How to Choose a Personal Injury Lawyer
Summary
What people should look for in a personal injury lawyer are: experience, intelligence, tenacity, and great communication.
Find a lawyer that is familiar with the type of case you have. Rest assured that the lawyer has been down this road before and can help you prepare for multiple scenarios, and navigate the landscape ahead.
People want a lawyer that is smart, analytical, and can see the big picture, as well as the minutiae. This lawyer must be tenacious, and a fierce advocate for your case.
And most importantly, you want a lawyer that is willing to explain the process as you are going through it, and willing to explain each of the events as they occur.
Full Transcript
When people are about to hire a personal injury lawyer, what they should be looking for, first of all, is whether or not the person they want to hire is qualified. And what I mean by that is you want to make sure that you're hiring a lawyer that's familiar with the type of case that you have. You want to make sure that that lawyer is experienced in handling the type of case that you're trying to bring to the lawyer. So that's the first thing that you should do when looking for a lawyer, make sure that they're qualified. A lot of people think that all lawyers handle all types of law and that's just simply not true.
There are specialties there are some lawyers that handle trust in estate. So, for instance, if you wanted to write a will for your family, there would be a certain type of lawyer that you would talk to if you wanted a lawyer to help you with a drafting of a document, there are business lawyers that handle specific instances of where you need a document drafted. I'm a personal injury lawyer. And what personal injury lawyers do is that we litigate issues that pertain to when a person has been injured, whether it's in a car accident, whether it's falling down at a store, whether it's a person that has been injured by working on a construction site. You want to come to a personal injury lawyer for those types of cases because a personal injury lawyer deals with those cases day in and day out.
If you have an idea that you want to patent, for instance, there are patent lawyers. And that's a very specialized area of law. So you wouldn't want to come to a personal injury lawyer if you have a dispute about a patent or if you have a dispute about a copyright, or if you have a dispute about a trademark, there are specific lawyers that deal with those types of issues. Well, I would say that in all of my cases I've had to be a fierce, fierce advocate for my client. And the reason being is because in personal injury law, more times than not, you are going up against a defense lawyer.
But that defense lawyer is being paid by a very large insurance company. And insurance companies are not so quick to just write people a check when they are responsible for an injury that a person has experienced. And so you need someone who is not going to shy away from fighting the good fight against a large corporation such as an insurance company. They're multinational corporations. They have billions of dollars in assets.
And so you need a lawyer that is not afraid of that, that understands how to work towards getting a case resolved, or if you end up having to go to trial. You just need to be able to understand how insurance companies work and how to appeal to their senses to show them why that it is in their best interest to actually pay the money that my client is entitled to. And so that's why I say I need to be a fierce, fierce advocate. And most of the defendants that I go up against are really big. I would call them goliaths.
They're not necessarily mom and pop shops. They are really big companies that have a lot of resources and are willing to put their resources behind defending them themselves, even though they may be in the wrong. They're oftentimes willing to try to scare people away, scare lawyers away. A lawyer that doesn't have the financial resources to withstand an onslaught of what's called discovery, or to withstand an onslaught of a bunch of scary letters that are trying to get you to drop the case. You've got to have tenacity.
You've got to have courage, you've got to have strength, you've got to have fortitude, because that's what you're going to need. When you fight a large corporation, it is important that you feel a connection with your lawyer. You want to make sure that your lawyer is actually listening to you. That is one of the skills that I know I bring to the table when I take on a case is that I have a willingness to listen to the client. I'm the lawyer.
I'm the person that's licensed to practice law in California, but I don't know everything. And I think I learn a lot from just talking to my clients, understanding what their experiences have been like, and understanding their perspectives. And I try to get a feel for what their life is like? Do they have kids? What type of work do they do?
What do they enjoy doing on the weekends? Do they have hobbies? Are there things in the world that they like and that they dislike? I really want to get to know my clients on that level because as I mentioned, the process can take a very long time. So it's very important early on to establish that relationship because you're going to be with this person for quite some time.
And it's great when you have an understanding of the person that you're fighting so hard for. And it's really great when that person has an understanding of what I'm all about. I like to share my experiences about my family. I like to talk to my clients about my numerous pets that I have at home. I like to talk to my clients about my interests that I have outside of the law.
I'm a multidimensional person. I love practicing law, but it's not the only thing that I do. I do things that are completely unrelated to law and it brings me joy. And at the end of the day, that's what makes me a better lawyer.
Final Thoughts on How to Choose a Personal Injury Lawyer
Many personal injury lawyers, including myself, will give a free initial consultation so you can determine if this is someone you feel comfortable sharing sensitive information with, and working with for at least several months to as long as a few years.