Hiring a personal injury attorney isn’t like going to the grocery store or calling the plumber to fix a leak in your house. Chances are, you’ll probably only ever be hiring a personal injury one time in your entire life (hopefully), if at all. Since it isn’t a common, routine thing that you would do as regularly as the aforementioned activities, you might not be familiar with how to go about hiring the best personal injury attorney to represent you. So that is why in this post, we will take a look at three important questions to ask a personal injury attorney before hiring them.
- What is Your Case Load Right Now? How heavy an attorney’s case load is will give you a good idea on how much time they are able to devote to your case. If, when asking this question, the attorney seems to balk and be hesitant to answer the question or they do answer honestly and the number is more than a handful, you want to pass. There is no sense in hiring an attorney with so much on their plate already. It just means that they won’t be able to dedicate the time and energy needed to give you 100% of their effort on your case. If the attorney you speak with has a couple of cases that they are currently working on, that isn’t much to worry about and they should be able to balance a small number. However, if it is anything more than a few, you want to look for someone else who does honestly have the time to work on your case.
- With a Case Like Mine, How Long do You Think it Will Take to Resolve it? A personal injury attorney, especially a seasoned one, will be able to give you, at the very least, a general estimate on the length of time it will take to resolve your case. If the attorney isn’t able to give you an answer on this, it could be a sign that they don’t have the experience they say they do in handling cases like yours. Keep in mind, the answer you will get from the attorney will be more of an approximate number and not a set date, so while you want to get an estimate on the length of time, you also should not expect an exact date.
- Are You the Attorney that I will be Communicating with Directly? You want to know that you will have direct communication with the attorney who is handling your case. If upon meeting the personal injury law firm about potentially hiring them for your case they send a paralegal, “investor”, or some type of assistant, don’t bother working with them. The most reputable personal injury law firms will have you meet with the very lawyer who will be handling your case before you agree to hire them. In addition to knowing that you will be able to have direct communication with the personal injury attorney handling your case, you also want to ask how often you will be in communication with them. It also would be a good idea to ask for a list of references, speak to a few of them, and ask how the communication was with the personal injury attorney. If the references tell you they had an excellent time staying in communication with the attorney and that they were easy to reach during business hours, it is a good sign that you too will have a positive experience with the attorney.
Looking for more advice on finding the right personal injury attorney? Don’t hesitate to contact us today!
