Steven Petrillo interviews Scott Schulman, a New Jersey workers’ compensation attorney on why law firms advertise for workers’ compensation cases.

Video Transcript:

Petrillo: Now, I’ve noticed in the past couple of years there’s been a lot of national advertising campaigns of these law firms that are all of a sudden advertising for worker’s compensation work. When I first started practicing law about 35 years ago, I never saw anything like that. What’s going on with this advertising push that perhaps people see on television, on billboards? Tell us about that.

Schulman: Well, I think people need to know that a lot of it is a big charade and a sham. These big time firms are advertising, and some of these firms that are advertising in the Pennsylvania, New Jersey, region aren’t even licensed in New Jersey or Pennsylvania. They don’t even have an office here. They’re advertising from their main office or the headquarters are in Florida. And what they do is they trick people to call and respond to them because they think, “Oh, this firm must be great.” And they’re talking to some firm in Florida who then refers these cases out to people in New Jersey that these law firms don’t even know, have never even met. And there’s no guarantee that the quality of representation that they’re referring the case out to is going to be high quality.

Petrillo: So many times when you go to court and you see attorneys from those firms, are they with that firm?

Schulman: Oh, no. Generally that’s not the case at all. They may have gotten the case because of some association they have with the firm that’s advertising. But in most respects, that lawyer does not work for that firm that the injured worker initially called.

Petrillo: But when people call you, or call the firm Petrillo and Goldberg, and they get Scott Schulman, you represent them.

Schulman: They come in, I meet with them as soon as possible, and I handle their case from start to finish. And I’m the first person to meet with them and I handle the case all along till the very end when they get their court order providing benefits.