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Legal disclaimer: what this site is, and what it cannot do

MVA Lawyer Network is not a law firm. Nothing on this site is legal advice, no attorney-client relationship is created by reading it or contacting us, and nothing here predicts or guarantees the outcome of any claim. This page explains those limits in full, along with how we are paid and why parts of this site may count as attorney advertising.

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Effective August 1, 2026 Last reviewed August 1, 2026 11 min read
Legal advice
None given, ever
Everything here is general information. It is not advice about your claim and cannot be relied on as such.
Representation
Only by signed agreement
No attorney-client relationship exists until you and a law firm sign an engagement. Not before, in any form.
Case results
Illustrations, not forecasts
Verdicts and settlements we cite happened to other people. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Advertising
Parts of this site qualify
We may be paid when you hire an attorney through us, so some pages may constitute attorney advertising.

Key takeaways

  • General information is not advice. A guide can tell you how a rule generally works. It cannot tell you what to do, because it does not know your facts, your state, your evidence, or your deadline. Those are the things that decide claims.
  • Nobody here is your lawyer. Not us, because we are not a law firm. Not an attorney you have spoken to but not retained. Representation begins on signature, and until then nobody is protecting your claim.
  • No number on this site is a prediction. Verdicts, settlements, and ranges are cited examples of what happened to other people in other cases. They are not an estimate of what yours is worth.
  • The clock does not care that you are reading. Statutes of limitations and government notice deadlines run whether or not anyone has called you back. Reading this page is not a substitute for getting counsel engaged.
The disclaimer, in one paragraph

MVA Lawyer Network is an independent publisher and attorney referral service, not a law firm, and does not practice law or provide legal advice. The content on this site is general information for educational purposes and creates no attorney-client relationship. It is not a guarantee, warranty, or prediction about any claim, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Laws differ by state and change over time. Do not act or refrain from acting on anything here without consulting a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction. If you are facing a medical emergency, call 911.

01 This is information, not legal advice

Quick answer

Everything published on this site is general educational information. It is not legal advice, it is not tailored to your situation, and it must not be relied on as a substitute for consulting a licensed attorney in your state.

The difference between information and advice is not a technicality. Information describes how a rule generally works. Advice applies a rule to a specific set of facts and tells a particular person what to do. Only a licensed attorney who knows your facts can do the second thing, and doing it is the entire value of hiring one.

A guide on this site can tell you that most states use some form of comparative negligence, that trucking companies must retain certain records for six months, or that claims against a government entity often require notice within a matter of months. It cannot tell you whether your own share of fault will sink your claim, whether the records in your case still exist, or whether your notice deadline has already passed. Those answers depend on facts we cannot see. You can read about what the site is and how it operates on our home page.

Do not act on this page alone

Do not act, or decide not to act, based on anything you read here. That includes deciding your claim is not worth pursuing, deciding to handle an insurer yourself, deciding to accept an offer, or deciding to wait. Each of those is a decision with consequences that a general article cannot evaluate for you.

02 No attorney-client relationship

Quick answer

Nothing you do here creates an attorney-client relationship with MVA Lawyer Network, because we are not attorneys. With a law firm, that relationship begins only when you and the firm sign a written engagement or fee agreement.

To be exact about what does not create it: reading a guide does not, submitting the case review form does not, receiving a call from an attorney does not, and describing your crash to that attorney before signing does not. An attorney may owe you separate duties of confidentiality during a prospective client consultation under the rules of their state, but duties owed to a prospective client are not the same as representation.

Why this matters beyond formality. Until a firm has agreed in writing to represent you, nobody is calendaring your deadlines, nobody is sending preservation letters, and nobody is responsible for your claim. If you believe you have been retained but have never signed anything, contact that firm today and get it confirmed in writing.

A warm wooden shelf carrying closely packed reference volumes
General, not specific
A book can explain the rule. Only counsel can apply it to you.

03 Attorney advertising, and why this page exists

Quick answer

Because we are compensated when readers hire attorneys through us, parts of this site may constitute attorney advertising under the rules of some states. Those rules require honest, non-misleading communication and, in many states, specific disclosures. This page is one of them.

Lawyer advertising is regulated more tightly than most commercial speech, and the reason is historical. For most of the twentieth century it was banned outright. The Supreme Court dismantled that ban in stages, and in the process built the framework that still governs what a site like this one may say.

  1. 1977

    Bates v. State Bar of Arizona

    The Court holds that a blanket ban on truthful lawyer advertising violates the First Amendment. Lawyer advertising becomes protected commercial speech, subject to regulation of false or misleading claims.

  2. 1982

    In re R.M.J.

    States may not restrict truthful, non-deceptive advertising without a substantial interest, but they retain authority to regulate communications that are actually misleading.

  3. 1985

    Zauderer v. Office of Disciplinary Counsel

    The Court upholds a requirement that lawyers disclose fee arrangements in advertising, confirming that states may compel purely factual disclosures to prevent consumer deception. This is the constitutional basis for pages like this one.

  4. 1988

    Shapero v. Kentucky Bar Association

    Targeted direct mail to people known to face a legal problem cannot be banned outright, though it remains subject to regulation against deception and overreaching.

  5. 1995

    Florida Bar v. Went For It, Inc.

    The Court upholds a 30 day ban on targeted solicitation of accident victims and their families, accepting the state's interest in protecting people from intrusion during a period of acute vulnerability.

Landmark case
Why accident victims get special protection
Florida Bar v. Went For It, Inc., 515 U.S. 618 (1995)

The Court upheld Florida rules prohibiting targeted direct mail solicitation of accident victims and their relatives for 30 days after an incident, finding a substantial state interest in protecting the privacy and tranquillity of people in the immediate aftermath of injury or death. We treat that principle as a floor rather than a ceiling. You came to us; we did not obtain your name from a crash report and contact you. Read the opinion

Professional conduct
The rule every statement here is written against
ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, Rule 7.1

A lawyer must not make a false or misleading communication about the lawyer or the lawyer's services. A communication is misleading if it omits a fact necessary to make the statement considered as a whole not materially misleading. That omission standard is why this page discloses our compensation, our lack of a licensed attorney reviewer, and the limits of every figure we publish, rather than only avoiding outright false statements.

04 No guaranteed outcome, and what case results mean

Quick answer

Nothing on this site is a guarantee, warranty, or prediction about any claim. Past results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome. Every case turns on its own facts, its own evidence, its own state law, and the insurance actually available.

We publish real verdicts and settlements with citations because they show how legal principles operate in practice. They are illustrations, not benchmarks. A reported seven figure result tells you what one jury did with one set of facts in one state on one day. It tells you nothing reliable about your claim.

What actually drives value

  • The severity and permanence of the injury
  • The insurance coverage that actually exists to be collected
  • The evidence that survived, and how quickly it was preserved
  • The law of the state where the crash happened
  • Your own share of fault, under that state's rules
  • How well the claim is investigated and presented

What tells you nothing

  • An average settlement figure with no published methodology
  • A headline verdict from a different state and a different injury
  • An online calculator that multiplies your bills by a number
  • What happened to a friend or relative in their case
  • Any figure quoted before anyone has seen your records
  • Any promise made to you before a claim is investigated

05 Accuracy, currency, and the fifty state problem

Quick answer

We research against primary sources and date every page, but we do not warrant that any page is complete, current, or applicable to your state. Law changes, courts overrule, and legislatures amend. A page that was correct when reviewed can be overtaken.

Two limits deserve to be stated plainly rather than buried in a warranty clause.

Currency. Every page carries a last reviewed date and is re-checked at least annually, and immediately when controlling authority changes. That is a strong process and it is not a guarantee. If you are reading a page months after its review date, treat the underlying authority as something to verify rather than assume, and note that we link to the primary source on every legal statement precisely so you can.

Jurisdiction. Motor vehicle claims are governed mainly by state law across all 50 states. Filing deadlines, fault rules, damages caps, and wrongful death eligibility differ at every state line. Where a rule varies, our pages say so and give the range rather than a single national number, but a general description of a range is never a substitute for the actual rule in your state.

A worked illustration of the problem

Suppose two readers each bear 30 percent of the fault for a crash. In a state following pure comparative negligence, a claim can still proceed with the award reduced by that share. In a state with a modified comparative bar, the same 30 percent may be survivable, while a different share may extinguish the claim entirely. A handful of states apply far harsher rules. Same facts, different states, different outcomes. This is why we tell you to check your state rather than trusting a general statement.

06 Deadlines run whether or not you hear back

Quick answer

Nothing on this site pauses, extends, tolls, or preserves any legal deadline. Reading a guide, submitting the form, and waiting for a call all leave the clock running. If a deadline passes, the claim is generally lost no matter how strong it was.

Every state sets a statute of limitations for injury claims, commonly running two to four years from the crash, with variations and exceptions. Claims against a government entity frequently require formal written notice within a far shorter window, sometimes a matter of months. Wrongful death claims often run from the date of death rather than the date of the incident, and the rules on who may file are set by statute.

The single most costly misunderstanding we see

People assume that contacting a referral service stops the clock. It does not. Only filing suit, or a narrow legal doctrine applied to your specific facts, stops a limitations period. If your crash was some time ago, treat that as a reason to get a licensed attorney engaged now rather than a reason to keep researching.

Wooden shelving stacked with ordered rows of reference books
Disclosed, not buried
How we are paid, and what it does not buy.

07 Injury information is not medical advice

Quick answer

We write about brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, and other trauma because they drive the value and complexity of a claim. None of it is medical advice, none of it is a diagnosis, and none of it should delay or replace treatment. If you are facing an emergency, call 911.

Our injury content is sourced to clinical literature and federal health data so that a reader can understand what an injury means for a claim, what evidence typically documents it, and why some injuries take months to become apparent. That is a legal context, not a clinical one.

Get evaluated, and keep getting treated. Some serious injuries, including certain brain and spinal injuries, present with delayed or subtle symptoms. Do not decide from an article that you are fine. Gaps in treatment also weaken claims, so following medical advice serves both your health and your case, in that order.

08 How we are paid

Quick answer

We may receive a referral fee when a reader we connect goes on to hire a participating attorney. That is our business model, we disclose it on every page, and no attorney can buy coverage, placement, ranking, or a favourable description.

Every publisher in this space is paid by someone. What matters is whether the arrangement is disclosed and whether it is allowed to influence what gets written. Ours is disclosed and it is not. Attorneys do not review, approve, or edit our editorial copy, advertising spend does not affect how a firm is described, and declining to participate does not get a firm criticised.

Consumer protection
Material connections must be disclosed
FTC Endorsement Guides, 16 CFR Part 255, and the Consumer Reviews Rule, 16 CFR Part 465

Federal rules require clear disclosure of a material connection between an endorser and a seller, and specifically prohibit company controlled review websites that falsely present themselves as independent. We treat those rules as the floor. Our compensation is stated on the page rather than in a footer, and we do not publish reviews or rankings we could not defend as independent.

You pay nothing for any of this. Reading the site is free, and requesting a case review is free and carries no obligation.

09 Attorney independence and third-party content

Quick answer

Attorneys we connect you with are independent. They are not our employees, partners, or agents. We do not supervise their legal work and we are not responsible for their advice, their conduct, or the outcome of your case.

We apply a vetting process before a firm joins the network and we describe that process openly. Vetting is a screening step, not supervision, and it is not a warranty of competence or result. A licensed attorney is accountable to their client, to the courts, and to the state bar that licenses them. If you have a serious complaint about an attorney, raise it with that bar, and tell us as well, because it affects whether they remain in the network.

Links and outside sources. We link to statutes, regulations, court opinions, and government data so you can verify what we write. We do not control those sites, are not responsible for their content or availability, and a link is not an endorsement. The same applies to the third party provider that delivers our case review form.

10 Reviews, testimonials, and case examples

Quick answer

Any testimonial reflects one person's experience and is not typical or predictive. Case examples we cite are real and sourced, but they describe other people's cases. Neither is a promise about what will happen in yours.

We do not publish fabricated reviews, incentivised reviews presented as spontaneous, or testimonials we cannot verify. Where a case example appears on this site it is drawn from a reported decision or an identified public source and cited so you can read the original. Where a figure has no verifiable source, we leave it out rather than dress it up.

A standing commitment. We will never invent a case, a statute, a verdict, a statistic, or a reviewer, and we will never present a paid placement as an independent recommendation. If you find something on this site you believe fails that standard, tell us and we will correct it publicly.

11 What to do instead of relying on this

Quick answer

Use this site to understand the landscape and ask better questions, then get a licensed attorney in your state to look at your actual facts. That is the only way to convert general information into an answer you can rely on.

1

Get medical care and keep the records

Treatment comes first for your health, and consistent documented treatment is also the evidence that establishes an injury later. Do not let a research session delay an evaluation.

2

Write down what you remember now

Road, weather, positions, what was said, who was present, what hurt and when it started. Memory degrades quickly and contemporaneous notes are difficult to challenge.

3

Do not give a recorded statement before you have counsel

You are generally obliged to cooperate with your own insurer. You are not obliged to give a recorded statement to the other side's adjuster, and doing so early rarely helps you.

4

Find out where you stand, at no cost

A free case review costs nothing and carries no obligation. It is the fastest way to learn whether your situation is worth an attorney's time and whether a deadline is close.

5

Get it in writing before you assume you are represented

Representation starts on signature. If you think a firm has taken your case but nothing is signed, confirm it in writing today rather than assuming your deadlines are being watched.

Ready to turn general information into an answer about your own claim?

Start a free case review

If something here is wrong, tell us. We correct supported errors publicly and re-date the page. Send the specific sentence and the authority you believe we missed through our contact page, and it will be reviewed whether or not the correction is convenient for us.

Sources and authorities

The decisions and rules this disclaimer relies on are listed below, each linked to a free public database, so you can check any statement on this page against the original text.

Supreme Court decisions on lawyer advertising

  • Bates v. State Bar of Arizona, 433 U.S. 350 (1977). Justia.
  • In re R.M.J., 455 U.S. 191 (1982). Justia.
  • Zauderer v. Office of Disciplinary Counsel, 471 U.S. 626 (1985). Justia.
  • Shapero v. Kentucky Bar Association, 486 U.S. 466 (1988). Justia.
  • Florida Bar v. Went For It, Inc., 515 U.S. 618 (1995). Justia.

Professional conduct and consumer protection

  • Model Rules of Professional Conduct, Rules 7.1 to 7.3 on communications about legal services, advertising, and solicitation. American Bar Association.
  • Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, 16 CFR Part 255. Cornell Legal Information Institute.
  • Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials, 16 CFR Part 465. eCFR.
  • Unfair or deceptive acts or practices, Section 5 of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. section 45. Cornell LII.

Injury and safety data referenced across the site

The four standards in short

This disclaimer is held to the same standards as every other page on the site.

01

Primary sources only

Legal claims cite the statute, regulation, or decided case itself, never another firm's summary of it, and the link opens the original text.

02

Reviewed and dated

A named editor signs off on every page, the review date is printed on it, and the page is re-checked when the law changes.

03

Editorial, not legal advice

This is general information to help you make decisions, not advice about your specific case, and it creates no attorney-client relationship.

04

Honest about how we operate

We are an independent referral service, not a law firm, and we may be paid if you hire a lawyer through us. That is disclosed, and it buys no coverage.

Michael Mangione, Legal Research Editor
Michael Mangione Verified editor
Legal Research Editor · Founder, The Mangione Group, Inc.

This disclaimer is maintained by Michael Mangione, who has spent more than twelve years working alongside contingency based law firms across the United States, sitting inside their intake departments and studying how claims are screened and pursued. He wrote this page to state the limits of the site's content in the same plain language used everywhere else on it, rather than as a block of boilerplate nobody reads. Michael is not a practicing attorney and does not give legal advice.

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Common questions, answered

General information about the limits of this site. None of it is legal advice, and none of it creates an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your own situation, talk to a licensed attorney.

Is anything on this site legal advice?

No. Everything here is general educational information. Advice means applying the law to one person's specific facts and telling them what to do, and only a licensed attorney who knows your facts can do that. Do not act, or decide not to act, based on anything you read here without consulting an attorney in your state.

What is the difference between this disclaimer and your terms of service?

They do different jobs. The terms of service are the agreement governing your use of the site: who may use it, what you may do with the content, what conduct is prohibited, how liability is limited, and how a dispute gets resolved. This disclaimer is about the nature and limits of the information itself: that it is not legal or medical advice, that it creates no attorney-client relationship, that it guarantees no outcome, that it may not be current or applicable in your state, and that parts of the site may constitute attorney advertising. Read the terms to know the rules of use. Read this page to know how much weight the content can bear.

Does contacting you make you my lawyer?

No, and it cannot, because we are not attorneys. With a law firm, an attorney-client relationship begins only when you and the firm sign a written engagement or fee agreement. Reading a guide, submitting the form, receiving a call, and describing your crash before signing all fall short of representation.

Why does this site count as attorney advertising?

Because we are compensated when readers hire attorneys through us, parts of this site may fall within the advertising and solicitation rules of some states. Those rules require communications about legal services to be truthful and not misleading, and permit states to require factual disclosures to prevent consumer deception. This page is one of those disclosures.

Can you tell me what my case is worth?

No, and neither can any honest website. Value turns on the severity and permanence of the injury, the insurance actually available to be collected, the evidence that survived, the law of the state involved, your own share of fault, and how the claim is presented. Any figure quoted before someone has reviewed your records is a guess dressed up as an answer.

Do the verdicts you publish predict my outcome?

No. Past results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome. We cite real, sourced results because they show how legal principles operate in practice, not because they forecast anything. A reported result tells you what one jury did with one set of facts in one state on one day.

Does reading this site or submitting the form stop my deadline?

No. Nothing on this site pauses, extends, or preserves any statute of limitations or notice deadline. Those are set by state law and keep running while you research and while you wait for a call. Claims against government entities often require formal notice within months. If your crash was some time ago, treat that as urgency rather than a reason to keep reading.

Is your injury content medical advice?

No. We write about brain, spinal, and other trauma because those injuries drive the complexity and value of a claim, and our sources are clinical literature and federal health data. It is legal context, not clinical guidance, and it is not a diagnosis. Some serious injuries present with delayed symptoms, so get evaluated and keep treating. In an emergency, call 911.

Is the information on this site guaranteed to be current?

No. Every page carries a last reviewed date and is re-checked at least annually and immediately when controlling authority changes, which is a strong process rather than a guarantee. Law changes, courts overrule, and legislatures amend. We link to the primary source on every legal statement so you can confirm it is still good law yourself.

Does what you write apply in my state?

Possibly not in the specifics. Motor vehicle claims are governed mainly by state law, and filing deadlines, fault rules, damages caps, and wrongful death eligibility differ at every state line. Where a rule varies we say so and give the range rather than one national number, but a range is never a substitute for the actual rule where your crash happened.

How do you make money, and does it change what you publish?

We may receive a referral fee if you hire an attorney we connect you with, which we disclose on every page. Attorneys cannot buy coverage, placement, ranking, or a favourable description, and no advertiser reviews, approves, or edits editorial copy. You pay nothing to read the site or to request a case review.

If parts of this site are attorney advertising, is the information biased?

It is a fair question to ask of any site that gets paid. Attorney advertising is a regulatory category, not a verdict on accuracy: it means a communication promotes legal services and must therefore be truthful and not misleading. The safeguard is not our word for it. Every legal statement on this site links to the statute, regulation, or decided case it comes from, on a free public database, so you can check the claim without trusting us. Where the honest answer is that it depends on your state, we say so rather than manufacturing certainty. And we decline to publish the figures that would help us most commercially, such as an average settlement amount, because no honest one exists.

Do you publish testimonials or reviews?

Not fabricated ones, not incentivised ones presented as spontaneous, and none we cannot verify. Any testimonial reflects one person's experience and is not typical or predictive. Case examples are drawn from reported decisions or identified public sources and cited so you can read the original.

What should I do if I find an error here?

Tell us through the contact page. Quote the specific sentence and point to the authority you believe we missed or misread. Reports identifying a specific claim and a specific source are reviewed first, and a supported correction is made whether or not it suits us, with the page re-dated and the change noted.

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