Getting Started with a Personal Injury Lawyer
My process with a prospective client starts with listening.
Most lawyers like to hear themselves talk. I’m the opposite. I like to listen to people because a lot can be learned. A person’s personal story oftentimes can guide a lawsuit and help me, as the lawyer, frame the case going forward.
Listening allows me to not only understand the facts of a case, but to learn what the client wants out of the lawsuit, and what strategies he/she might suggest.
At the outset, I spend a lot of time talking with prospective clients so that they get to know me and feel comfortable with me and my personality. Once a client feels that comfort, they are more likely to share and open up to me.
Once that bond is created, a great working relationship develops. Then I spend time explaining how written discovery works (i.e., written testimony), how depositions work (i.e., oral testimony), and how trials work, so that they understand from the very beginning what the landscape looks like and what it is likely to look like going forward.
What I always tell my clients when they’ve been injured is: first and foremost, get all of the medical treatment they need. Most times there’s no rush to filing a lawsuit. There is a two-year (2) statute of limitations for personal injury cases in California, so if the case is nowhere near two years old, the client needs to take care of their health first and get all the treatment they need. It’s also important for them to settle down mentally from an ordeal that was traumatizing and psychologically taxing.