When it comes to protecting your rights you always need a good lawyer. The law is something that changes constantly and there are constant precedents that change a perspective over your right or rights of someone else.
Having a good lawyer to back you up is important. It is also important when you or your loved one have been injured due to an unfortunate event or due to someone else’s mistake. Personal injury lawyers are there for you but you also have to be aware of your problem and issue. Not one case is the same and not one lawyer can handle it 100% so if you have a case with medical malpractice or a case with a defective product, or anything else in between make sure you find a lawyer that specializes in the type of case you have.
So, according to this, not every personal injury lawyer is the same meaning they all come from different backgrounds, different training, education experience and you have to have one that is suited for your case. To help you search for the perfect personal injury lawyer we compiled this list of 4 things you need to know before hiring anyone and we also had some help from Scura Law who thoroughly provided details on what to look for.
Without any further ado, here are the 4 things you need to familiarize yourself before hiring a personal injury lawyer:
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1. Background and education
Source: swartzlaw.com
From the moment you walk into the office of your potential lawyer, you need to get familiar with their background. This is a highly important question you need to ask them and this will be the first thing that will determine if this lawyer is your perfect fit and if he/she can represent you in court. Their education or the law school plays a huge role as well, but it doesn’t have to be an excluding factor. If they had a good education and a good experience up to that moment it usually means that the lawyer is good and that they can handle their own. Most law firms watch out for their good lawyers so if you can find out the status of that lawyer in the firm it will be good info for you. Ask about their experience, types of cases, have they had any trial experience and on what cases. These are all the questions that fall into these two categories and with that info, you should be set to proceed with the next set of questions.
2. Communication and ongoing cases
Source: weierlaw.com
Like in anything, communication and the ability to get a hold of your lawyer for any particular info regarding your case is important. These questions will tell you if that lawyer communicates directly with its clients or are they throwing you to the secretary, paralegal or any other support staff. Being able to have good communication on the case and off it with your lawyer is important.
When it comes to ongoing cases you are not looking for details regarding those, no. you are looking for information on how many on is your lawyer working currently. This will tell you how much time this particular lawyer has to focus on you, or are you going to be another drop in the pond that will get the mediocre treatment that you surely do not deserve. Having too much work and having no work at all are both bad cases for any lawyer. Find one that has a few cases that are ongoing but also look for one that can truly devote themselves to you and your problem to increase your chances for success in court.
3. Resources
Source: hesslawoffice.com
If you are going to a big lawyer company that, in its ranks, has a personal injury lawyer you need to find out what kind of resources des that firm has at its disposal and will it be able to utilize them in your case. This should tell you whether that law firm is for you and whether that lawyer will be able to fight your case for you. Lawyer as him/herself can be perfect with all recommendations and all boxes ticked, but if he doesn’t have his firm’s resources at his disposal for what he needs, it is very difficult to believe that your case will be successful. This also goes for lawyers that have their firm with a few employees. They can be perfect all around and a really good fit for your case but if they can set aside or don’t have the resources to fight your case you have nothing to look there.
4. Do you have a case and how will you pay it?
Source: lawyer-monthly.com
Now when it comes to personal injury lawyers they have a neat thing they operate on and it’s called a contingency fee. A contingency fee means that they get to pay if they win so in case you lose, for whatever reason, you do not get stuck with a huge bill, no. Personal injury lawyer loses the case they don’t get paid, it is simple as that. This is awesome for you and you will see that, from place to place, some personal injury lawyers even front the litigation expenses like expert fees, accident reconstructions fees, deposition fees and much more. This means that they are taking the risk with you and if the case goes sour for whatever reason you will not pay a dime to anyone. This brings us to this second part and it is regarding your case. Thanks to these neat facts about billing, personal injury lawyers are very careful about what cases they take, and since they are taking the risk with you they are very careful and they will take only claims that they think they can win. This will also tell you something when you find a personal injury lawyer that will take your case.
To sum everything up, having a few questions when looking for a personal injury lawyer is nothing to be ashamed of. It is your life in question and you should get the best one out there. What is even important is that more serious and professional personal injury lawyers are encouraging you to ask as many questions as possible because, besides making you comfortable and informed about them, they are getting to know and bond with you as well, which is another important thing when it comes to lawyer-client bonding.
