Case Referrals from Canada, Eh!
Our Plan covers members who use lawyers in the United States.
The only place I source to find American attorneys is GLSA.
If you haven’t joined GLSA, you should.
Snowbirds! Up here in the Great White North that’s what we call Canadians who choose to spend the winter months in a warmer climate south of our border. Some cross two borders, to reach popular Package Vacation places such as Mexico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, but most long-term Snowbirds spend their winters in the USA.
I am the Executive Director of the Unifor Legal Services Plan. We have about 80,000 Plan Members, six Staff Offices, and a panel of about 1,000 lawyers, all in Canada. But we also reimburse members who require legal services in the United States. We reimburse them, up to our Fee Schedule amounts (posted on our website: www.uniforlsp.com).
I get at least one or two calls every month, from family, friends, other Canadian lawyers and Plan Members, asking if I know any “good” American lawyers they can hire. And aside from a close friend in Michigan (who is now semi-retired from patent and trade mark litigation at a large Detroit firm and is no longer taking referrals), I have always given people names of GLSA member attorneys.
Why do I refer people to only GLSA member attorneys?
Trust
From attending GLSA events, actively working on GLSA Committees and serving on the GLSA Board of Directors I have developed relationships and connections that give me a lot of confidence about the names that I give out to family, friends and Plan Members. I have either met the attorney, personally, or met someone who has recommended them – a law firm colleague or a Plan Administrator who has them on their Panel.
Loyalty
The GLSA has been very good to me over the past 30 years, and I always am looking for ways to reciprocate. One way I do that is by referring people to only GLSA member attorneys.
When we started our Plan, many GLSA members were very helpful with their time and expertise. We avoided a lot of start-up mistakes by visiting their operations and learning from them. To quote something I was taught in grade four (or, as you say in the USA, fourth grade): Learn from the mistakes of others; you can’t live long enough to make them all yourself).
I urge anyone reading this who isn’t already a member, to join GLSA …ASAP. There is great camaraderie in this group, and I am confident GLSA membership will help you, too.
And you may even get a referral from the Great White North!