If you’ve never dealt with a severe injury and needed a personal injury lawyer for you or a loved one, the process of looking for and hiring one can seem overwhelming and confusing especially when you you are likely struggling in every possible way – financially, emotionally, physically, and more.
You may be worried about making a huge mistake and retaining the wrong person to help you in your time of need. And while there is a seemingly endless list of characteristics people will tell you to look for when meeting with potential trial lawyers, the most important things to look for in your search include:
- Experience: Has this lawyer handled cases like yours before? Has this lawyer successfully resolved (or “won”) cases like yours before? How many such cases have they worked on and been successful with and do they have former clients you can speak to that will tell you what it’s like to work with them? You can find out more about what it’s like to work with a particular lawyer or law firm by checking out their reviews online – be sure to look at more recent reviews first. Feel free to check out our personal injury lawyer reviews.
- Skills: While many lawyers can say they are award-winning or undefeated or make a variety of claims about their skills, there are some more objective ways to tell if a lawyer is considered skilled within the profession. One such method is awards, accolades, and honors – look to see if the lawyer you are speaking to has been recognized by reputable industry groups like Martindale-Hubbell, the invitation-only American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), and Super Lawyers, among others. These are independent third-party verifications of a lawyer’s skills as determined by judges, other lawyers, and the clients they have served. If your attorney is a member of the Million Dollar Advocates forum, it means your attorney has won a million or multi-million dollar verdict or settlement.
- Compassion: While this might not be the first thing that comes to mind when researching lawyers, it’s important. You are going through one of the most challenging times in your life and will likely have a lot of questions and need patience, care, and support throughout the process. Compassion will be demonstrated by the way you are treated by those who work in a lawyer’s office when you visit, by the way a lawyer speaks to you in person, on the phone, and/or even over email and compassion can also be shown by how much a lawyer cares about things other than just signing up cases and making money. Those who actively serve their community by donating their time and donating funds show you that they are good people who care about helping others and not just when it financially benefits them.
- Practice Focus: Be sure to choose an attorney that has dedicated their legal practice to representing clients in situations similar to yours. While many lawyers are generalists, others lawyers focus their practice on specific areas of the law. At Liggett Law Group, we only handle cases involving personal injury and this focused approach has helped us learn more than most about case types that fall under the injury umbrella, including but not limited to car accidents, truck accidents, premises liability, workplace accidents, wrongful death, etc. Most plaintiffs will have to take part in a personal injury mediation. Liggett Law Group can help you be prepared for what is in store.
- Answering Your Questions: Lawyers are busy, but they should never be too busy to take as much time as is needed to answer your questions, whether you are a potential client interviewing them or a client who has already hired them. Be mindful of how a lawyer interacts with you when you interview them to be sure they are patient and willing to answer all of your questions, especially about the terms of the contract you will sign to employ them as your legal counsel.
Picking a good personal injury lawyer is crucial to the success of your case. Liggett Law Group focuses its entire practice on personal injury law. With over 25 years of dedicated experience in personal injury claims in Lubbock and surrounding areas, our attorneys are ready to serve you with the utmost personal care and do whatever we can to get you the financial compensation you deserve for your injuries, so contact us today for more information on how we can help.