subject: Why Do You Need A Personal Injury Lawyer? [print this page] When you or one of your family members have suffered injury because of someone elses action, its natural that you would seek compensation from the other person or their insurance companies will step in to sort out things and offer a fair settlement. Unfortunately, this doesnt happen in reality. Most people dont take responsibility of their actions and insurance companies earn profits by under compensating the injured party. Insurance companies and their companies know laws backwards and forwards and they are well aware of the fact that most non lawyers have no idea of what legal rights and remedies they possess.
But an experienced injury lawyer certainly knows how to build your case, how to negotiate on your behalf with the insurance companies, and if required, how to take on a court trial. Of course, it is possible that you negotiate with the insurance companies yourself, but insurance companies will do everything to take advantage of you and strike the lowest possible settlement, while trying to bring elicit statements from you, that will ultimately damage your position in case you decide to sue the guilty party.
A personal injury lawyer is always in a good position to get a favorable settlement, even with the attorney fee deducted, that significantly exceeds the amount that you would have earned on your own.
Most of the personal injury lawyers accept cases on the contingency fee basis. This means if they win they will get a certain portion of the claim as a reward. At the same time, if they lose, they dont get the attorney fee. An important thing to be noted here is that attorney fee is quite different from costs of filing a lawsuit, administration costs etc. and you have to bear other expenses even if you loose. So, it is important to clarify the issue of costs with the attorney.
The amount of the contingency fee that your lawyer will charge will vary from state to state. In most cases it is around one third or forty percent of the total reward received. But in case of worker compensation, the attorney fee is more tightly regulated and is kept quite low compared to the regular personal injury matters. If your case is potentially worth a lump sum compensatory amount, you can negotiate with your attorney to lower the share of contingent fees. They know very well that they are often able to recover substantially more than other inexperienced lawyers, resulting in better rewards irrespective of the share taken by the attorney.
There are several resources that can help you find the right personal injury lawyer. You can seek advice from friends, from your doctor or other health care professional. You can look through yellow pages or an online law directory. You can even contact a state bar lawyer referral service. There are several resources to find our personal injury lawyers but unfortunately there isnt any magical wand to sort out good lawyers.
