You’ve just been involved in a traumatic accident. You’re tired of dealing with calls and bills from doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies. You’re getting bogged down in your own personal feelings about your recent injury. What’s more, you’ve decided that you should look into hiring an attorney to help maximize your recovery.
The following outline will help you ask the right questions so you can find a personal injury attorney that fits your needs.
Area of Expertise
- Do work exclusively with personal injury cases or do you take a variety of cases?
- How many personal injury cases have you successfully taken to trial?
- Can I get a reference from one of your past clients?
- Will you be personally handling my case?
These questions are aimed at finding out if you will get an experienced personal injury attorney. Most attorneys will take personal injury cases even if they don’t specialize in dealing with them. This is not the type of attorney you want handling your case since their experience is scattered among may areas of law.
A large majority of cases settle outside of court, but there is a chance you may have to go to trial. If you think this is likely, be sure to find out if the lawyer is prepared and ready to take your case to trial.
Finally, also make sure that the lawyer you are interviewing will be in fact the one representing you.
Cost
- Do you charge by the hour, or do you charge a contingency fee?
- What is your contingency fee? Does it vary before and after a lawsuit has been filed?
- Can you explain my costs and expenses?
- When do I have to pay for my costs and expenses?
Understanding the fees and costs that you will be facing and when you must pay for them is important, particularly when you are facing medical bills at the same time. Luckily, most attorneys will work on a contingency basis, which means that you will only need to pay them a fee if and when they win your case!
Availability
- Are you going to have time to handle my case immediately?
- When can we file my lawsuit?
These questions are geared towards finding out if your attorney will be able to devote enough time to your case right away. Remember, you don’t have unlimited time to file a lawsuit. There are time limits for filing a lawsuit known as statute of limitations. Moreover, a growing number of firms are utilizing case managers, as opposed to attorneys, to handle large volumes of personal injury cases. This is something you want to avoid since you hired an attorney, not a “case manager”.
The above-mentioned is not to be construed as legal advice.
