What Can (and Can’t) A Personal Injury Lawyer Do for You?

Finding the right attorney means getting an attorney who will seek to get you good results under your circumstances.  Since it is often difficult to know what a good result is, finding a good attorney can be a challenge.

Most people don’t feel comfortable interviewing a lawyer because it is simply something they rarely, if ever, have done before.

Most are aware that real-life lawyers do not live like the attorneys they see on television, but what lawyers actually do on a day-to-day basis is more or less unknown.  They also may not know exactly what a lawyer can do for them.

In this article, we explore what an experienced personal injury attorney can (and can’t) do for you if you hire them.

What an Experienced Injury Attorney Can Do for You

A good personal injury lawyer can, and should, be more than an encyclopedia of legal knowledge that can answer any question about your dispute.

A good lawyer should be a zealous advocate for your rights.  A good lawyer should be a counselor to advise you on how to handle a deal or dispute and what options are available to put you into the best position.

A good attorney will look beyond the four corners of his contract with you and will go above and beyond his minimum obligations to ensure you are in the best legal position under your circumstances.

A good lawyer, with knowledge of the particular facts of your case, should understand exactly where you stand against the defendant. They should be able to present your case as persuasively as possible, whether to a judge, a jury of your peers, or the opposing attorney.  This requires excellent communication skills, but also important is a level of empathy with you, the client.

In short, a good attorney should be able to do all of the following for you:

1. Prompt Investigation 

The attorney can promptly initiate an appropriate investigation to discover the relevant facts of your situation.  He or she should use trained professionals and experts as necessary, to uncover as many significant facts as possible.

2. Discuss Your Options

The lawyer can counsel you on all the benefits available to you, including insurance benefits if applicable, and how to best obtain your maximum recovery.

3. Guide You in the Lawsuit 

The attorney can advise you on how to best preserve your rights and your claims before and throughout the litigation process, including when and with whom you can disclose facts about your case.

4. Recommend Professionals

If necessary, the lawyer can recommend trusted medical or therapeutic professionals who are beholden first and foremost to you rather than an insurance company that pays their bills. A good attorney may also be able to provide guidance on financing any necessary medical or therapeutic treatment using a potential judgment, if possible.

5. Recommend Experts

The attorney can recommend leading industry specialists and experts who can accurately and fairly evaluate your case, investigate the facts and uncover issues like injury causation, and present your evidence to a jury of your peers.

6. Build and Improve Your Case

The lawyer will recognize that all legitimate claims are worth something, and that, often, success in a case means taking a case that one attorney estimated to be worth $X is worth ten times that amount because the injury had not been thoroughly investigated and researched.

7. Create Reasonable Expectations

The attorney can advise you on the range of recovery for similarly situated individuals in your jurisdiction so you have some idea of your potential financial situation.  This includes delivering accurate assessments of your case, even if those assessments are not good.

8. Protect Your Recovery

The lawyer can help you protect any recovery you achieve in your case by negotiating with lien holders to resolve liens against your recovery by insurers, medical service providers, or others, or recommend to you another attorney or professional who can do so.

What Can’t a Good Lawyer Do for You?

With all that said, no matter how good they are, your attorney cannot change the law, convince a judge that the sky is red, or engage in unethical or dishonest practices to advance your case.  When you are preparing to meet with or select your attorney, keep in mind the following things that a good lawyer cannot do for you:

1. Guarantee You a Particular Result or Outcome

No matter how cut and dry the facts may seem once investigations are completed and the dust settles, rarely will you have an ironclad, irrefutable case.  In truth, those basically don’t exist, because the opposing side will always find something to argue about.

One of our clients, Maggie, was run down by a taxicab while lawfully crossing the street at a crosswalk.  The cab company offered Maggie $30,000 right before a trial even though she had $18,000 in medical bills due to the crash (and more medical expenses and therapy expenses mounting over time). The cab company argued that her injuries weren’t caused by the crash (an argument the jury unanimously rejected).  When the dust settled, the jury awarded Maggie nearly thirty times the insurance company’s offer.

That aside, curveballs come up in cases all the time.  A good attorney will know not to guarantee you any result, or give you any firm estimate of the value of your case, until they have conducted a thorough investigation, completed discovery of your opponent, and communicated with your opponent’s attorneys to understand their legal position and how best to respond.  Unfortunately, litigation involves uncertainty, which is why having a good attorney is vital.

2. Guarantee You a Result in a Specific Time Frame

For the same reasons an attorney cannot guarantee a particular outcome, he cannot guarantee any results within a particular time frame.  Of course, people often approach a lawyer out of need. And sometimes their circumstances are dire.

However, due to the limited number of judges and court resources, cases are more often resolved in years, not months.  Your counsel will not be doing you any favors by settling early for the first offer thrown at you (which is almost invariably too low) or by promising you an outcome within a specific timeline.

3. Get You out of a Bad Settlement Agreement 

The time to find an attorney to advocate for your rights is before you negotiate your claim or settle your dispute.  Too often accident victims are coerced into taking a settlement with the faulty party’s insurance company.  Doing so without first consulting counsel is almost always a mistake and could indelibly forfeit your rights to a full recovery.

If you have entered such an agreement, a good attorney will have to review the agreement to determine how, if, at all, your rights have been impacted.

4. File a Lawsuit after the Statute of Limitations Has Expired

It can never be too early to contact an attorney about a potential claim, however, it can be too late.  If the statute of limitations period has run out on a claim, it is unlikely that your attorney will be able to help you, absent extenuating circumstances (e.g., your recent discovery that your adversary has concealed a fraud from you for a period of time).

Have a question? Contact Our Personal Injury Attorneys Today

Whether you have any additional questions or are seeking legal help with your personal injury lawsuit, we’re here to help. Contact us today at (312) 578-9501 or fill out the form below to get started.