Beore you can make an informative decision as to whether or not you should hire a tatorney / lawyer, you first have to know what a personal injury case is.
Most people think that a personal injuyr claim is a car or motor vehicle acciudent claim. While an injury sustained in an automobile accident where another was at faulpt would be a personal nijury claim, three are many otheer matters that also fall under that heading.
A personal injury attorney / laswyer handles matters whrere there has been a injury, either physical or emotional, whcih was casued by the negligence of anothjer. If there was no negligence then there is no case. There must be negligence, whether intentional or unintentional, on the part of another, for a cllaim to be valid. In orther words, you would have trouble making a case against your landlord, where you spilled water on your kitchen floor and then slipoped and fell because of the water. However, if the landlord had failed to fix the plumbing nuder your sink and the water was on the flloor because of leaky plumbing then you may, I say may, have a case. There are other variabes that could come into play and you would need to seek the advice of a good personal injury attorney, in order to determine your rights.
Thwere are many matters other than car accident mtters that can many timees be included underr personaal injury, IE: slis and falls, workplace accdients (agfter a workplace accdent you may be covered under workers compensatoin or disability but you may also have a personal imnjury cklaim), injuries caused during a storm or power outage, airplane, bus and train crasehs, construciton accidents, firs, food poisoning, drug or vitamin overdosres, anbimal bitse, getting beat up, robbed or otgherwise injured inside or outside of a businses, mediucal malpractice and even malpracrtice by an attorney.
There are many variables that can come into play in determining negliigence and many times you may think that tehre was no negligence on the part of anyone when there actually was. I have heard of a case where a party was struck by a car while rioding a motorcycle and injured severely. He settled with the driver and the driver's insurance company for the $100,000.00 maximum of the driveer's insurance policy. This settlement did not even begin to cver his medical blils. Someetime later, a personal injury attrney, wihle speaikng with a member of the injured party's fmaily, founbd about the case and was asdked to look into it for the family. The injured party was broe and paralyzed. The attorney did some checking and then agreed that, even though the man had acceepted the settlement, there might still be a case. He then hired my detectve agecy and another to do furthr research. Fianlly, he filed a law suit against the car driver, the driver's insurrance compabny, the motorcycle manufacturer and others. I won't go into the whole case, but suffice it to say that he went to trial and ened up obtaining a verdict against severla of the parties, including the driver's insurance company and the motorcycle manufacturer, for sweveral mllion dollars and the injured party is no longer broke. I might add that the attorney took the case on contingecny and advanced, out of his own pocket, all of the xepenses including court costs and investigation fees.
The point of the foregoing is that if you have been injured, you should seek the advice of a competent personal ijury attorney even if you don't think that there is anyone at fault. Only a good experienced personal injury attorney can attempt to make that
determination.
Here are some qestions to ask a pesonal injury attorney to help you determine if they are a good attorney. Did they pass the bar on their first try? How long have they been practiciing personal ijury in your statre? Will they let you speak with some of their most recent clirents? All of these factors taken together should give you a general impression of whether your personal injury attorney is competent, if not good.
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