How To Find The Right Personal Injury Lawyer

Your success in proving your claim will largely depend upon the quality of the attorney you hire, so it's essential to hire someone who offers you the best chances for a favorable outcome. You can use this guide to help you hire the right lawyer to handle your claim.

Seek Out Recommendations

As you start looking for a New York personal injury lawyer, you'll want a list of several attorneys from which you can choose. You can build a list by asking friends, family members, and co-workers if they have ever had to hire an injury lawyer. In addition to getting recommendations, this is also a great way to determine the quality of service that specific attorneys provide. As you inquire about lawyers in your area, be sure to avoid discussing your case. Saying too much about an active claim can adversely affect your ability to recover damages.

Eliminate Attorneys Without the Right Experience

People will often tell you that experience matters when it comes to hiring any type of lawyer, and that's especially true when you need to pursue an injury claim. However, you also need to ensure you hire a legal advocate with the right type of experience. For example, if you suffered damages due to medical malpractice, it may not be beneficial to hire a lawyer who's experienced primarily pursuing car accident victims’ claims. An attorney with medical malpractice experience will be more knowledgeable about the technical aspects of that type of claim. That specific type of knowledge may be necessary to prove that a caregiver acted negligently.

Check Online Reviews

Your next step should be to reduce the potential personal injury attorneys on your list by looking for previous client reviews. You can start by checking the testimonials that the law firm has posted on their website. These will likely consist only of favorable reviews, but it is an opportunity for you to see what clients liked best about the attorney. For a less biased impression, search Google, the Better Business Bureau's website, and your star bar association's site for each attorney.

These third-party sites will allow you to read both negative and positive reviews. You should expect to see some negative reviews for any attorney, but a more significant number of negative reviews should be viewed cautiously. Any attorney you consider hiring should have more positive than negative reviews.

Check Each Attorney's Credentials

You can conclude your online search by checking into the credentials of each attorney. This should primarily consist of using your state's bar association to determine if each attorney has a currently valid license to practice law in your state. Additionally, you should find out if any of the attorneys you're considering have been disciplined by the state bar association or sued by clients for legal malpractice. Discovering information about disciplinary action will help you ensure the lawyer you hire maintains good ethical standards.

Use the Free Initial Consultation

In addition to allowing the attorney to evaluate the strength of your case, the free initial consultation should also be used to help you assess the abilities of the attorney. You should pay attention to how the attorney makes you feel during the meeting. Someone effective in negotiating or speaking to a jury should build trust and confidence in you right away.

Additionally, ask the attorney about their track record. Find out how many cases they have handled in the past year. Of those cases, how many resulted in a favorable outcome for their clients? How many resulted in negotiated settlements versus jury awards. An attorney who settles almost every case may be reluctant to go to court, while a lawyer who takes most cases to court suggests an attorney who may be a little too aggressive.

You should look for a lawyer with a good mix of negotiated settlements and courtroom wins.

Although you should take the time to hire the right attorney, you also should start looking for an attorney as soon as possible. There's a time limit on how long you have to file a personal injury lawsuit after the date of your accident, and this limit is two years in most states. Hiring an attorney as early as possible will help ensure you don't miss this deadline.