How to Choose the Right Personal Injury Lawyer

You work your entire life to improve your future, and your family’s future. Suddenly, following an accident, you must entrust that future to a lawyer.

Choosing the right personal injury lawyer is one of the most important decisions you will ever make. The consequences can be life-long. But how do you choose the right lawyer when there is so much advertising by personal injury lawyers and everyone claims they’re the best?

Let me give you some insight into my profession, and equip you with the knowledge and questions you’ll need to make the right decision:

First, there’s a secret you need to know. Many personal injury lawyers don’t fight for their clients by saying NO to unreasonable settlement offers and taking the case to trial. Why? Because a settlement will ensure the lawyer gets paid; it’s costly for the lawyer to go to trial; it takes months of work; it takes experience to do it right; and, for those lawyers who have never done it, they are intimidated.

Lacking trial experience is a significant drawback during settlement negotiations. Trial experience is what the insurance companies and their lawyers pay attention to. Fair settlements only arise when the insurance company believes that your lawyer is willing and able to take your case to trial if necessary. Insurance companies know which law firms go to trial and which do not. So should you.

Second, you want to know if the law firm is dedicated to personal injury litigation. Do they only represent the injured?

Third, you want to know that the firm will invest in your claim and charge you fairly. Advancing a legal claim thoroughly is very expensive. Expert opinions are often needed to explain how an accident came to pass, whether standards in an industry were breached, whether products were manufactured improperly, and what the full medical and financial repercussions of an accident will be. On average, your lawyer should spend between $30,000 to $60,000. In complicated cases, it can be much more.

You want to know, does the lawyer just want to get the case settled quickly when the costs are low? Or, will the lawyer pay what needs to be paid to fully investigate your claim? If the lawyer won’t spend what needs to be spent, and won’t likely do the trial preparation work, then he/she isn’t really losing much when promising a “No Win No Fee” guarantee. On the other hand, if the lawyer is going to fund your claim and be ready to go to trial if need be, then that same promise is of considerably greater value.

So, what are some of the questions you should ask to help you decide who to retain:

• Do you have extensive personal injury trial experience and will you be my lawyer from start to finish?
• When was the last time you went to trial?
• Have you taken cases like mine to trial and won?
• Can you show me written decisions and jury verdicts?
• Will you pay for experts to discover the truth?
• Will you wait to the conclusion of my case to be paid?
• Will your fees be fair and reasonable?

At Boland†Romaine, we believe that when your future is being negotiated you need a lawyer who has the fortitude to say NO to unreasonable offers. The best results are only achieved by lawyers with a reputation for rejecting unfair offers and taking serious, challenging cases to trial and winning.

If you need our help, we would like to meet with you. Our work is based on trust. We think that starts face-to-face.