If you were involved in a personal injury accident in Dayton, Ohio that wasn’t your fault, then, you may want to consider hiring a personal injury lawyer. It’s important to remember that when you’re dealing with an injury claim, the insurance company is not on your side and does not necessarily have your best interests in mind, that’s where a Dayton Ohio personal injury lawyer comes in and can help you get the full compensation you deserve. But, choosing the right attorney to represent you is not as easy as it sounds. It helps to ask any prospective lawyer you’re considering retaining the following questions:
- What’s Your Area of Expertise?
Although a personal injury law is already a specialization in the legal industry, it still has various injury case types within it. The Fitch Law Firm and other Dayton personal injury lawyers may mention they handle personal injury cases. But, for the best results, if you want an attorney who’s well-experienced in your specific injury type and situation.
For example, you can choose a lawyer who has more experience representing cases dealing with defective products, workplace injuries, traffic collisions, or medical malpractice. It’s best if you first ask this question before telling the lawyer about your case. That way, you can get an honest answer on which cases the lawyer has had experience with.
- Have You Tried Cases Similar To Mine?
After the first question, you can now tell the lawyer about your case. State every detail of what happened, especially the uniqueness of your situation – even trivial things that you think are not vital may have a significant role in your case.
Then, after providing all the details, you can ask the personal injury lawyer whether they have ever dealt with the same or at least a very similar type of case before. If not, then consider contacting another lawyer. As mentioned, one with experience with your specific case type may have higher chances of winning your case.
Meanwhile, if the lawyer answers yes, then let them elaborate on how they represented the case. That way, you can evaluate whether they’re telling the truth or not or you can see if they did their best.
- What’s The Success Rate of My Case?
In connection with the question above, you should also ask the success rate of your case. While every case is different and has different circumnutate, if the previous case was a success, then you may also have a good chance to win.
Not only that, but they can also tell you the factors that can influence your case’s result, such as pre-existing issues, liability, discovery, and spectrum. With their answer, you can get a better idea of what kind of compensation you might be entitled to and how confident the lawyer is winning your case and getting a good settlement or verdict.
- Who’s Going To Handle My Case?
Now, if your Dayton Ohio personal injury lawyer has said all the rights things to this point, next ask them if they will personally represent your case. Often higher profile personal injury attorneys have an associate attorney handling cases for them. If the lawyer says they will be personally representing you, then ask them how much time would they dedicate to your case.
With such follow-up questions, you’ll learn whether the lawyer is willing to go the extra mile to represent your case. Or, their answer may tell you whether your case will be settled easily or might take longer.
But, if the answer to the former question is a no, ask the personal injury lawyer who’ll personally handle your case. Sometimes, the lawyers conducting a consultation are senior lawyers of the firm, however, as mentioned they may pass your case to another lawyer at the firm, and it’s then important to find out what kind of experience the they will pass you onto has.
- How Much Are Your Fees?
Also, you shouldn’t forget to ask the lawyer about their fees. Most of the time, a personal injury lawyer is on a contingency fee basis. This means that you’ll only pay the lawyer if you’ve received the compensation or won your case.
If this is your lawyer’s payment method, then it’s more advantageous on your part. It’s because the lawyer may exert effort to get the right compensation you deserve so they can also have a higher payout.
But, you must also ask how much percentage does the lawyer receive to check whether it’s inline with industry averages. Injury lawyers often get as high as 40% and as low as a 25% contingency fee. The contingency fees varies based on the lawyer’s experience and the specific case detail. Usually the risker the case is take on the higher the contingency fee typically is. Also some case types are more likely to go all to way to trial, hence they will be a lot more costly for the law firm and hence your contingency fee will likely be higher.
Conclusion
Part of finding the right personal injury lawyer is asking the right questions. Ask them their area of expertise or what type of personal injury cases they’ve represented the most. That way, you’ll know whether they’re skilled in representing your case.
Next is to ask whether they’ve represented a similar case to yours, and ask their success rate. Then, ask them if they’ll personally represent your case or someone else will. By doing so, you’ll get to interview the lawyer who’ll actually represent your case.
Most importantly, you should ask whether they operate on a contingency fee basis or not, and what the contingency percentage is for your specific case. Armed with this knowledge you can be safe in knowing you hired a good personal injury attorney who will give you the best chance of getting the most compensation possible for your case.