While on his way to work, My spouse was involved in a MVA with a suspected out of province drunk driver on Mothers day 2018. The driver ran a red light and smashed into our vehicle, leaving my spouse injured and dazed, until a group of good samaritans pulled him from his crushed vehicle. From the hospital we knew we would need legal help. Neither of us had ever been the victim of a collision before. I reached out to a co worker and he suggested his brother in laws lawyer named Jean Marc Hebert.
I did my due deligence and researched him. His linkden page mentioned Whitelaw Twinning which I found to be a trustworthy firm with great reviews. Fast forward 15 hours hours and my husband has spoken to Mr.Herbert who assured him he would come to our home since my husband could not travel to see him. Mr.Hebert showed up...... 5 hours after he said he would and at 10 PM at night! He claimed to have been in court and despite our better judgement we gave him the benefit of thinking perhaps this was the norm. We had no experience with lawyer prior to this and felt lucky to have a lawyer who was committed to seeing us and taking our case.
We were severely mistaken, from the moment my husband signed the contract it was a never ending cycle of trying to track Mr.Hebert down. He had promised to have a occupational therapist to help with my husbands recovery and to help navigate the daunting task of organizing doctor and therapist visits. He promised to contact ICBC and to file the accident claim and apply for part 7 benefits. Despite my spouse and i arranging all the visits our selves and scanning receipts for travel and medication Mr.Hebert never came through with a Occupational therapist nor did he contact the ICBC adjuster or even the other drivers insurance.
After 5 weeks we were upset and confused about what it was he was actually doing.. After more 10 days, he arranged another meeting with us. Again he was hours late and at the meeting again promised a Occupational therapist as well as setting up my spouse with a therapist for his obvious PTSD. Through out this second meeting Mr.Hebert did not even recall that the other driver was from out of province... he admitted that he did not even contact the other insurer nor did he follow through with the part 7 application (some thing we were told was his responsibility since we were forbidden from contacting ICBC our selves) We decided to give him another chance.
The next two weeks were spent leaving unanswered voicemails and emails. I emailed asking for a copy of the contract my spouse had signed (by law we should have been given one) Absolutly no answer from Mr.Hebert nor his legal "team" I began to get suspicious of his record as a lawyer and discovered that he infact had left Whitelaw Twinning and went independent, we never would have signed with a lawyer who did not have a firm backing him as we had no recourse for a complaint with his "higher ups"
It was at this point we decided to seek different legal representation and a much needed second opinion. After switching to a new lawyer (Kevin Gourlay from Murphy Bautista- they are amazing!) We decided to allow them to contact Mr.Hebert and get our file as well as any results from any investigations he had conducted. It took 3 1/2 weeks for Mr.Hebert to respond and another 3 weeks to hand over our file. (At this point our new lawyers had contacted ICBC, got a police report, interviewed witnesses and set up my spouse with a therapist) Upon review of the file it became apparent Mr. Hebert and his JMPLAW had done nothing the file was pathetically thin. No witness statements, no ICBC filing nothing.. just a few hand written notes and the receipts we sent him... Keep in mind this is now 3 months after my husbands accident and it was like he had simply got the contract signed and forgot about us. Had we not advocated on our own behalf by setting up and paying for our own physiotherapy and counselling My spouse would still be laid up waiting for direction from our legal rep.
Being the victim of a MVA is a scary and intimidating experience, You expect the lawyer you sign with to be trust worthy and to lead you on the path of recovery. You don't expect to spend weeks chasing with unanswered phone calls and emails. You do not expect to later discover that nothing had been done on your behalf and that you are completely disregarded by your legal representation. Once we signed the papers he had no use for us except to wait until he got paid (since he never contacted the insurance i am unsure how he thought that would happen) I have heard the term "Ambulance chaser" before but had never really experienced it until we met Mr. Jean Marc Hebert.
As for now we have moved on and had to start our case almost from scratch. Please please heed our warning and found your self a different lawyer, one who has a reputable firm backing them and one who will have your best interests at heart. Please do not repeat our mistake read more