3 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Personal Injury Attorney
Hiring the right attorney gives you the professional guidance and support you need to get compensated for injuries and other damages.
But you need to ask the right questions before you decide who will handle your case.
In addition to an attorney’s area of expertise and experience with cases like yours. It’s important to ask for references from their past clients.
Knowing how others benefited (or not) from working with an attorney can help you find a legal professional while preventing unwanted and costly issues down the line. Listed below are 3 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Personal Injury Attorney.
1. Start Your Search With Your Network
Tapping into your network of friends, family members, and coworkers can make it easy to find an attorney for your case.
Getting a recommendation from someone you know allows you to dive deeper and ask them about their experience.
You can ask about an attorney’s professionalism, communication, and experience. Find out if they achieved the outcome they wanted and if it was within a reasonable amount of time.
The people you know can provide you with a reference that helps you choose a legal professional who can argue your case and help you get the compensation you deserve.
2. Getting References From Past Clients
Once you’ve reached out to your network, contact attorneys and ask them for references from their past clients.
Attorneys with experience and a strong reputation in their area of practice should be able to deliver a comprehensive list of references.
The references they provide help you assess the attorney’s rate of success and other important factors.
Attorneys who are unable or unwilling to provide references may have had negative experiences with past clients.
At a minimum, an attorney should acknowledge your request for professional references and address any concerns or questions you have. If they’re unable to provide references, they should give you a reason why.
References go a long way in building trust and helping you hire an attorney who is credible, skilled, and experienced in handling cases like yours.
3. Reaching Out to an Attorney’s Past Clients
It’s important to be prepared when contacting a past client. You should have a list of questions you want to ask and concerns you want to address before speaking to a reference.
Email can make the process easier by allowing you to send a person questions that they can answer on their own time.
It’s a convenient way to get the information you need, and email allows the recipient to provide more thorough and thoughtful responses.
Past clients can let you know about the process of working with an attorney. They can tell you how long it took for them to settle their case as well as the number of attorneys, paralegals, and others who were directly involved.
You can also request case studies, reviews from third-party professional organizations, media reports, and other sources of information that can help you make a decision.
A qualified personal injury attorney should be able to provide you with references from past clients. It’s up to you to get the information you need before hiring an attorney.
Knowing what questions to ask will help you make the best choice for your case so you can achieve the legal outcome you want.
