Give me Some tips For hiring the best personal injury lawyer!

So you've been injured in an accident in the US and are looking for a personal injury lawyer.But where do you start if you're looking to find the right lawyer? We understand that it is intimidating if you're not sure who to contact or who will be the best personal injury lawyer to hire for your claim.

There are a lot of personal injury lawyers in the US. How do you find the right one for your claim? Did you know that there are approximately 92,900 personal injury lawyers in the United States in 2021 (somewhere between 5-7% of all lawyers in the United States)? Are all of those lawyers equally qualified or the best personal injury lawyer for your case?

Like most things in life, getting more information with respect to your decision will help you make the most informed decision.

Tip #1 - There are benefits to you when you hire a personal injury lawyer.

After an accident, you may have received an offer from an insurance company offering to settle your claim. You may receive this offer before you've had a chance to hire a lawyer. So if an insurance company is willing to pay you to settle your claim, why should you pay a lawyer to help you resolve your claim?

First, you should know the insurance company isn't making you an offer to maximize how much you are entitled to following the accident. They are making you an offer in an attempt to minimize their losses. That's the first critical factor to understand after an accident.

The statistics offer a compelling reason to hire an attorney after you have been injured in an accident. It is estimated that you are likely going to receive approximately 4.5 times the settlement amount after hiring a personal injury lawyer rather than acting alone. With that said, you will likely need to pay your lawyer 25-45% of the personal injury claim, meaning that even after you pay your personal injury lawyer you are potentially going to receive 3 times the amount with a lawyer compared to not hiring a lawyer.

Tip #2 - The first step to hiring a personal injury lawyer is doing some research.

Hiring a lawyer is like anything in life. Some have more experience than others. Some know more than others. Some specialize in personal injury law while others dabble. Some are more personable than others. Some may value your case differently than others. Some may be more committed to resolving your claim quickly. Finding the right lawyer matters, and it's important to get sufficient information to understand whether you are hiring the right personal injury lawyer. But do you know what questions to ask to find the right lawyer? Do you have time to interview a bunch of different lawyers? Most people do not.
 

That's where Adidem is designed to help. We bring the personal injury legal market to you to help you decide what lawyer to hire.

Tip #3 - There are some questions you should ask a personal injury lawyer before hiring them.

After you've done your research, there are some key questions to ask a personal injury lawyer before you decide whether to hire them. One of the key benefits of using Adidem is that we ask these questions to personal injury lawyers for you and bring that information to you in order to help you decide whether you want to hire a personal injury lawyer or who to hire. With that said, here are some factors that will help you consider what questions you should ask a personal injury lawyer before you decide to hire them.

Experience of the personal injury attorney matters

To properly and quickly resolve a personal injury claim, your lawyer will need to understand:

(i) the nature of your injuries,

(ii) the different legal regimes applicable to your accident as different events or accidents may be subject to different laws,

(iii) the impact of your injuries on your current and future job, (iv) how the injuries are going to impact your life in the future, and

(v) how to quantify how much you are entitled to given the items above.

Understand the nature of your injuries

This might sound simple, but there is a fair bit of knowledge required for a lawyer to properly understand exactly what your injuries are, how long the injuries may take to heal and how those injuries may continue to impact your life in the future (i.e. as you get older will the injuries start to bother you again). While the nature of your injuries is certainly a medical issue, a lawyer familiar with certain injuries will have the experience to know where to start and what medical information is needed to resolve your claim.

To fully understand the full nature and impact of your injuries, your lawyer should also have some strong relationships with appropriately experienced medical professionals to assess exactly what the injuries are and how that medical professional believes the injuries have impacted you and how the injuries may continue to impact you.

Your lawyer will then review the medical information and determine whether it is adequate for your claim or if the medical professional report or records are complete. If the lawyer believes the records are not complete or if you require further evidence to prove your claim, an experienced lawyer will then have you go see other medical professionals to get you the information you need.

Understanding the different legal regimes applicable depending on the type of event or accident that caused you to be injured.

Each state has its own laws when it comes to the minimum insurance required to be carried in certain industries or activities and what limitations there may to your claim. For example, laws in a particular state will likely treat an injury at work differently then an injury suffered as a result of a car accident. An injury resulting from a medical professional (i.e. a doctor's mistake) may be treated differently than a motorcycle accident. An injury resulting from an assault or battery could be treated differently than an injury resulting from a defective product.

If your lawyer doesn't understand the nuances of these differences, you may not be able to maximize the amount you are entitled to for your claim or the amount of your claim could be prejudiced given the lack of your lawyer's experience. Before you hire a personal injury lawyer, make sure he or she has the appropriate experience for claims similar to yours.

Understand the impact of your injuries on your current and future job

We all need to work to make money (unless you bought Bitcoin in 2009!). To work, we typically need to be healthy and physically capable of doing our jobs. Obviously, after an accident you may be unable to work at your current job either temporarily or permanently. This can cause a significant amount of financial stress. Your injuries could also be complex, and you may be unsure how your injuries could impact your ability to work in the future.

Your lawyer will need to have the right relationships to obtain expert evidence to confirm how your injuries could impact your job currently and in the future and also understand how the law typically compensates an individual for loss of income claims. Your lawyer should also have the contacts to help you obtain financial assistance to pay your living expenses while you're unable to work and while your claim is being resolved.

Understand how the injuries are going to impact your life in the future

Similar to how your injuries may impact your job, injuries resulting from an accident can also impact your personal life. This can include your ability to participate in recreational activities or hobbies, or your ability to perform household tasks. For more significant injuries, you may require ongoing medical or physical treatment (i.e. physio or chiro) or other future care. These all come at either physical cost to you or a loss of enjoyment in life to some degree and, in most states, you should be entitled to some form of compensation for these future costs (which could be difficult to quantify).

The more complicated or serious the injuries, the more difficult these types of damages may be to quantify.

Understanding how to quantify how much you are entitled to given the injuries

As you can see, there can be a lot of factors that go into how much you might be entitled to after an accident or event that was caused by someone else's fault and caused you injuries. The experience of your lawyer will be important for two primary reasons:

• The more experience your lawyer has on similar claims, the more likely your lawyer will be able to assess how much you are entitled to for your claim; and

• The experience of your lawyer typically means that lawyer will have more of a reputation.

A lawyer with a lot of experience and a good reputation will often result in your getting fair value for your claim and will often result in the claim being efficiently resolved.

Tip #4 - Lawyer fees matter (contingency fees)

Before you hire someone, you want to have an idea what it is going to cost you. To understand what the fair price is for a service or a product, you need to shop around and ask questions. More expensive doesn't mean better and cheaper doesn't necessarily mean better either. Understanding whether you are getting value from your lawyer can be confusing.

A personal injury lawyer typically only charges you if your claim is successful. A fee contingent on the outcome, and called a contingency fee. A lawyer's contingency fee often ranges between 20% - 45% of the amounts you recover in personal injury actions. The amount of the fee often depends on:

• the nature of the claim,

• the timing of settlement (contingency fee may change (increase) the longer it takes your claim to resolve); and

• the experience of lawyer assisting you.

Most jurisdictions also restrict the amount a lawyer can charge you for a contingency fee. However, the fee may vary from attorney to attorney or depending on the nature of your claim.

A contingency is typically fairly straight forward. For example, assume a lawyer charges you a 25% contingency fee and the lawyer recovers $100,000 for your claim. In this example, you owe the lawyer $25,000 for legal fees and you would recover $75,000 (less any disbursements). Stating the obvious, if your lawyer charges you a 40% contingency fee would be $40,000 owing to your lawyer if the lawyer recovered $100,000. See, the amount of contingency fees matter!

To complicate your thought process, one lawyer may have more experience than another and the more experienced lawyer may be able to obtain a higher settlement for your claim (as an example, and not always the case). A lawyer that charges you 40% could be a more experienced lawyer and recover you $200,000 rather than 100,000. If the lawyer recovered you $200,000 and you paid the lawyer 40%, well the amount you recover would be more than a lawyer who recovered you $100,000 and charged a 25% contingency.

The decision isn't always a straight forward one for you when you are deciding who to hire! Thus the reason that it is important to ask questions and understand these issues and to make sure you are comfortable that your lawyer has the experience you need. If you didn't get proposals from different lawyers, how would you actually know the lawyer you hired is offering the best settlement value for your personal injury claim? You wouldn't unless you obtained proposals from multiple lawyers. That's what Adidem does for you.

Tip #5 - The time it takes to settle your case matters

Some lawyers treat your claim as a top priority and move to settle it as quickly as possible. Other lawyers treat your claim like a "file", just one of the many files piling up on their desk that requires attention at some point in time.

There are also two important factors to promptly resolve your claim. You either need an insurance company willing to pay you or a court that orders an insurance company to pay you for your claim. To achieve either result, your lawyer needs to actively push your claim forward. Nobody is going to voluntarily agree to pay you for your claim, and your lawyer will play a critical role in ensuring your claim promptly gets resolved.

So before you hire a lawyer, you want to be comfortable that the lawyer will give your file the attention it deserves, will help you understand your claim and will be a strong advocate for your personal injury claim. The longer your case takes to settle, the longer you have to wait to receive compensation from your accident. You also may be out of work, have mounting medical bills and other costs associated with your accident. It is important to stress that the person who injured you or their insurance company will not be in a hurry to pay you money (unless they want to pay you a lower amount than you are owed).

Your lawyer will play a critical role in ensuring you receive the compensation as quickly as possible. If your file sits on the corner of your lawyers's desk, its not going to resolve quickly. It's your lawyers job to move it forward. Second, different claims may take longer to resolve. The more complex the claim, the longer it will take to resolve. The reason is you will likely need more expert opinions on the nature of your injuries and the potential impact on your personal life and your job. These opinions can be contentious. The other lawyer will also likely want to ask you questions about your claim. This will take time to complete. You'll need to understand how long it may take to resolve your claim, as the longer it may take to resolve your claim the more you''ll need to consider your financial, medical and personal affairs.

So before you select what lawyer to hire, you want to understand how long it should take to resolve your claim.

Tip #6 - Understanding your options matter

We started Adidem because we thought it was difficult to determine who is the right personal injury lawyer to hire for your claim. We also understood that most people are not familiar with the legal process or the personal injury process. We are trying to democratize how people hire personal injury lawyers and resolve claims.

Go online and you see hundreds and hundreds of personal injury lawyers. How do you know who to pick?  We at Adidem found a hole in the personal injury market. We knew countless examples of people being put in touch with a personal lawyer, but unsure whether they made the right hiring decision or found the right personal injury lawyer that made them the most comfortable. We also know that about 40% of people looking for a personal injury lawyer come online, but when you come online you are immediately inundated with a list of personal injury lawyers from multiple sites. and pages and pages of different personal injury lawyers websites. If you go to instagram, you see personal injury advertisements. You will see Google advertisements. Facebook advertisements. Advertisements everywhere. Personal injury lawyers everywhere! It is incredibly confusing.

So we want to bring the personal injury legal market to you and bring you the information you need to assess if you'd like to hire a personal injury lawyer and who to hire. If you've been injured in an accident and are considering whether to hire a personal injury lawyer, consider trying us today by answer our questionnaire. Once you complete our questionnaire we will then get quotes from personal injury lawyers for your claim! It's that simple.

Answer Our Questionnaire To Get Started

Tip #7 - There are other things you should know before hiring a personal injury lawyer.

People hate surprises, especially when it comes to their money. When you buy something, you generally like to know what it will cost before you buy it. Hiring a lawyer is no different. With that in mind, there is one potential factor that can sometimes be a surprise. It's called "disbursements" and you can click the link to find out more about what that means. Generally speaking, they are "third-party" costs your lawyer incurs to advance your claim.

On occasion, your lawyer will charge you disbursements in addition to the contingency fee and you may be responsible to pay the disbursements regardless of whether you win or lose your case. As a result, it is very important to understand whether disbursements are in addition to the legal fees you will pay to resolve your case as disbursements can considerably add up as your claim continues with time.