When to Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer

If you’re wondering when to hire a  Mesa personal injury lawyer, there is only one correct answer: As soon as possible.

Your attorney will likely need to secure evidence, interview witnesses, file your claim or lawsuit (if you haven’t already), and protect your rights—all time-sensitive obligations that cannot wait. While you’re certainly busy, you must bump your search for a lawyer to the top of your to-do list.

Where to Find a Qualified Personal Injury Lawyer

First, it’s important to know that personal injury attorneys help with two primary matters:

• Insurance claims
• Lawsuits

There are several ways to find a personal injury lawyer who is qualified to lead your case, which include:

• Speaking with trusted individuals who have used a personal injury lawyer before (especially if their case was in the same region as yours)
• Responding to local advertisements, which can be on billboards, radio spots, television, and other media
• Searching the internet for personal injury lawyers serving your area is the most common and informative way of finding a personal injury attorney

Finding a lawyer online allows you to review each law firm’s qualifications. This is why so many clients find their lawyers via the web.

Read more: How to File a Personal Injury Claim

Use Free Consultations to Your Advantage

Finding a personal injury lawyer is generally a multi-step process. As you narrow down the attorneys who may be qualified to handle your case, it becomes time to complete free consultations.

These consultations are:

• A standard offering for personal injury lawyers
• Typically, phone calls, though some firms might conduct them in person or over video conference
• The opportunity for the client to get to know the law firm, ask questions about their case, and find out if a certain law firm is a good fit
• The chance for a law firm to review the client’s case and explain whether the prospective client has grounds for an insurance claim or lawsuit

These consultations can be beneficial for the law firm, but they are especially beneficial for prospective clients like you. These calls can help you gauge a law firm’s quality of client service, familiarity with cases like yours, and fitness to represent you.

Read more: How to Hire a Phoenix Personal Injury Lawyer

What Makes an Effective Personal Injury Attorney?

Before you reach the point of completing free consultations, you may use other criteria to identify a handful of strong candidates. Some of the criteria you may use include:

The Law Firm’s Case Results (Particularly in Cases Like Yours)

If you’re hiring a personal injury attorney, you likely deserve compensation. It’s only logical to judge a firm based on how much compensation it has secured for other clients.

The average car accident resulting in disabling injuries costs the victim $162,000—and that doesn’t count one of the most important damages in car accident cases, pain and suffering. Confirm a law firm has a record of securing large recoveries for clients before you hire that firm.

The Firm’s Reviews (This Amounts to Its Reputation)

Former clients have priceless insights about a given firm, and they may tell you:

• How hard the firm works 
• Whether a firm’s lawyers are active communicators (or difficult to get ahold of)
• Whether a firm’s staff is compassionate towards clients
• Whether a firm’s lawyers pressure the client to accept a settlement or, instead, are willing to take cases to trial

Pay attention to reviews as you look for your personal injury attorney.

Read more: Five Steps to a Successful Personal Injury Case 

The Firm’s Primary Practice Areas

Not all law firms handle the same case types. You should not just seek a law firm that handles your case type but look for a law firm that prioritizes your case type. You should look for settlements and verdicts the law firm has secured for clients with cases like yours.

The Firm’s Location

It’s generally best to have a law firm that is in or, at least, near the city where your case will take place. If it’s unclear where a firm is located, ask during your free consultation where your lawyer will be operating from.

Your Experience During the Consultation

Make the most of your free consultation. It is important to be prepared for the meeting to ensure you are able to judge how the firm makes you feel. The way a firm’s client-facing representatives treat you can indicate:

• The general culture at the firm
• How much emphasis the firm puts on client satisfaction
• The level of attention and personalized care you’ll receive if you hire that firm

Free consultations exist for a reason, and they matter. In fact, your consultations may be one of the deciding factors in which law firm you decide to hire.

Read more: Insurance vs You and the need for Personal Injury Lawyers

What Does a Personal Injury Lawyer Do for Their Client?

It’s tough to comprehend the value of a personal injury lawyer until you have worked with one. Some of the benefits of a personal injury attorney is that a capable lawyer:

Takes Many Responsibilities Off the Client’s Hands

While your lawyer will contact you regularly about how your case is going, your case is their responsibility. By handling your case for you, your attorney will:

• Ensure you can focus on your recovery, above all
• Do everything in their power to complete your case as soon as possible
• Take advantage of the many resources a law firm has, as they can easily tend to every aspect of the case
• Be solely responsible for your case outcome, though you will be asked to participate at certain times (such as when you need to accept or reject settlement offers)

If you suffered an injury, are sick, or mourning the loss of a loved one, you don’t need more responsibility. You need to heal and be with loved ones. Hiring a lawyer should allow you to keep your attention on what matters most.

Gives Them Peace of Mind

It is difficult to determine the value of peace of mind. While you may face uncertainty regarding your health and finances, hiring a lawyer can bring certainty to your insurance claim or lawsuit. Allowing a law firm to handle your case can diminish your stress significantly.

Protects Their Financial Interests

Your attorney will:

• Determine the exact financial cost of your damages 
• Prevent insurance companies from affecting you with bad-faith tactics, which may include pressuring you to accept a lowball settlement
• Advise you transparently about whether settlement offers are fair
• Be ready to file a lawsuit and go to trial for you

Your financial interests are the primary focus when you hire a personal injury lawyer. Expect your attorney to defend those interests tenaciously.

Lends Their Experience to the Client

Attorneys have experience, and that’s a significant reason why clients hire them. While you cannot purchase experience, you can take advantage of a lawyer’s experience simply by hiring them.

Provides Major Financial Support to the Client and the Case

Attorneys who fight for their clients spare no expense. From reconstructing car accidents to hiring lawyers to testify on the client’s behalf, a law firm will provide critical financial support to you.

More Specifically, What Services Does a Personal Injury Lawyer Perform?

You know the value a personal injury lawyer brings, but you should also know the specific services they perform. While each case is unique, personal injury cases often require a lawyer to:

• Handle insurance companies: Attorneys and insurance companies are intimately familiar. These two parties often have opposing interests—the lawyer wants fair compensation for the client, while the insurance company wants to pay as little as possible. Your lawyer will deal with insurance companies in pursuit of a fair settlement.
• Establish liability: Your lawyer will determine who is financially responsible for your losses. Insurance companies are often liable, but those companies also represent policyholders who your lawyer may sue if necessary.

• Seek evidence of negligence: Proving negligence is generally necessary before a claimant or plaintiff can receive a settlement or verdict. Your attorney may use several types of evidence, from video footage to expert testimony, to prove negligence.
• Document the client’s damages: Your case likely involves injury, sickness, or death. Your attorney will document these difficult challenges, as well as the damages that those challenges cause. Medical bills, expert testimony about health conditions, and financial records can all serve as important documentation. 
• Value the client’s damages: Your legal team will calculate the financial cost of your damages. This is how they will determine how much compensation to demand from insurance companies or other liable parties.
• Negotiate a settlement: Your lawyer will almost certainly present settlement demands to an insurance company or civil defense attorney for liable parties. Those who cause people harm should have the chance to pay a fair settlement. 

Most times, personal injury lawyers can secure fair settlements for their clients. However, there are many circumstances that can prevent a settlement from happening. From inadequate insurance coverage to bad-faith negotiations by liable parties, there are many potential blockades to a settlement agreement.

If your lawyer is unable to coax a fair settlement offer from liable parties, they will likely sue on your behalf.

Personal Injury Lawyers Sometimes File Lawsuits and, More Rarely, Go to Trial

Suing is not always Option A for personal injury lawyers or their clients. Settling is a more efficient outcome, so if you can get a fair settlement, you’re likely to accept it.

That said, filing a lawsuit is a step that personal injury lawyers often take. This is a formal process, so a lawyer’s lawsuit-related training and experience will be a great help.

Most lawsuits do not go to trial. Most times, the two sides to a lawsuit can reach a settlement agreement. However, if trial is the right course of action in your case, your lawyer should be willing to take your case to trial.

How Much Does a Personal Injury Lawyer Cost? 

Clients do not have to worry about cost when hiring a personal injury lawyer. In almost every case, a personal injury lawyer:

• Understands that many of their clients are facing significant financial hardship
• Does not need the client’s money to cover case costs
• Will not accept any upfront payment from the client
• Will receive their fee only if they secure a settlement or jury award for the client

This contingency fee structure is a compassionate arrangement that works for both the law firm—which intends to secure a financial recovery—and the client.

Common Damages in Personal Injury Cases

Some of the damages that lawyers most often seek compensation for are:

• Lost income, diminished earning capacity, and other types of professional damages
• Pain and suffering (and treatment costs for mental health challenges)
• Medical costs
• Property costs
• Disability-related challenges and expenses

Personal injury lawyers also encounter the tragic fallout from wrongful deaths. These cases typically include both severe economic and non-economic harm. A lawyer’s mandate is to get justice, whatever your damages are.

Don’t Wait. Hire Your Personal Injury Lawyer Today.

Don’t put off your search for a personal injury attorney. Place your case in a position to succeed by retaining an attorney with an impressive case record and a reputation for treating clients like family.