Tips on How to Get a Personal Injury Lawyer: The First Step to Claim Compensation
When do you need a personal injury lawyer?
There are many situations where you may feel like you deserve compensation for an unfortunate situation you have gotten into. If it looks like you will need to make a case for your situation, you will need to hire a personal injury lawyer.
Some of the more obvious situations where you will need a personal injury lawyer are if you have been hurt due to someone else’s fault or negligence, such as in a car accident or bike accident, or if you have been bit by someone else’s dog, or if you have had an accident due to a situation caused by the negligence of management of the building you were in such as a shopping mall or even your apartment building. And sometimes people get hurt at work due to the fault of their employers.
If you are sure that you got hurt due to someone else’s mistake than you should try to think of how much your life will be affected in the future due to your injury. Will you need money for hospital and medical costs and bills? Will your capacity to work or perform daily tasks be limited?
The important questions are:
1) Do you think your case can be proved?
2) Is your injury significant that it will require attention or cause limitation?
3) How long has it been since your injury?
It is very important to get in touch with an injury lawyer in a timely manner as there is a statue of limitations for suing in cases like this. In New York for instance, this is three years. Basically, if you are later than this amount of time then you lose your chance to seek compensation for your injury.
When you contact a personal injury lawyer be prepared to clearly explain your case. It would be best if you could write everything that happened down, as well as the circumstances of the event. I highly recommend that you either take notes during your conversations with the lawyers or record them to reference to them later, as you will forget things.
Personal Injury Claims in the Cities
If you are in a big city like Chicago, New York, Miami, Atlanta, San Francisco, San Diego,Philedelphia, Boston or New Jersey you may be able to just walk in offices of big law firms trying to get an appointment in person. Most likely, you will go online and google personal injury lawyers in your area. It is important that you get an attorney from your state as they will need to be admitted to the bar in that state. Once you locate a lawyer check to see if they have graduated from reputable schools, and ask them if they have taken similar cases.
One thing you should do is ask around for recommendations of lawyers, someone you know might know someone else who had a very good experience. First hand information is very important.
Remember that you do not need to pay personal injury lawyers, usually they work by taking about a 1/3 of the compensation you receive at the end, whether this is reached through a settlement or trial by jury. You can also always call legal aid and get more information from them. Though if you feel like you have a strong case then most likely lawyers will be happy to talk to you and take your case.
