When you are looking for a personal injury lawyer to represent you when you seek compensation for your injuries, it is very important that you find the right person.
Not all personal injury lawyers are created equal; some are much better equipped to handle your case than others.
Here are a few tips that can help you find the best representation possible: Hire a lawyer who is experienced.
As is the case in any field, while not all brilliant lawyers need be experienced, you have a better chance of a successful case if your lawyer has a few years under his belt.
And make sure these years of experience your prospective lawyer claims are actual years of experience.
Simply being licensed to practice but not having any clients should not be classified under "experience" in your book.
Hire a lawyer who specializes in personal injury law.
While any lawyer who is licensed to practice law can represent you, it is better to hire a lawyer who specialize in personal injury.
Most lawyers will pick a specialization, and stick to it for the rest of their legal careers.
This allows them to better represent their clients, devoting their entire skill set to a specific area of the law.
Hire a lawyer who has handled cases similar to yours.
Not all personal injury cases are the same.
If your case has distinct characteristic, it may help to hire a lawyer who has handled (and hopefully, won) cases that are similar to your case.
They will already have put in time and effort into familiarizing themselves with laws related to your case, and will be able to apply research they did in the past to your cause.
Hire a lawyer who has won personal injury cases.
Of course, you will want a lawyer who can actually win your case.
There isn't any better indicator of how well your lawyer will fare representing you than the outcome of previous cases he has handled.
You are basically an employer looking for an employee to hire.
You wouldn't want to hire someone with a bad track record, would you? Hire a lawyer who has won significant compensation for their clients.
You will naturally want to get the highest amount of monetary compensation possible.
Find a lawyer who has actually won significant sums for their personal injury clients.
While you shouldn't expect to receive compensation that amounts to millions for a relatively minor injury, you'll feel much better knowing that your lawyer has won millions for past clients.
Hire a lawyer who you are comfortable with.
This is one of the most important, if not the most important part of the selection process.
You are going to be working very closely with the lawyer you hire, for the rest of your case.
If you do not have a good feeling about your lawyer, you will find it much harder to communicate with him.
This will be a waste of time and money, and will be detrimental to your case.
If your gut tells you that you don't like someone, walk away.
Make sure that the person you hire is a good fit for you on all levels, including your emotional, gut feelings.