What to Look for in a Personal Injury Lawyer?
If you are looking for a personal injury lawyer you must search for someone who is ready, willing, and able to file a lawsuit on your behalf because sometimes a lawsuit is the only way to maximize your personal injury recovery.
Many personal injury attorneys have no interest or experience filing lawsuits and representing their clients in court.
Attorneys who file lawsuits and represent their clients in legal actions are called litigators. They are courtroom lawyers.
Why You Should Hire a Personal Injury Litigator
Many insurance companies will offer lower settlements to attorneys who do not file lawsuits and instead seek quick resolution of personal injury claims without litigation. Quick settlements may not be in your best interest because they are typically lower value settlements.
Attorneys take cases on contingent fees, and there can be a conflict between an attorney’s desire to earn a quick fee and the client’s desire to maximize settlement.
For example, if the attorney believes a claim can be settled for $10,000 but there is a good possibility that the claim would be resolved for $15,000 if a lawsuit is filed, what is the benefit to the attorney to file the lawsuit? Assuming a 1/3 contingent fee agreement the attorney would stand to benefit $1,500 for filing the lawsuit. However, the attorney knows that filing a lawsuit is a lot work and may advise his/her client to simply accept the $10,000 offer because the cost/benefit for the attorney is not beneficial.
If your attorney is not willing to file a lawsuit then you should fully understand why. If the answer is because the attorney doesn’t want to work for it then you may need to find a different attorney.
I recently filed a lawsuit over $150.00 difference between the adjuster’s offer and my client’s final offer. I don’t care how much time, money, or effort it takes to seek full compensation for my client. My ONLY goal is to maximize my client’s recovery in personal injury actions. In this example, I eventually resolved the case for nearly TWICE the amount of money the insurance adjuster offered before litigation.
My additional attorney fee in this case was negligible compared to the amount of effort it took to litigate the case but my client’s overall recovery was maximized. I simply do not care how hard I have to fight, how much time it takes, or how much effort I have to spend. If my client wants to file a lawsuit and I believe it is in my client’s best interest, I am ready willing and able to fight for maximum recovery through the legal process.
Fire it up! Let’s go to Court!
