Few things in life are more challenging and impactful than suffering an injury that wasn’t your fault. It doesn’t matter whether it occurs at work, on the road, or in the comfort of your own home! These personal injuries cause a whole host of physical, practical, and emotional problems- none of which are easy to overcome.
Alas, they’re far from uncommon either. Indeed, there are around 24.5 million annual emergency department visits in the US for unintentional injuries.
Have you just been hurt or wounded as a result of someone else’s negligence or wrongdoing? Hiring the best personal injury lawyer possible will make a vital difference. Professionals in this field, they’ll support you with your PI claim, fight for your rights, and negotiate with insurance companies on your behalf.
First, though, you’ve got to find the right attorney for the task! Want some help with that endeavor? Keep reading for 6 tips on finding the best personal injury attorney possible.
- Speak to Friends and Family
Start looking for a lawyer and you soon realize how many are out there. You’re spoiled for choice. Online and offline, there are countless firms competing for your attention and promising positive results.
Knowing which one to pick can seem impossible when you’ve never needed one before. Know the struggle? Well, a good first port of call is often to speak to friends, family members, colleagues, and acquaintances for their recommendations.
Someone in your social network may have worked with a first-rate attorney and be able to put you in touch with them. Likewise, they may have had a bad experience in the past and tell you who to avoid! In this way, speaking to people you know can simplify your search and, because you trust them, lead you to the best personal injury lawyer for your predicament.
- Leverage Online Reviews
One thing’s for sure: not all attorneys are made equal. They’ll all promise the world, but only a few of them will actually be able to deliver the goods! That’s bad news when you’re trying to find the best personal injury attorney possible.
After all, how can you separate the wheat from the chaff; the good from the bad?
If your friends and family don’t have any suggestions, then the internet and social media could be your next best bet. Trust us, they’ll be jam-packed with in-depth reviews about law practices- just like the ones you read for restaurants and tourist attractions. A quick Google search of the law firms in your area could reveal everything you need to know.
Now, you can’t rely on every review to be either 100% truthful or insightful. Spend enough time reading them, though, and you can glean invaluable information to guide your decision.
- Understand Your Specific Needs
You have to know what you’re looking for before you’ll ever find it, right? For that reason, try to be as specific as possible when deciding upon your legal needs.
Think about your injury and the circumstances that surrounded it. Was it an animal bite, an assault, a slip, or the result of medical malpractice? From there, take it a step further to get even more detailed (e.g. what kind of animal bit you? What kind of medical procedure went wrong? And where did you slip?).
Contacting a personal injury attorney who’s up for task will be far easier once you’ve honed in the fine details of your situation.
- Focus on PI Lawyers
Our next suggestion is to stick with lawyers who specialize in personal injury law. Your family lawyer might be a brilliant Jack of all trades in the legal profession. But PI is a nuanced and intricate field, which means you’ll always benefit from specialist support.
Opting for a lawyer who’s an exclusive PI practitioner is also a good way to narrow down your options. In one fell swoop, you’ll dramatically reduce the list of legal options at your disposal. The fact that you’d almost certainly end up with better results (AKA the access to compensation you deserve) is the cherry on top.
- Avoid Courtroom Scaredy-cats
Okay, so the best personal injury lawyers for the job tend to specialize in this area of law. But that alone isn’t always enough to guarantee results. More often than not, you’ll want a PI lawyer who has experience and confidence in the courtroom too.
Alas, many PI firms and professionals don’t have either attribute to their name. They’d take your case, be unwilling to go to trial, and settle for whatever the insurance company offers instead. It goes without saying that this approach never delivers the amount of compensation your injury warrants!
That’s why you need legal support from someone whose happy going to trial and who has done it dozens of times before. They won’t be intimidated by aggressive insurance companies who eat weaker, inexperienced lawyers for breakfast. They’ll meet them head-on, see them in court, and get you’re a better result in the process.
- Seek Evidence of Prior Success
We’re taught to never judge books by their covers. But sometimes looks can be revealing! Lawyers who dress in thousand-dollar suits and work in centrally-located offices made their money for a reason, right?
It’s because they’re good at what they do.
Be sure to look around for evidence of a PI lawyer’s past successes and to research their history of settlements/verdicts in cases like yours. The physical signs of success will fill you with confidence and reveal whether or not an attorney has enough resources to pay for experts, fund relevant tests, and throw enough cash at your case to do it justice.
Find the Best Personal Injury Lawyer
Millions of Americans are injured through no fault of their own every year, suffering the wide array of practical and financial challenges that tend to follow. Unfortunately, far fewer of these individuals ever access the level of compensation they deserve.
Do you want to avoid that fate? Well, be sure to keep the tips in this post in mind! With any luck, they’ll help you find the best personal injury lawyer possible to represent your case.
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