1. What percentage of their cases involve personal injury?
Personal injury cases involve a fairly specific skill set which most general attorneys simply do not possess. Consequently, while there are many attorneys that advertise for personal injury cases, there are few that actually handle them regularly. Ask your potential attorney what percentage of his personal docket is comprised of personal injury cases, and if that number isn’t well over 50%, you might want to look elsewhere.
2. Have you first-chair tried a case to jury verdict in the last two years, and if so, what was the result?
If your attorney hasn’t taken a case to verdict (meaning all the way through trial) in the last two years that doesn’t necessarily mean they aren’t a good personal injury attorney, because most cases settle. However, if the attorney has taken a few that he has lost, or if he stumbles on his answer to this question, this is a good indication he is ill-prepared to effectively manage your case. It is important to ask specifically about cases that they were listed as the first chair (meaning lead attorney in the trial) because many attorneys will just try to get listed as second or third chair and claim that they were involved, when in reality they were not.
3. What is your expected costs of pursuing the litigation, and will you charge me interest on this?
Before you get paid in any settlement or verdict you will first have to pay, in addition to attorneys fees, any costs incurred by the attorney in pursuit of your case. Attorneys vary wildly in how they manage cases, so get a good idea of how much your attorney expects to incur in case expenses and factor this into what you’ll ultimately recover in the case.
4. What is your average time to resolution in cases like mine?
Personal injury lawyers vary wildly in how fast they tend to resolve cases. Faster isn’t necessarily always better, in fact holding out longer can often get you more money. But that is only true if your attorney is actively working the case and deciding to hold out rather than just sitting on your file. Ask when they expect to have the case filed, when the first depositions will take place, etc. This will give you a good feel for whether the attorney plans to start working on your case today, or sit on it and do nothing for 6 months.
5. What is your contingency fee percentage?
Almost all personal injury attorneys operate on a contingency fee arrangement. The normal contingency fee percentage is typically between 33% and 50%. often with a tiered system wherein the percentage gets higher as the case progresses. While most attorneys won’t negotiate their rate, by asking you’ll at least be able to compare one attorney to another.
tag:personal injury attorney,personal injury lawyer,NY personal injury lawyer
An knowledgeable injuries lawyer with recognized results should be able to recognize and set up proof containing recorded information from physicians working with many different medical areas of expertise that customers on their own will find difficult to get recorded.
ReplyDeletepersonal injury attorney