Get in an accident, call an attorney.

Then call your auto insurance company.

More often than not, that is how things are going these days,according to a report from the Insurance Research Council (IRC),released Tuesday, that found that the percentage of personal injuryclaimants in auto cases represented by attorneys rose to 36% in2012, more than double the rate in 1977, and up from 31% in 2007.For bodily injury claimants, the rate rose slightly to 50%.

“The attorney involvement trends shown in this study undercuttwo of the envisioned benefits of no-fault auto injury systems: aless adversarial settlement process and more timely payments,” saidElizabeth Sprinkel, senior vice president of the IRC. “The role ofattorneys is implicated in many of the factors driving up the costof auto insurance.”

According to the report, claimants who were represented byattorneys were “much more likely” to receive medical treatment fortheir injuries, were more likely “to be involved in apparent claimabuse,” and received lower net payments on average than those whodid not hire attorneys. And location plays are role, too. More thanhalf of PIP claimants in Florida hired attorneys, for example,unlike Kansas, where only 12% did.