Discuss These Three Talking Points With Your Personal Injury Attorney
When you feel inclined to pursue legal action following an injury, your first order of business is to hire an attorney, like the ones at GSJones Law Group, P.S., who specializes in cases similar to yours. A little research on the Internet should provide you with a list of personal injury attorneys in your area. Even if you're in a hurry to partner with one and get your legal proceedings started, it's beneficial to take a little time to talk to a few, share some information about your case and cover a few talking points that can help you evaluate which attorney will be the best match for you. Here are three topics that are worthwhile to cover.
Settlement Pros And Cons
Many personal injury cases end with a settlement. For the client, the process of being offered what can often be a substantial sum of money can be enough to end the legal proceedings. In your conversation with each attorney, ask about the likelihood of receiving a settlement, what the settlement value might be and whether it would be better to decline the offer and go to trial. Based on the strengths of your case and with knowledge gleaned from similar cases in the past, each attorney will provide you with information to evaluate as you attempt to decide which person to hire.
Responsibilities For You
Even though it will be your attorney who will direct the legal proceedings on your behalf, you will be expected to play a key role in several ways. Ask each attorney about what responsibilities you'll need to address in the days and weeks ahead. This simple question should initiate a valuable discussion about your role and what's expected of you. For example, you'll often be asked to attend medical evaluations in a timely manner so that the injuries you sustained during the incident in question can be meticulously documented by the attorney's team of medical experts and investigators.
Challenges In Your Case
Once you've briefly outlined your case and answered a series of questions, it's useful to ask each attorney for a brief outline of any challenges that you might be facing. Based on their experience, the attorneys should be able to easily point out weak areas in your case or issues that could pose problems. It's not enough to simply identify these challenges – you should also look for each attorney to discuss solutions that he or she would use to overcome these issues.