If you’ve been injured, then it’s likely in your best interest to hire a personal injury lawyer. However, it’s also extremely easy to become overwhelmed by all of the options out there. With so many lawyers available, you might not be sure who to hire and who to avoid.
Luckily for you, we’re here to help. In this article, we’ll go over the different kinds of questions that you need to ask in order to find the right personal injury attorney for you and your case.
1. What’s Your Level of Experience Handling My Type of Case?
Personal injury is an umbrella term and a variety of different types of cases can be found under it. Some examples of these case types include:
- car accidents
- slip and fall
- defamation
- medical malpractice
- animal bites
- assault and battery, and
- products liability
A lot of the above categories can be subdivided further. For example, medical malpractice can include traumatic brain injuries, misdiagnosis, birth injuries, and surgical errors.
The majority of personal injury attorneys handle several different types of cases. However, practically none will handle all types of them. Some of these types are unique and they require an extra level of experience and knowledge.
You want to seek out an attorney who has experience handling your kind of personal injury case. Experience means being familiar with common legal situations as well as having connections with investigators and other experts who can assist with your lawsuit.
2. Will I Win and If So, How Much Will I Get?
When you ask these kinds of questions, you shouldn’t expect to get a precise answer. In fact, the lawyer might be ethically required to not give you a precise answer to make sure that they don’t exaggerate your case’s potential. They also may not want to create unrealistic expectations.
It’s important to remember that personal injury cases can be unpredictable and anything can happen, even in the middle of the trial. With that said, your lawyer should be able to provide at least a rough prediction regarding your odds of winning and what sort of compensation you can expect – should your lawsuit reach a settlement or should you win at the trial.
One way to make sure that your lawyer doesn’t overpromise is to keep track of the answers that you get from multiple lawyers and see if they’re all in the same ballpark. Each lawyer that you see should give you similar answers.
If you happen to come across a lawyer who promises you that your case is worth a lot more than what all of the other lawyers are telling you, then you should be wary, unless that lawyer can properly explain to you why they think your case is worth more.
It’s also helpful to remember that, unless the lawyer says otherwise, they won’t take your case unless they believe they can recover something on your behalf. Accepting a case when they expect a loss would make bad business sense.
3. Who Will Do the Work on My Case?
A lot of personal injury lawyers don’t handle every part of a client’s lawsuit. The lawyer might have a paralegal or legal secretary help in preparing the legal documents and letters.
If you hired a senior attorney then they might have a junior associate do a lot of the legal legwork. Your actual lawyer might handle the more complicated legal issues and oversee the progress of the junior associate.
Having a lawyer outsource their work to other people might be efficient but it can also make clients feel like they’re being taken advantage of. It’s not an uncommon practice though and it can also keep legal fees down, so it’s important to weigh the pros and cons.
4. What Is Your Fee for Taking On My Case?
A large majority of personal injury lawyers who work on the plaintiff’s side will work under a contingency fee agreement. This means that those lawyers don’t get paid unless they can get you some kind of recovery.
Many personal injury lawyers will charge around thirty-three percent of whatever you recover. So if you win your case or it settles and you get $100,000, your lawyer will receive $33,333. But this exact amount of money is subject to a variety of variables.
5. What Is Your Level of Courtroom Experience?
Believe it or not, most civil cases don’t go to trial. Therefore, even a lawyer with a lot of experience might only have a handful of cases that made it to verdict.
You also don’t want to hire a lawyer who has very little experience at trial. This can be troublesome for a couple of reasons.
First, if your case does go to trial, your lawyer won’t give you the best odds of winning. Winning at trial is as much about experience as it is about skill.
Also, it can be mean that your attorney is hesitant about being in court. If that’s the case, then there’s a good chance that the defendant will take advantage of you and provide a lower settlement offer.
Either way, you should hire an attorney who’s not afraid to take a case to trial and can do a good job in the courtroom.
The Importance of Knowing What Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Personal Injury Lawyer
Hopefully, after reading the above article, you now have a better sense of what questions to ask before hiring a personal injury lawyer.
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