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How to Select the Right Personal Injury Lawyer For You

If you have been injured in an automobile accident, it can be a daunting task to decide which personal injury lawyer you should choose to represent you. There are so many lawyers out there who advertise on television, in the newspaper, in the yellow pages section of the telephone directory, on the radio, etc. All of these may be good sources for locating the name of a personal injury lawyer, but it is often difficult to choose from those names. However, there are a number of significant factors you should consider when choosing a personal injury lawyer before you sign that contract.

First, you should consider how much experience this lawyer has in handling the type of claim that you have. Ask this lawyer and any other lawyers or individuals you know whether or not the lawyer you are considering hiring is experienced in handling the type of personal injury case that you have and whether or not this lawyer actually goes into court to try cases. If you get a lawyer that doesn't try cases, you can rest assured that the insurance company will know that and will reduce the value of the claim because they will know the risks are less with this type of an attorney as opposed to an attorney who is experienced in litigating claims. To some extent, it doesn't matter how many trials the lawyer has performed, but whether or not this lawyer has regular trial experience and whether or not individuals in the legal community know this lawyer as an experienced trial lawyer who handles these types of claims.

Secondly, you may consider the yellow pages as a good source of names, but beware of the fact that some lawyers have huge yellow page ads as large as a full page or two and those lawyers may typically have a lot of small cases that they have to take to pay for the large yellow page ads. Having an attorney who has a lot of small cases could result in your case just becoming one more file in the pile of cases on that lawyer's desk.

Third, when interviewing attorneys for your case, you should ask that attorney if he or she knows of any other lawyers in the area who handles similar types of cases and ask them for the names of those attorneys. If they won't give you the names of other attorneys they consider to be good at this type of work, then you probably are at a lawyer's office who does not know who is good at handling your type of case and, therefore, may not be a particularly experienced attorney in your type of case. Experienced lawyers know other experienced lawyers and aren't afraid to share that information.

Fourth, always look to the type of information the lawyer has made available to you at no obligation such as whether or not they have a website, a blog, publications like booklets or books or articles they publish or reprint that they give out at no charge or obligation. If you can look at this information, you can tell a lot about whether or not this lawyer has real knowledge about the subject matter and is willing to give of that knowledge which is a good sign that you are with a reputable, confident, and experienced attorney.

Fifth, be very careful of those attorneys who will try to rush you through the consultation and have you sign a contract quickly. If you are not given at least an hour for your consultation, then you probably are not consulting with the right attorney. Some attorneys will not give you an opportunity to take the contract home, read it and understand it and those are the attorneys you should avoid.

Sixth, you should beware of lawyers who contact you after an accident when you made no contact with them first. A lawyer who contacts you immediately after an accident and who does not know you personally or is not related to you, is probably making an unethical contact or solicitation of you and you should avoid this type of representation and this type of an attorney.

Seventh, ask the attorney about what associations they belong to, where they are licensed, and whether or not they have legal malpractice insurance and what kind of legal malpractice claims have ever been made against him or her. Find out what kinds of ethic complaints may have been made against him or her and if they are serious, you may want to avoid that attorney.

Eighth, be sure you understand how your lawyer will be communicating with you in writing or over the telephone and how you can best contact them. If your lawyer can give you specific means or methods of communication, then you will probably do well with this particular attorney. If your lawyer is evasive in how he or she will be communicating with you, then you need to be careful about retaining that particular attorney.

And ninth or last, always trust your gut instinct when you sit down and talk with an attorney as to whether or not you are comfortable with that particular attorney. If in the course of a natural conversation with that attorney in his or her office, you are comfortable with their method and style of conversation, then you probably are going to get along with that particular attorney and that goes a long ways towards that attorney helping you to a successful conclusion of your personal injury automobile accident case.

If you have more questions about the method and manner of how you can choose a good attorney, feel free to give me a call toll-free at 888-263-0001 for a free call and answer or you can email your question to me at roger@raresq.com and I will be happy to email you my response.

Comments

Kansas Workers Compensation Statutes of Limitations.
Posted by: Roger Riedmiller
November 15, 2006
Topic: Time Limitations in Kansas Workers Comp

There are 4 Statute of Limitations in every workers compensation case in Kansas that must be complied with or your case will be lost.  Every limitation has exceptions and this article outlines the 4 limitations and some of their exceptions.

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Kansas Workers Compensation Benefits
Posted by: Roger Riedmiller
October 01, 2006
Topic: Kansas Workers Compensation Benefits

Kansas Workers Compensation Benefits of Temporary Total and Partial Disability benefits are your weekly workers comp checks and are calculated here.

 

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Location: 300 W Douglas Avenue | Wichita, Kansas (KS) 67202 | 1-316-263-0001 | 1-888-263-0001 | Email Us