Injuries from a car crash can derail your life. You might need ongoing medical treatment, face costly bills, lose income from missing work, and experience pain and suffering for weeks or months. For some, life is never the same after an accident.
If someone else caused the crash, their insurance should cover all your injury-related losses, but this is a challenging process.
Hiring the right car accident attorney can give you immeasurable peace and confidence and make you feel hopeful about the future of your case.
Finding an Bronx car accident lawyer isn’t always easy, but it’s possible with a little patience and the right approach. Once you find the best attorney for you, you can work toward achieving the compensation you deserve.
Car Accident Attorneys: Who They Are
As the name suggests, a car accident attorney is the type of lawyer you’d turn to after a vehicular collision.
A car accident lawyer gets their start like any other attorney. They attend law school and take the bar exam. Usually, car accident attorneys decide on this practice area because they enjoy supporting clients through the collision claim process.
More specifically, car accident lawyers focus on the broad area of personal injury law. Personal injury law, also called tort law, revolves around clients who have suffered injuries due to another party’s negligent or intentional actions. Along with car accidents, personal injury claims commonly include slip and falls, work accidents, and medical malpractice.
Additionally, car accident attorneys don’t normally just focus on auto collisions alone. They also represent clients involved in other types of vehicular accidents, including truck, motorcycle, and bus accidents.
When you suffer harm and property damage in a car crash, a car accident lawyer is the right person to call.
Finding the Best Car Accident Lawyer in Your Area
You will find accident attorneys in every corner. However, this doesn’t mean that every lawyer is the same. Therefore, take your search seriously and do your due diligence to find the appropriate attorney to suit your needs.
The following are some of the best ways to choose a car accident lawyer.
Ask for Recommendations
First and foremost, you can start by asking others for their recommendations.
A trusted friend, family member, or coworker may have used an attorney in the past or have some connection to an accident lawyer.
Getting a recommendation is a great place to start, as a recommendation usually means the individual has either worked with the lawyer directly or heard good things from someone they know.
Conduct an Internet Search
Where would we be without the internet? An internet search is one of the best ways to find many things you may need, including a local car accident attorney.
When conducting an internet search for a lawyer, it’s particularly helpful to utilize specific keywords to help narrow your search. Using keywords such as “car accident attorney in (your city)” or “best accident lawyer in (your county)” will yield better results than more broad search terms, such as “best lawyer near me” or “attorneys in (your city).”
Additionally, when you find a lawyer online, you’re already in a favorable place to look through their attorney profile and firm’s website. A law firm’s website can give you plenty of helpful information and an idea of whether that specific lawyer or firm will be right for you.
State’s Bar Association/Lawyer Referral Service
Every state has its own bar association, which can help you find the lawyer you need.
Bar associations usually have their own special lawyer referral service. Representatives of this service get to know you and ask all the necessary questions to match you with the right type of lawyer you need.
One of the major benefits of using a referral service is quickly and effectively finding a local car accident attorney to suit your wants and needs.
Lawyer Advertisements: Should I Trust Them?
Attorney advertisements are everywhere: TV, internet, social media, buses, you name it. But can you trust the lawyers you see in these advertisements?
In some ways, advertisements can help. However, never believe everything you see and hear.
While attorneys must comply with strict restrictions on advertisements due to the rules of professional responsibility, attorneys may bend or break these rules and publish false advertisements.
If you find a car accident lawyer in an advertisement, investigate them a little further. Visit their website, ask around, and schedule a consultation to meet the attorney yourself.
Attorneys who advertise are often as legitimate as they come. Just be sure to trust your instincts and approach lawyers on advertisements with a healthy level of skepticism.
Choosing the Right Car Accident Lawyer For You
Like most things in life, car accident attorneys are not one-size-fits-all. While one lawyer is the best fit for one person, they might not be right for you and what you need in a legal representative.
This is where research and consultations come in. Before hiring an attorney, consider what’s important to you personally. This makes finding a lawyer that suits your specific needs and desires easier.
Below are just some of the most crucial details to consider when looking for a car accident attorney.
Experience
First and foremost, you want a car accident lawyer with experience with just that – car accident cases.
Numerous kinds of attorneys exist, but that doesn’t mean that just any type of lawyer can or should represent you in your collision case.
Every area of law has very specific laws and procedures, making it even more critical to have an attorney with a thorough understanding. Your lawyer should have enough experience handling these cases to make you feel comfortable and confident placing your claim in their hands.
Availability and Accessibility
Determining your potential attorney’s availability can help you gauge whether your lawyer actually has the time to dedicate to your case.
Some attorneys overload themselves with an excessive amount of cases, making it difficult to spend the requisite amount of time on your injury claim. Alternatively, some lawyers have such little availability that they hand their cases off to other lawyers within their firm.
Along with availability, you want to ensure your attorney is accessible to you.
Depending on the complexity of your collision case, you may spend plenty of time working alongside your attorney. At some point or another, you’ll need to reach out to them to ask questions or simply get some reassurance. Having an attorney that’s available to you can give you great peace of mind.
Communication Skills
Along the same lines of availability, you should seek a car accident lawyer with good communication skills.
You may not talk with your lawyer every day while your case is active, but you need to know you can reach your attorney when needed.
If there is an important update to share, or you just need to know the status of your case, your accident lawyer can communicate effectively and keep you in the loop.
Reputation and Past Successes
As the saying goes, “Your reputation precedes you.” This is particularly true for car accident lawyers.
When hiring an accident attorney, it’s nice to know your potential lawyer has a glowing reputation. A good reputation not only increases the likelihood you’ll like and get along with them, but it can also positively affect your case.
For example, an attorney with a great reputation within their legal community probably knows many important figures, including other attorneys and judges. Beyond that, that lawyer is probably well-liked, which can serve you well with your collision claim under certain circumstances.
Along with a sterling reputation, you should also place importance on a car accident lawyer’s past successes.
Having several successful case results under their belt says a lot about a lawyer. Not only does it communicate that that attorney knows what they’re doing, but it also indicates that they work hard and fight aggressively for their clients.
Usually, car accident attorneys post reviews from previous clients and their successful case results on their websites for potential clients to read and review.
Support
As amazing as an attorney is, they can’t do everything on their own. Therefore, lawyers must have the right support system.
An attorney’s support system might include legal assistants, paralegals, other lawyers, and staff. Having help can ensure an attorney handles every case promptly and never misses a beat.
Along with helping the attorneys with their day-to-day tasks, support staff are also available for you. If your attorney is not available when you need them, these individuals can assist you in the interim.
Determining Whether It’s a Right Fit: Questions to Ask Your Potential Car Accident Attorney
The first step in hiring a car accident lawyer is scheduling your consultation. You should consider your consultation a helpful tool, as your initial meeting lets you get the information you need to decide whether an attorney is right for you.
During your consultation, your potential lawyer has the opportunity to hear more about your situation and what brought you to them. If you have any evidence and documentation, they can review it and ask questions to get a good picture. The attorney can then use this information to give you their preliminary thoughts and advice.
While the lawyer will have the chance to ask questions and gather details, you should also use this time to ask your own questions.
To get to know your potential lawyer, you can ask questions about their background and experience, including:
- How long have you been a car accident attorney?
- What initially drew you to this area of law?
- Have you always practiced law in (your city)?
- What percentage of your practice is dedicated to car accident cases?
- What non-legal knowledge and skills do you employ in your daily tasks as an attorney?
Once the attorney has reviewed the details of your situation, you can get into more case-specific questions, like:
- What are your initial thoughts on my case?
- What is the likelihood I will recover fair compensation?
- Have you ever handled a case like mine? If so, what was the outcome?
- What kinds of damages do you think I can pursue?
- What is your approach in a case like this?
- Do you think my case can potentially settle outside of court?
- Are you comfortable going to trial if my case does not settle before going to court?
- Is there anything I can do or avoid doing to help my case?
Finally, you can ask general questions regarding the lawyer’s practice, including:
- What do you charge for a case like mine?
- Do you work on a contingency fee basis? If so, what percentage do you take?
- Will you be handling my case yourself, or will another attorney in your practice represent me?
- What is your policy on returning phone calls and answering emails from clients?
- How involved do you like your clients to be, if at all?
Before meeting with a prospective attorney, consider writing down some of the questions you feel you need answers to to make a more educated decision. Making the most out of your initial consultation is one of the keys to choosing the right car accident attorney for you and your case.
When You Suffer Injuries in a Car Accident, Start Your Attorney Search Right Away
Do not wait to find a car accident lawyer if you suffered injuries and losses in a collision. The sooner you begin your search, the quicker you can hire an attorney, and the faster they can begin working on your behalf.
Time is limited to take legal action in a car accident case. As soon as you’re ready and able, find and hire the best car accident lawyer near you.
