jill’s practice has been acting as co-counsel for other attorneys, or accepting their injury cases that are outside of their area of practice. When we accept a referral or a co-counsel agreement with another attorney, we let the referring attorney dictate how much involvement that they want to have in the case. For instance, if an attorney just wants to refer the case to us and have little involvement, that is completely acceptable. On the other hand, if an attorney refers a case because it is outside their area of practice, but still wants to have some involvement in the case, we are happy to let the referring attorney be involved in any way they wish.
In Missouri, our ethics rules allow a division of fees between lawyers who are not in the same firm if the attorneys remain jointly responsible for the client’s representation, or if the fee is in proportion to the services performed by each lawyer (Missouri Rule of Professional Conduct Rule 4-1.5(e). The client will have to agree to the association, so we always make certain that the client is on board with our involvement in the referred case. We are always happy to share our fee with referring attorneys in a manner consistent with our ethics rules.
Jill Bollwerk and Andy Pichler believe that collaboration is oftentimes the best way to represent a client, and are always happy to refer cases outside of our area of practice to other attorneys. We always feel it is best that people be represented by attorneys who have a great deal of experience in the area of practice that is required for the particular problem. As a result, we help countless estate planning attorneys, criminal attorneys, family law attorneys, and other non-injury attorneys when they have a client who needs assistance because of a car crash or injury on the job.
Furthermore, we at Bollwerk & Associates oftentimes act as local counsel for attorneys who do not work in the state of Missouri. This takes place frequently when a person from one state is injured in another state. For instance, we have received cases where the injured clients were from other states, but were injured in Missouri or Illinois. The attorney who refers them to us is usually not licensed in Missouri or Illinois, so we assist that attorney as the local counsel and either take over the handling of the case or, if they prefer, we act as local counsel and help the out-of-state attorney with court appearances and other matters before the court that must be handled by an attorney licensed in the state.
If you are an attorney and have an injury case that requires assistance in Missouri or Illinois, feel free to call us at Bollwerk & Associates, LLC and we will be be happy to discuss a referral or co-counsel arrangement that works best for you and your client.
