June 9, 2014
The lawyers handling the matter is favoring my oldest brother's input and not letting us in on what is going on. Per copies of cout papers, firm did not pursue the matter diligently and did not do any discovery of what happened when the police car hit my Dad's car which placed him in critical care at Bellevue. He died 4 weeks later and my oldest brother took it upon himself to get a lawyer and had us sign a form to make him Administrator of the Estate. This was 2 years ago. Now they are offering a settlement and we feel it is very low. We were told that NYC will not offer any more. We need help. How do we go about knowing if the amount is the best we can receive from NYC. How do we get a lawyer to look over the court papers & see if they were honest in pursuing their best for us?
What "court papers" fault the estate for failing to do discovery? I'm wondering if the police car had lights and sirens on when the collision occurred, and the City is relying on the 'emergency doctrine' as a defense. There could be other issues causing the offer to be low, but there is no way of knowing from the limited information in your question. Your brother's appointment as Administrator would make him the plaintiff, and any decision to change lawyers would require his consent. Challenging his appointment at this stage would just delay the case and probably make no difference to the settlement offer. You are free to hire a lawyer to represent your interests, and seek to review the file.
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