If you have an accident that is work related or have suffered at the hands of doctors or know someone that has, you will need to hire a personal injury lawyer to represent you. Automobile and motorcycle accidents usually involve some sort of auto accident attorney if things take a turn for the worse. But if you have never hired a lawyer before, it can be pretty daunting even trying to figure out where to start. Well, here are some steps you can try to find a personal injury law firm.
Word of Mouth
This is the best way to find a lawyer. If you know someone that has had a similar experience, then they might be able to recommend a good lawyer. At the very least, they’ll be able to tell you who not to go with.
Online Referrals
If you don’t know anyone who has been in a similar situation or has ever hired a lawyer, then you might want to try looking into online reviews for the firms you are considering. Don’t just look at the reviews that they have up on their website, check some third party review sites such as Yelp to find unbiased, real life reviews from people who have had personal experiences with the firm you are looking into hiring.
Internet Searches
The Internet is a wealth of knowledge for finding a law firm and lawyers. However, once you do find them, you’ll want to look into the reviews as mentioned above to make sure that you are hiring a legitimate company. There’s no bigger mistake than giving all your money to a fraudulent operation and never being able to get it back.
Once you have found a few personal injury law firms that you’d like to look into, you can set up an initial interview in order to meet with attorneys and see if they will take your case as well as if you want to hire them. Here are a few things that you should look out for when looking for a lawyer to hire.
Sufficient Interest
If the personal injury law firm sends a legal aid or a paralegal to meet with you instead of an actual lawyer, you can assume that they are not interested in your case and are not going to put their all into it. In order to win cases, the lawyer needs to be fully vested in the case. If the firm doesn’t view your case as important enough, then shut down that interview and move on to the next firm. They will just have to live with the consequences of losing your business.
Payment Options
Hiring a lawyer can be extremely expensive. If you want to hire your own and not have the court appoint you one, then you might want to ask about their pro bono policies or some sort of payment arrangement. Many lawyers will work for free until they have won the case and then they collect a contingency fee for your settlement winnings. The percentage that they take can be pretty high (somewhere around 30% or 40%) but if you don’t have the money up front, this might be a good way to go.
Brutal Honesty
There’s nothing worse than thinking you have a fool proof case and then showing up to court only to be sidelined on the stand. You want the personal injury law firm that you talk to, to be honest about whether or not you even have a case. It’s important not to beat around the bush about whether you have a chance. A good lawyer will let you know the holes in your case up front and what you can do to patch them up.
While hiring a lawyer is no easy feat, it doesn’t have to be impossible. There are various resources that are available to you online that can assist you as well as things in the community. You could also talk to your case worker about helping you hire a lawyer as well. Just make sure that you have your initial interview well prepared. Don’t be afraid to ask the hard questions. You know that they will be asking you the difficult questions later on down the line if you end up hiring them!