Being injured in an accident can be a traumatising experience. After the initial shock of being injured wears off, you may face a long road to recovery. Many people find themselves unable to work under the circumstances, or unable to live their life in the same way. If this sounds similar to your own situation, then you might consider making a personal injury claim, as is your legal right to do if you have been injured through no fault of your own.
To get the process started, it is absolutely crucial that you seek legal advice from a lawyer who has a lot of experience with your kind of accident and injuries. An experienced attorney is the best person to provide you with legal advice.
The Claims Process
Many people are concerned that the claims process is taxing on the body – and not really what one needs during the recovery period. However, the claims process is in fact simply for the claimant. Aside from an initial interview to ascertain the facts surrounding your case (an interview which can be conducted over the phone), and attending a medical examination, your input into the claims process will be nil. Your attorney will actually handle the process for you from start to finish and represent you in your personal injury claim.
How to find a Good (and experienced) Lawyer
Good lawyers for injuries can be found within large, national law firms, or within local law firms providing that they specialise in personal injury law. It is important to check the reputation of any law firm prior to working with them. You should look at reviews online and assess their character on the phone. When it comes time to choosing an attorney within a law firm, you should ask to be put in touch with a specialist in your kind of injuries. Some smaller law firms may struggle to do this, which is why we recommend the big ones first as they invariably have a larger network of in-house lawyers for you to choose from.
You should also look out for an attorney’s ‘success rate’. This is a percentage of the amount of cases they have won and the higher the better. The best attorneys have a success rate of over 80 per cent. Although, some attorneys do choose straightforward cases, so their ability to process a complex case can be questionable. As a result, take success rates at face value and look into the experience of a lawyer in greater detail. Ask them how many cases they have won that have similar circumstances to your own, to find the very best attorney to represent you in your claim and get you the justice that you deserve.