How to choose a personal injury lawyer?
There are various criteria to choose the best personal injury lawyer. You need to identify who you should consult.
1)Understand why you need a lawyer
A personal injury attorney is different from other types of attorneys due to their experience and expertise in a specific area of the law. If you are injured due to someone else’s negligence, or if you have allegedly injured another, you would want an attorney that knows how to handle your case.
Personal injury attorneys often have:
- Trial experience
- Negotiation experience
- A deep understanding of medical diagnoses and processes associated with personal injuries
- A deep understanding of negligence law and other torts.
2)Make a list of factors that go into choosing a good personal injury lawyer
When you begin the procedure of choosing a personal injury attorney, you would want to understand what makes a lawyer good.
You can begin searching for lawyers that meet your criteria as follows;
-Location. You would need to find an attorney who is licensed to practice in the state where you were injured.
-The focus of Practice. Like doctors specialize in certain areas of medicine, lawyers focus their practice in certain areas of the law. Let’s say, if you have been injured by a defective product, look for an attorney that specializes in negligence cases involving defective products.
-Reputation. Check for a lawyer with a positive reputation in your community.
-Years of practice. Seek an attorney that has involved with cases similar to yours for a long time.
-Disciplinary record. Always search at an attorney’s disciplinary record and check if they have ever had a complaint filed against them and whether they have ever been suspended or disbarred. You can get this information online.
-Trial experience. While not all cases go to trial and most settle out of court, you would want to hire an attorney who is not afraid of a trial.
-Winning record. Search for an attorney who wins cases. This may seem simple but there is a reason some lawyers win and others lose. Seldom, an attorney who loses a lot of cases is doing so because he or she is doing something wrong.
3)Ask for personal referrals.
Once you get a checklist of what makes a good personal injury lawyer, you would want to ask friends, family, neighbours, and co-workers if they know any good attorneys. You must start the process by looking for personal referrals as these are the attorneys who usually have the best reputations and are trustworthy.
You must not simply take a personal referral and immediately hire them. Go with the rest of the process and do more research on the referrals you get.
