Offer Of "Free Consultation" To Would-Be Client Gets Expensive For Florida Personal Injury Attorney

In a recent column, Texas attorney John G. Browning writes in The Southeast Texas Record on some oddball court cases that affirm the age-old adage that reality is often stranger than fiction. Here's one example:

• Most people who visit a plaintiff's personal injury attorney expect to find a sympathetic ear and a champion to take up their cause, not a basis for another lawsuit. At least one person arriving at the Palm Beach, Fla., law offices of Fetterman and Associates in response to an ad proclaiming "If you are the victim of injuries... please contact us for a free consultation" didn't have far to go.

• Robert Friedrich visited the law firm in 2003 to discuss suing someone as a result of a car accident nine days previously. During his consultation, however, he gained a whole new cause of action when the chair he was sitting in collapsed and he struck his head on another piece of furniture in the firm's conference room. Friedrich then sued the law firm as well as the company that sold the allegedly defective chair, claiming serious neck injuries.

• In May a Palm Beach County [jury] found both defendants liable for the chair collapse, and awarded over $2.2 million in damages. For a "free" consultation, this turned out to be pretty expensive indeed for the Fetterman law firm.

For other examples, see Still Litigating In The Twilight Zone.