Hiring an Attorney in Raleigh
Reasons to Hire a Personal Injury Attorney
Selecting a Personal Injury Attorney
Preparing for a Meeting with Your Personal Injury Attorney
Reasons to Hire a Personal Injury Attorney
When you suffer an injury, you will need all of the assistance that you can get. Before hiring a personal injury attorney for your case, there are a few things that you need to consider before employing an attorney. Please review the list below for criteria that can help you choose the best attorney for your case.
Experience With Injury Claims
Personal injury cases have an ample amount of knowledge concerning cases that involve injuries and negligence. An attorney will be able to inform you if your case would be worth pursuing legally. If your case is not worth filing a claim for, a personal injury attorney will inform you about this. Trial experience, make sure your attorney has tried cases to a jury verdict. This makes a difference.
No Fees Unless You Win
A lot of personal injury lawyers work by what is referred to as a contingent fee. This means if for any reason you do not recover any money from your suit, or reach an agreeable settlement, you will not be responsible to pay for any attorney fees. If you do win, in addition to the attorney’s fee you still may be responsible for costs involved with your claim such as obtaining medical records and filling fees for a lawsuit. The Whitley Firm does not charge costs without your consent and will review your costs during your case.
Team of Investigators
Experienced personal injury lawyers will work with their own team of investigators who have the experience in certain areas in order to properly investigate your claim. The Whitley Law firm has in house investigators.
Alternative Resolutions to Disputes
An attorney that is experienced in the field will know whether your dispute can be resolved through simple mediation. Through mediation, you could save yourself time, money and energy, and not have to be burdened with a plethora of court dates.
Knowledge of Insurance Companies
Lawyers are accustomed to working with insurance companies that avidly try to use confusing tactics or pressure plaintiffs to settle. An experienced lawyer will know the right steps to take when it comes to insurance company’s manipulative ways.
Settlements
Personal injury attorneys work diligently to reach settlements that will meet their clients’ needs in a timely manner, however, they must be prepared to try cases to a jury verdict if justice requires.
Jury Decisions
If your case reaches trial; an experienced personal injury attorney will work hard to tell your story to the jury.
Selecting a Personal Injury Attorney
If you have suffered an injury by the result of someone’s negligence, you can do something about it. Perhaps the injury has caused you to be out of work, your medical bills are simply through the roof or you are consistently in pain. In any of these situations, you may need the assistance of a personal injury attorney. Many people find that when faced with these situations it becomes difficult to obtain compensation for their losses. A personal injury attorney will commence in researching, locating and evaluating your case to help you get the compensation for your injury that you rightfully deserve. You can leave everything to our firm, while you focus on your recovery.
Experience on the job
When hiring a personal injury attorney you need to consider an extremely important factor, does the attorney that you are seeking have the essential experience to handle your case? Attorneys who devote all of their attention to personal law normally have the upper hand when it comes to analyzing a personal injury case and all of the complexities that may come along with it. Personal injury attorneys are keen to the process both in and out of the courtroom; they are always the first ones to know if any new laws may apply.
Past Successes
Another thing you need to consider when seeking out a personal injury attorney is the attorney’s level of experience in going through the court process. You want to ensure that they have tried cases before and typically receive considerably favorable verdicts for the claims imposed by their clients.
Compensation Structure and Billing
For the most part, there are a lot of personal injury attorneys who work on what is referred to as a contingent-fee basis. Normally, in one of these arrangements, the attorneys’ fees (otherwise referred to as legal fees) will be calculated into a percentage and the attorney will only be able to obtain that percentage after the verdict has been delivered or a settlement reached. For many people it is tempting to try to obtain the personal injury lawyer that charges the lowest fees, but this may not always be the wisest decision in certain cases. Remember in addition to the fee, there may be costs, check with your attorney to see what costs they will charge in addition to the attorney’s fee.
Meetings and Consultations
On most first-time meetings with clients, lawyers often times do not charge any fees, and the same goes for personal injury attorneys as well. So, you may be able to interview with several different attorneys before having to make any commitments or decisions. Keep in mind, however, that personal injury cases are prone to statute of limitations laws so you may need to make your decision fairly quickly.
Summary
After you have hired a personal injury attorney to assist you with your case, the attorney should be delicate when it comes to your needs. Your attorney should answer any and all questions that you render in a satisfactory manner. They should return any calls or messages from you with haste and represent you without a doubt in their mind that your case is a valid case.
If during the litigation process for your case you are not pleased with the actions of your attorney you may change attorneys and avoid penalties. Be aware though that changing attorneys during the time that you have a personal injury case pending can cause your claim to be delayed and can cause you to accrue more expenses. So it is imperative that you select the right attorney from the beginning to save yourself unwanted excess expense. Contact us today to find out if one of our firm’s attorneys will be right for your case.
Preparing for a Meeting with Your Personal Injury Attorney
If you have suffered any injuries due to a work accident or you have suffered an injury of any kind due to the negligence of another’s actions, then it is important to seek the counsel of a personal injury attorney. You will need to bring any information that you have concerning your injury to your personal injury attorney. The information that you will need for your case will depend upon the specific case that you are filing. However, general information typically includes:
- The full name and address of the ambulance company that responded to your injury
- The exact date that the incident that caused your injury occurred
- The name and address of the hospital that you were taken to after your injury
- The dates that you were taken into the emergency room due to your injury
- The doctors’ names that assisted you with the injury in question
- The names as well as the addresses of any witnesses that were there when the incident that caused the injury occurred
- The exact dates that you were unable to work due to the injury
- Contact information pertaining to your insurance company, such as name, address as well as the insurance agents that you have spoken with
- A copy of the accident report
- Copies of written statements from witnesses
- Insurance policies that are applicable to your case, such as homeowners, automobile or renters insurance
- Health insurance documents that include your coverage information
- Documentation pertaining to your disability
- Your veterans insurance policy
- Other documentation that pertains to the hospitalization
- Any copies of correspondents from insurance companies that you received
- Medical billing statements
- Receipts for anything that you had to buy or repair because of your injuries
- Documents stating your lost wages from work
However, if your injuries were caused because of an automobile accident there may be other documentation that you will be required to bring to your attorney. These documents include:
- All information that was exchanged after the accident occurred. This information includes: contact information, witness information or any other correspondence that you have had with the parties after your accident occurred
- Information you provided to the police at the time that the accident happened, including the official police report
- Any traffic tickets related to the accident
- Photos showcasing any property damage caused by the accident
- Statements of the opposite party’s insurance information
- Medical records pertaining to the injury
- Records that speak about any psychological or psychiatric care that had to be rendered due to the accident
- Any and all information that you have about the opposite party that was involved in the car accident. This information includes: witnesses, names, address, telephone numbers, model/make/color of their vehicle, and the vehicle’s license plate number
- The precise date, time as well as location of the accident
The Whitley Law Firm represents clients all throughout the state of North Carolina from six convenient offices located in Raleigh, Charlotte, New Bern, Kinston, Jacksonville and Winston-Salem. To learn more about how we can help you, please feel free to contact a Raleigh personal injury attorney from one of our offices.
