If you are in a car accident or looking to sue a doctor and do an internet search for “personal injury lawyers,” you will come up with thousands of law firms and attorneys who say they can help you. If you don’t know who is who, it can be really confusing to figure out who to hire.
One thing you should know if you’ve been in a serious accident is that there are certain types of injury lawyers that are better than others for every case. If you’ve been in a car accident and have $15,000.00 in medical bills, hiring a lawyer who regularly handles major trucking crash injuries would not be a good idea. And if you have a very serious injury case such as a death, something that required surgeries, etc., hiring a law firm that usually handles smaller cases would not be a great idea.
The bigger firm cases will usually turn down your case if it’s too small or refer you elsewhere. Most firms that don’t regularly handle seven-figure cases though will act like they do if your case is catastrophic and could be worth a lot. They want to make money and some will sadly do what’s best for them and not best for you. So how do you avoid hiring the wrong firm if you have a potential seven-figure case?
One great question you can ask is, “How many seven-figure cases have you tried or settled in the last five years?” It’s a really direct and relevant question. There’s no magic number answer, but if you ask it to a few different firms and one says zero, another says two, and the third says 15, it’s a really strong indicator as to who is used to dealing with high-value cases and who isn’t.
Some of these less accomplished attorneys who don’t have the track record you should want will try to tell you that they are great trial attorneys. That may be true for the cases that they usually handle, but you don’t want them getting their first experience with a major case while representing you. You also don’t want a firm to feel pressure to settle a case for $3 million when it may be worth $15 million.
In many ways, figuring out who to hire is like realizing that just because someone can run a five-person business doesn’t mean that they could be CEO of United Airlines or some major corporation like that. There is a huge difference between running a five-person company and a 100 person company and a 10,000 employee company. The skillset for each is way different which is why you see these companies bring in new people with experience as they grow.
The same idea is true when it comes to hiring a lawyer. The small case attorney might fantasize that they could do well with a big case and they might be right. But more likely than not your best chance of success comes from a law firm that can really show a track record of winning these cases and getting the best results possible.
If you have any questions or want our lawyers to refer you to the best personal injury law firm for your case, please call for free at any time at 312-346-5320.