If you’ve been injured, you may know that you need a Cartersville personal injury attorney. However, what to look for in a personal injury attorney may be less clear.
Indeed, with so many lawyers to choose from, how do you know what features and traits are the most important?
As you navigate the process and start meeting with lawyers, here are some things to consider and tips for hiring the right personal injury lawyer–
Focus Area of Practice
Before you think about anything else, the first thing that you should consider an attorney’s profile and background in their focus area of practice.
It is incredibly important that you choose a lawyer who is experienced in the area of practice that is relevant to your accident and injuries.
In other words, if you’ve suffered a traumatic brain injury in a sports-related accident, you probably don’t want to hire an attorney who primarily focuses on spinal cord injuries resulting from car accidents.
Experience In and Out of the Courtroom
You don’t just want to hire a lawyer who is experienced; you want to hire a lawyer who is experienced both in and out of the courtroom.
This is important for multiple reasons.
For example, while your attorney may be a great negotiator, if they don’t have litigation experience, their negotiation skills won’t be very useful should your case go to court.
While settling a case out of court is usually the goal, you want a lawyer who will know how to represent you in court should your case require litigation. And remember, you can always settle your case during the litigation process once a desirable result is achieved.
Reputation
Some lawyers have a bad reputation, plain and simple.
You don’t want to work with an attorney who’s known for rushing a case along or only putting in a minimal amount of effort, nor an attorney who doesn’t put their clients’ first and makes clients feel guilty about taking up too much time.
And you certainly don’t want to work with an attorney who isn’t in good standing.
Instead, you want a lawyer who is not only skilled and successful but also who is enjoyable to work with and who cares about their clients.
You can gain a lot of insight into what an attorney may be like to work with by reviewing their online reviews and talking to past clients.
What is Their Case History?
As enjoyable as an attorney may be to work with, and as important of a consideration that this is, what may be the most important consideration is whether or not your attorney is good at securing the desired case outcomes for their clients.
As such, you should be frank about requesting information about the lawyer’s past cases and past successes. Have they won more cases than they’ve lost?
What has the average settlement amount been? Have they lost any cases in the trial?
How many cases have they handled in their career?
Personality
When you’re planning to hire a lawyer, you should know that your lawyer is someone with whom you’ll be interacting frequently over the next few months, or even longer in some cases.
As such, it’s wise to choose an attorney who not only is educated, experienced, and who has a great reputation, but also who has a personality that you get along with.
If you don’t like your attorney, your relationship probably won’t be as effective as it could be otherwise, which could ultimately be costly to your claim.
Method to Approaching Your Case
Finally, speak with any potential attorneys you’re considering about their method for approaching your case.
- Will there be any staff members working on your case?
- Will they hire expert witnesses?
- How many cases do they work on at once?
- How do they handle an investigation?
- What will your role be throughout the process?
All of these questions and others are important.
You should also be sure to ask the attorney how they charge, as you certainly do not want to work with an attorney who charges on anything other than a contingency fee basis.
Call the Pritchard Injury Firm for Your Free Consultation Today
To learn more about working with the Pritchard Injury Firm and what our lawyers can bring to your case, please reach out to us today.
We have experience working on all personal injury case types and are happy to discuss the details of your case, and our experience, free of charge.
To schedule a free case consultation, send us a message directly, or call our law office at your convenience.