The Self Law Firm / THE PRITCHETT LAW FIRM, LLC Misleading lawyers who will take advantage of your situation only to take your $400 and drop your case soon after. Warrior Alabama

Our family was hit by a tornado and our insurance company is 100% "not on our side".

We had no choice but to take our issues to a lawyer. We were pointed into the direction of The Self Law Firm/The Pritchett Law Firm in Warrior, Alabama. 

During our free consultation, we presented ALL the evidence of our side and what our insurance was claiming. During this 1 hour consultation they heavily agreed that we were being done wrong and that this shouldn't be a problem to get the insurance company to most likely settle for what we deserve. Made copies of all our documents and said they would look over our documents further. They made us feel like we were in great hands, that they knew what they were doing and we shouldn't worry. If, we decided to hire them. It would be $400 up front for them take on the case and to send our insurance company a letter to negotiate payment to us within 30 days. 

We were led to believe that they would fight for us within that 30 days. If our insurance company would not settle, we would be given the option to take it further. If we took it further, we would sit down and renegotiate terms of service. This is all we were told during our consultation.

We felt and were led to believe, this law firm had our back and would fight for us.

2 weeks passed, we heard nothing from them. Then I received an email claiming "Our insurance companies claim is pretty solid and will be difficult to prove it wrong. I have to investigate to gain knowledge on the issue, because we are not professionals in that field."  

Regardless, we gave them the exact same document that they saw and felt like they needed to investigate to further have solid ground against our insurances claim. They saw this, and told us we had a strong Bad Faith Claim case during our consultation. 

After receiving this email, I called the lawyer to ask "Why are you questioning the claim all of the sudden. We talked about this and you felt strong. We paid you in good faith that you said we had a strong case."

He said, "It takes time, we want to make sure we have our ducks in a row before we send anything to your insurance company." Again, misled me into believing he knew what he was doing. When in fact, he had no clue. He had multiple documents from a roofing company, fencing company that supported our claim against the insurance. That seemed to be ignored as he continued with his own "investigation".

Another 2 weeks passed and he emailed us stating that he sent out the letter to our insurance company. He would let me know when they replied.

About a week later, I received an email from him with an attached document from the insurance company. Note: the same exact document that we already had, that they had on file since the consultation. He stated that he spoke with the insurance adjustor on the phone. They decided that we "do not have a strong case for bad faith." He suggested we take the insurances offer. They were dropping us. 

Well, of course this upset me due to the fact they misled us and we paid them to defend us. I called him on the phone and asked a bunch of questions of why they were simply dropping us so quickly without even putting up a fight?

He then claimed, "We only paid them to investigate the case and to send a letter to the insurance." Then he continued to say "I'm sorry YOU feel that our services were not worth the price you paid"

I mentioned we brought all this to their attention during our cosultation and they told us we had a strong case against them and that if we paid the $400. They most likely could get us a settlement for the amount needed to fix all of the storm damage. 

He then admitted 
"We didn't even look at your documents until after you paid us the $400. We're not going to look at it for free"

If thats the case, what was the consultation for? Why would they mislead someone into believing they had a strong case to move forward?

We thought and were led into beleiving that we were hiring lawyers, not private investigators. 

Also, this is extremely shady and does throw up red flags. After one single exchange with our insurance company. (Including a private phone conversation between the lawyer WE hired and the insurance adjustor.) They were so very quick to drop our case and  advise us to take the Insurance companies offer. How do we know that our lawyers were not bought off during that private phone conversation? We may never know. But, it definitely throws up red flags.

Even the contract we agreed to, which, they tried to throw in my face. Does NOT state that we hired them to investigate.

What they did, is made us feel like we were in the right during our consultation. Misled us in believing there was a light at the end of the tunnel and we would get what we deserved from the insurance company. They sat at that table for a whole hour and pretended to listen and look over what we were presenting. They stretched out the 30 days, sent the insurance company a letter like they promised. As soon as the insurance company sent the exact same recycled arguement that we physically presented to them on day 1. They tucked tail, dropped the case and ran off with our $400.

Our situation was taken advantage of by these attorneys. That $400 was spent represent us and fight for what is right. Now, that $400 is wasted and burned by lawyers who's best intrest is not with the clients. My family is now out $400 for absolutely nothing. We are now put into a horrible situation where we might have to accept the ridiculous low amount offer from the insurance company. Which will not fully cover the storm damage. That $400 could have went to fixing the house, since we most likely will now have to come out of pocket.

I highly advise not trusting this law firm to do the job you expect and deserve.