So, you’ve determined you need to hire a lawyer for your personal injury lawsuit. How do you pick the right one for you? 

One injury lawyer can help add value to your case, while another won’t. 

In the world of litigation, lawyers can be divided into two camps.  

There are lawyers who try cases before juries (“trial lawyers”).  And there are lawyers who do not (“settlement lawyers”). 

Settlement Lawyers vs. Trial Attorneys: How to Tell Who’s Who

The difference between trial lawyers and settlement lawyers is largely in their mindset and approach to a case. 

The settlement lawyer settles for what the case appears to be worth at the moment the client walks through the door. 

The trial lawyer pushes to find as much as they can before agreeing to settle. Why? Because one more step, or one more stone overturned, can make a lifetime of difference for their clients.

If you look at a lawyer’s practice in terms of churning through cases, the settlement lawyers are much better off for themselves. Properly trying a case takes years of work, including:

• Investigation 
• Discovery 
• Interrogating the opposing parties 
• Filing pleadings 
• Motions
• Trial preparation documents
• Preparing for and conducting the trial 

Settling a Personal Injury Case Early = The Easy Way Out

Settling a case upfront does not require nearly as much work.  An injury attorney that encourages his client to take the first settlement offer may be getting a much smaller sum. 

However, he makes more per hour by only working a fraction of the time.

In fact, insurance adjusters know very well who all the major settlement mill attorneys are. They settle so many cases with them. 

I would never have our personal injury law firm operate as a settlement mill.  It is against the very reason I became an attorney.  The clients we serve are vulnerable.  

As I often tell juries in these cases, when someone, especially a breadwinner, suffers a serious injury, it is a blow to their entire family. Every family unit is its own economy.  When the family members are whole, their economy can chug along well. 

But when someone in the family unit is injured, especially a high-income earner, their family is devastated. I became an attorney to help these people mitigate that devastation and recover as much as they can from it.

An Experienced Personal Injury Trial Lawyer WIill Add Value to Your Case

As the client is concerned, here’s the main difference between “trial lawyers” and “settlement lawyers”: 

• The trial lawyer will take a case as far as it can go, up to and including trial, to maximize the value of that case for their clients. 
• “Settlement lawyers” view the lion’s share of their work as done once a client signs up with them. They’re interested in unloading a case with as little work as possible.

When a client walks into an attorney’s office for the first time, their case is worth something.  The value of their case on that day is based on the information they have in hand, as well as: 

• Their injuries
• Their demeanor and likability
• The negotiating skill and reputation of their attorney (to a degree)

Your Case’s Worth According to a Settlement Lawyer

Let’s say the client hires an attorney to represent them in a car accident case. That day, the lawyer could pick up the phone and call the opposing side’s attorney, make a demand, and get a settlement offer from the opposing side.  Whatever the opposing side is willing to pay can measure how much the case is worth at that moment.

For a settlement lawyer, what a case is worth the day a client walks into their office is pretty much all the case will ever be worth. The settlement lawyer does not add much to the value of the case. 

Adding value to a case requires work, time, energy, and investment by the lawyer.  Although the client has to agree to any settlement, settlement lawyers often have a lot of experience talking clients into taking early settlement offers. 

They warn them about “weaknesses” in their case and “uncertain” points in the law. Ultimately, their attorney convinces them that they should just take the money and run.

Your Case’s Worth According to a Trial Attorney

For a trial lawyer, what a case is worth the day the client walks into their office is a baseline. They will evaluate all that they can do to add value to that case for the well-being of their client.  

There are many ways a good lawyer can add value to a case. The first step, and often the most important one in vehicle crash claims, is to thoroughly investigate your case. Our goal is to uncover as many facts as possible.

 In many cases, this thorough investigation has made a night and day difference in the amount our clients have recovered. 

A Thorough Investigation Can Make a Night and Day Difference in Your Personal Injury Case

John came into my office a few years ago.  He suffered serious neck and back injuries in a forklift incident at work.  

John operated a forklift at a transportation facility. His job involved loading skids of freight onto trucks docked at the facility’s loading dock.  

At this loading dock, trucks back directly up to the dock, which is an elevated platform off the side of the building. That way, the taller delivery trucks can be quickly and easily loaded and unloaded from directly inside the building. 

In September of 2010, John was using a forklift to load skids of freight onto a truck stationed at the dock. When the front tires of the forklift came into contact with the rear edge of the truck, the truck moved forward away from the dock.

The forklift plunged off the dock taking John, who was belted in, along with it.

It turned out that the truck’s driver had failed to secure the truck in the most basic ways: by securing the air brakes or using chocks around the tires to barricade the truck in place. 

The driver, who was affiliated with a third-party carrier, violated not only the policies of the loading facility but also OSHA regulations requiring trucks docked at UPS loading facilities to be chocked in place.

Obviously, John’s account gave a lot of information—much more than in many vehicle accident cases.  It was certainly more than enough to bring a strong case on his behalf.  But that does not mean our investigation was over. Far from it. 

We filed suit and engaged in extensive discovery. During our investigation, we discovered that the driver had no commercial license. He was a new driver and had only been on the job for two weeks. And his employer had never provided him with any training.  

The driver also lied to police officers who responded to the incident, telling them that he had put the wheel chock in place. However, video surveillance plainly showed that he failed to chock the truck (aside from the fact that the truck could not roll away if properly chocked).  

When the police officers confronted him, he changed his story and said that he had only put one of the chocks in place.  When the officers asked him to show them how he put the chocks on, he positioned them . . . the wrong way.

So, what did these discoveries mean for John’s bottom line in terms of the value of his case? 

The impact was significant. The case was already strong, to begin with.  

But the facts as we understood them from day one only implicated the driver in negligent conduct. Discovering that the driver’s employer carrier failed to follow regulations. 

They didn’t hire only licensed drivers, nor did they provide the driver with any training. The driver’s lack of prior experience meant that the company was not only negligent but arguably reckless, potentially opening the door for punitive damages.  

As a result, the case was resolved for an amount that was far greater than what it was worth when we first met John.  

Questions About Your Personal Injury Case? We Can Help

As trial lawyers, we’re here to help you navigate your personal injury lawsuit. Our experienced attorneys can help you determine the best course of action for your particular circumstance. 

Reach out to us any time to schedule a free consultation. Call us at (312) 578-9501. You can also fill out the form on this page, and someone from our office will contact you within a business day.