Avoiding Accident-Related Lawsuits

Have you been injured recently? If the injury was through no fault of your own, then you may be entitled to compensation. You may even be considering a lawyer, since resolving a case for personal injury can be tricky. But before you simply hire the first attorney whose name you can find, here are some questions to consider asking him or her:

If the case isn't won, who's responsible for paying the advance case costs? If you have a personal injury, most attorneys will only charge you a fee from your settlement. But there are other fees that need to be considered. For example, if your attorney needs to hire a detective to search for a person or a doctor to analyze your X-rays, these people will also need to be paid from your settlement. If the judgement doesn't go in your favor, you may not have to pay the attorney, but you could still be on the hook for paying these experts. You may want to look for a lawyer who is willing and able to take on these fees him or herself in the event of an unfavorable judgement.

Who will be working on this case? In some law firms, only one lawyer and maybe a few paralegals will be working on the case. In other firms, any personal injury will have a team of lawyers working on the case, in addition to the junior staff involved. If you have just one lawyer, you're more likely to receive consistent and personalized attention. On the other hand, having several lawyers on your case means that the team can draw from many more years of experience. Neither option is inherently better or worse than the other, you simply have to decide which is right for you.

What happens if there is a settlement offer? If you file a case for personal injury, the defendant may come back quickly with a low settlement offer. For example, you may file a lawsuit for half a million dollars for pain, injury, medical expenses, and lost wages. The defendant may then come back with an offer for just a hundred thousand dollars. After subtracting all of the bills and expenses that you've received to date, plus your attorney fees and potential lost work in the future, you may wind up actually receiving very little money. Some attorneys will try to push you to take that settlement, preferring a quick payout for themselves. A good lawyer will continue to fight for you -- if that's what you want -- and will turn down settlement offers that you don't believe are favorable to you.

Contact a lawyer from a company like Gartner Law Firm to see how they can help you with your personal injury case.