You never want to be involved in a situation or accident that leaves you hurt, much less something so bad that you might be thinking about finding a personal injury lawyer. However, if you do, then you probably want the best representation possible. So, how do you find the best personal injury lawyer in your area? Keep reading to learn a few pointers.
Whenever you meet with potential lawyers for legal representation, make sure that you request a written estimate of their various fees and charges. Many different factors impact their prices, such as the number of years of experience they have, their professional accreditations, and whether or not they are in demand. Establishing these costs in advance prior to committing to working with any attorney is a good idea because you don’t want to wind up losing your lawyer once your matters are already in motion just because you lack money. It is possible to find personal injury lawyers that only get paid if they win, but you might find a better attorney that doesn’t do this.
Make sure that your lawyer is accessible to you. It won’t matter how great a lawyer is if they’re impossible to get in touch with.
One way to make sure your lawyer stays accessible is by scheduling regular times when the two of you can communicate. Many attorneys won’t even contact their clients for a while after they get hired.
Only deal with a lawyer that you can trust like The O’Brien and Ford Law Firm. This is a really big deal, particularly if you think that you might be working with this personal injury lawyer for a long time.
Try to find an attorney that isn’t booked up with too many cases. Be sure that you inquire about their potential devotion to you and your case in advance. Your attorney should be honest with you about their caseload. If it’s too much, find someone else.
It amazes me how often clients or potential clients think that the lawyer is “not fighting for them.” I suppose sometimes it is true, but more often it is based on emotional responses to good advise from the lawyer. On of the classic triggers for this type of response is for the lawyer to suggest that it may not be productive to fight over every tiny bit of property on the list of personal property.
If the marital estate has $20,000 worth of property composed of beds. couches, stereos and yes-lawn ornaments-each side can anticipate getting roughly $10,000 worth of stuff. For one reason or another most of these items are self selecting. For example, the $300 flyfishing set will typically be set aside to the husband and the $150 scrapbooking kit and the $150 worth of pots and pans will be set aside to the wife.
These items will typically balance each other out leaving maybe 30% of the estate which could be taken by either side. Lets call these items the lawn ornaments. Lets say there is an especially beautiful garden gnome left to divide that was bought for $100. Lets say that one side or another has invested significant emotional baggage in the garden gnome. Perhaps the other side is hell bent on dividing the property EXACTLY down the middle.
Lets say the lawyers make $200/hr. Every minute that the combined team of lawyers spends on the lawn ornament costs $6.66. Lawyers bill in increments of 1/10 hr or 6 minutes per billing entry. If each lawyer spends 1/1o of one hour that is a comined bill of nearly $80. Most lawyers charge 2/10 of an hour per phone call. That is a combined bill of nearly $160.
If the clients are really invested in this particular lawn ornament it will probably take more than a single phone call to resolve. Otherwise productive settlement discussions get blown up over such stupidity. Even if one side or the other eventually gives in the financial cost can be astronomical in relation to the real value of the item.
Take my advice-if the lawyer looks at you cross-eyed because you want to fight over the lawn ornament you have a good lawyer. If your lawyer wants to feed the fight over the lawn ornament then look very carefully at your next bill.