There are many auto accidents in the San Fernando Valley, and throughout Los Angeles. Every day, unsuspecting people are injured in a car crash. These are people that never thought about hiring a personal injury lawyer and now must quickly find an attorney to assist them.
Finding the right lawyer for you when your injured in an automobile collision can be a challenge. Typically, the auto accident victim is injured and in pain, and may no longer have transportation.
Usually finding the right attorney for you can just add to the challenges you are facing.
This is the first in a series of posts intended to help you in finding the right attorney for you:
Experience: Make sure that the attorney has handled your type of case in the past. Not only should your attorney be experienced with representing people who have been injured in a car crash, but the attorney should be a trial attorney. That is, the attorney should be experienced in trying cases.
While most automobile collision cases settle without litigation, some do not. If your attorney is not experienced with trial work, he may not be ready to try your case. If your attorney cannot try your case, he is going to have to eventually recommend a settlement offer to you, even if that offer is not fair compensation. He will have no choice because he will not be able to take that matter to trial.
Worse, once the insurance companies identify that lawyer as someone who will always accept a settlement, they will offer less and less to his clients. Not every case needs to go to trial, but your attorney needs to be experienced with going to trial.
I will be posting more articles in the coming weeks discussing other things to look for when evaluating an attorney.