Choosing an Attorney

9/10/2020

Your personal injury claim will change your life for better or for worse. If it ends in your favor, then the road to recovery will be easier. If it doesn’t, then you could be faced with financial hardships and largely untreated injuries.

To give your claim a stronger chance of concluding favorable, you should work with a personal injury attorney from the beginning. But how do you choose a personal injury lawyer? With so much on the line, you cannot pick just anyone or any law firm. You need to be certain that your attorney will take your case seriously and is qualified to handle it.

How Do Personal Injury Claims Work?

Before you can choose a personal injury lawyer, you need to know a little about the work they are expected to do. Personal injury claims begin with an assessment of your injuries and calculation of your damages, including damages you have already experienced and those that you will likely experience in the future. An experienced lawyer will be able to network with local medical experts to get a better idea of just how affected you are and will be by your injuries.

Another crucial step in any personal injury claim is evaluating the evidence surrounding the claimant’s accident to determine liability. Whatever party is liable for the claimant’s injuries should be the one to provide financial compensation to pay for the claimant’s damages. In many states, liability can be split among all involved parties, and each party is accountable for their equal percentage of damages. You will want to choose an attorney who understands your state’s liability laws inside-and-out, so they can accurately assign liability and name the right parties as defendants in your claim.

Once damages and liability are known, an injury claim can be filed. This is where an attorney’s responsibilities increase. While a claim is pending, there is usually much back-and-forth between legal representatives for the claimant and defendant. Careful negotiations could end your claim with a settlement, but this will be essentially impossible without an experienced attorney representing you.

When settlement offers are insufficient, you can either abandon your claim – not ideal in any circumstance – or take it to court as a lawsuit. Once again, a personal injury attorney’s services will be invaluable if your case heads to litigation. Local courts tend to have specificities regarding rules and procedures, so choosing a local lawyer is important.

What are the Signs of a Trustworthy Lawyer?

Now that you know that a personal injury attorney has a lot to do in an average claim, you can start looking for one you trust to do everything that is needed. The best way to get to know an attorney and their abilities is to speak with them about your accident during a free and confidential case review. Look for a law firm that offers consultations without requiring you to pay them anything upfront.

You should also look for some factors that are objectively good to see, such as:

  • Total experience: Real-world experience builds a reliable professional. For attorneys, individual experience counts, but so does the experience of an entire law firm. Lawyers can team up on difficult cases, effectively pooling their experiences, backgrounds, and insight for the client’s benefit. See if you can find a local law firm that has been around for years.
  • Case results: At the end of the day, case results matter. No matter how friendly or experienced an attorney might be, you need to know that they are capable of delivering great settlements or verdicts. Of course, there is no way to predict a case’s outcome based on past case results, but a history of success is promising.
  • Positive client testimonials: Not many people know a lawyer better than the clients they helped in the past. Try to work with an attorney who has received honest client reviews and see what they have to say about their experience with them. It can be an easy way to know to call that law firm or steer clear.

If you’re looking for a reliable personal injury attorney in the Merrimack Valley, then look no further than Perrault Law Group. We are confident that you will happily choose us to represent your case once you speak with someone from our team during a totally free case consultation. Fighting for clients is our passion, and we know you’ll see what we mean as soon as you hire us to represent you.

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