Car Accidents Lawyer
Why Is It Hard to Find a Good Car Accident Personal Injury Attorney Near You?
Regardless of where you were when you got into an accident, finding a real, working car accident attorney can be confusing.
First, it seems like every attorney, in every state advertises very heavily for car accident cases. Second, the internet seems to have hidden the traditional word of mouth advertising between well established attorneys and newcomers. Lastly, most importantly, you just don’t know what the real experience of the attorney who you are meeting with really has. As explained by a car accidents attorney from Howard Lewis & Petersen PC, the following are things to consider when looking for a good personal injury lawyer.
Consider asking a lawyer you are thinking about retaining questions such as:
Have they ever been to a courtroom?
Have they gotten settlements and/or verdicts for previous cases? What are the amounts of these?
What Questions Should You Ask When Selecting a Car Accident Lawyer Near You?
The below questions and points will really, really help you find a car accident attorney who regularly practices car accident law, regularly tries juries and has the staff to help in your case.
(1). Do they specialize in car accidents?
Avoid hiring a plaintiff’s car accident lawyer who is not specialized in personal injury. At most that lawyer should do personal injury and one other area of law. It is a red flag if your chosen car accident attorney does mainly divorces, a little bankruptcy and has also offered to draft your estate plan after you get your settlement. Don’t.
Their Website
Look at their website and see if they advertise doing all sorts of other law besides personal injury. You have a far better chance of selecting a good personal injury attorney if that is all they do, or maybe one other practice area.
The Public Online Court Docket
Many states have state-wide court calendars where you can look up by name the attorney and see if they are appearing on divorces, criminal cases or bankruptcies. What type of cases the prospective attorney is handling on the calendars can tell you what type of lawyers they are. If they are constantly showing up on the family law calendar, maybe not a good choice.
(2). What is their “time in grade”? You want old attorneys and young doctors. Sure, there is a limit to this saying, but generally younger attorneys simply don’t have the battle hardened time in a courtroom. Young attorneys rarely, rarely have any jury trial experience in civil car accident case. In this modern age of the American civil justice system, civil juries are rare. Most juries occur in criminal law when they do occur. Getting actual first chair jury trial experience as a personal injury attorney is even harder when you do plaintiffs work, i.e., the injury party’s side of cases.
Civil, injured party side, jury trial experience is rare. You may encounter a criminal defense attorney who also does personal injury and they will have vast criminal defense jury trial experience, but that is different than trying a civil plaintiff’s side (injured party) case through a jury successfully to a money verdict.
(3). Do They Always Settle?
Another red flag is if the attorney always, always settles their cases. Or the prospective attorney has never filed a lawsuit in a car accident claim? Or the attorney has never gone to a jury trial in a car accident case?
Yes. Most car accident cases do settle and many should settle with competent attorneys on each side. Yet if your personal injury attorney always settles and never goes to court you will receive less compensation for your injuries.
What happens is the insurance defense bar knows if you have a “fighter” attorney, or a “settler” attorney. The other sides knows which attorneys are will going go all the way and LOSE, rather than settle on a bad number.
If you have been in a car accident, contact a reputable personal injury, car accidents lawyer today to find out how they can help.
Call 434-817-3100 or complete a Case Evaluation form
