news-record.com

RALEIGH — They started arriving a few days after my wife’s minivan was hit in an accident.

A bright-yellow postcard emblazoned with “Injured?” in red. A large, white envelope urged that we “Don’t settle for less.”

Another admonished, “When it’s your health, your time, your money at risk: hire a heavyweight.”

And those were just the ones addressed to my 4-year-old, who was in the car at the time but has expressed no interest in suing.

A similar pile of mail awaits most folks who get a speeding ticket.

“People need a break,” Kinston Republican Rep. Stephen LaRoque said last week. “They need a cooling-off period from all of these solicitations. ... You just get inundated.”

LaRoque is pushing a measure that would require lawyers to wait 30 days before they begin filling victims’ mailboxes with solicitations. The bill is modeled on a Florida rule and is partly inspired by his family’s experience after a stepdaughter and her three children were in an accident.

“The children all got these solicitations. She got them,” LaRoque said. “We didn’t need all this stuff. It was stacked up 2 feet tall.”

LaRoque’s bill has drawn instant skepticism from lawyers and insurers.

“The reason lawyers send letters in the mail is that people want information and they respond to it,” said Bob Crumley, who heads a statewide personal injury law firm based in Greensboro.

Crumley, whose firm mails a small notepad with its direct mail piece, said even Abraham Lincoln advertised for his services as a lawyer. Crumley is unsure what effect a direct mail delay would have on his business.

“We do a lot of marketing,” he said, noting his billboard and television ads. “I think the greater impact is on people who want the information. If direct mail didn’t work, lawyers wouldn’t do it.”

Crumley said any bill that forces lawyers to slow their approach should also force insurance companies to wait on personal-injury settlements.

LaRoque’s bill, as it was released late last week, did have language that would limit the circumstances under which an insurance company could contact someone who had been in an accident.

“We would not support any legislation that would impair our ability to serve our consumers or third parties,” said Eric Hardgrove, a spokesman for Nationwide Insurance.

Insurance companies, Hardgrove said, need to gather information in a timely manner to ensure that claims are paid as soon as possible.

LaRoque said the bill would still allow insurance companies to deal with property damage claims quickly.

The House Rules Committee passed the measure Friday. It will be reviewed by a judiciary committee before it goes to the full House for a vote.

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com