Qualities of a Personal Injury Lawyer
About 13 car accidents happen every minute. These crashes often end in serious damage and injuries to victims. To recoup these losses and pay for expensive medical bills, hiring a personal injury attorney is greatly beneficial.
While there are obvious benefits to seeking out legal representation, it isn’t always as clear how to find the right attorney for your case. Follow this guide to find the best personal injury attorney in Rancho Cucamonga, CA.
1. Available to Help
When looking for a personal injury lawyer, first, consider their availability. Attorneys who are booked with other cases may not be able to prioritize yours. This is fine for a short period of time, while you gather your evidence and documentation. However, there is a time limit to how long you can wait to file a personal injury claim.
If the claim does not meet the statute of limitations deadline, you will not be able to recover compensation for the accident. The statute is typically 2 years, but it can vary.
However, determining a personal injury lawyer’s availability may not be easy. Therefore, when you meet with an attorney, make your timeline clear. They should then tell you if they can devote the appropriate amount of time to your case.
2. Specific Experience and Expertise
It’s critical to find a personal injury lawyer who has worked on similar car accident cases. This knowledge will help them develop a plan for proving your case and getting you the desired outcome.
They’ll know what to look for in the evidence, what to highlight, and what tasks you can do to help with the cause. They understand the problems that can arise when dealing with insurance companies.
Because hiring a lawyer can get you up to four times the compensation for your case, you want to make sure that you receive a full and fair settlement. Insurance companies will try and do the opposite by minimizing your settlement.
3. Confident About Getting You Compensation
Dealing with the aftermath of personal injury cases (and car accidents specifically) will be expensive when you add up repairing (or replacing) your car, lost wages, property damage, and medical bills.
Many worry that hiring a lawyer is too expensive and that they won’t be able to pay for legal fees and other costs. The lawyer is there to ensure that the other driver’s insurance company covers all costs, so you don’t have to. Therefore, you need to work with an attorney who can aggressively negotiate on your behalf.
Look for lawyers with free consultations so you can reduce your initial costs. Some lawyers will also wait to collect fees until after they win your case (though this is something you should discuss before you get started).
Try to assess your lawyer’s confidence in the case. Ask them if they’ve won similar cases in the past. No lawyer should ever guarantee success, but they should be able to tell you whether or not the case is viable.
4. Honesty
Determining if a stranger is trustworthy is difficult. It will be difficult to be accurate in this area. To help, refer to online reviews to see what former clients have said about the personal injury lawyer you are interested in working with.
During your consultation, if the lawyer is confident in their ability to work with your case, ask them why. Also, inquire about potential problems they foresee. They know how complicated the legal system is, especially when fighting insurance companies.
They’ll be able to tell you how they’ll reasonably address those concerns but also make sure that you know that, again, there are no guarantees.
5. Willingness to Go to Trial and Negotiate
The majority of personal injury cases settle out of court and never go to trial. This is beneficial to clients and their attorneys, as both will receive compensation sooner, than if they had to go to court.
In many cases, settling is beneficial. However, in other cases, going to trial will get you more compensation or be the difference between winning and losing your personal injury case.
Insurance companies want quick outcomes and often try to avoid going to trial because it’s costly for them. They rely on plaintiffs not having the knowledge or experience to know better. Talk to your lawyer about their experience in the courtroom and how they plan on advocating for you.
Hiring the Best Personal Injury Attorney
Let the best personal injury attorney fight your legal battle so you can get the compensation you deserve. Keep these factors of what to look for in a quality lawyer in mind. Contact Sierra Accident Lawyers to set up a free consultation with one of our attorneys today.
