How to Choose

Scott D. DeSalvo
Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer
On How to Choose a Personal Injury Lawyer

If you or a loved one has been injured in a car accident or been injured at work, been the victim of nursing home abuse, suffered a dog attack or dog bite, or however you or a loved one has been injured through the fault of another, hiring a lawyer to help you with your injury case is probably the best advice you can get.

Insurance companies have full time lawyers on staff who train their Claims people on how to defeat your claim from day one. Remember, Insurance and Claims companies are big business and they make a profit for themselves whenever they deny your claims–even when your claim is 100% legitimate and the injuries you sustain are terrible and permanent.

Let’s face it: if you have been injured, there sure is no shortage of lawyers to choose from. If you have been injured, you might have been inundated with mailings from injury lawyers who have somehow gotten your home address, even though you never contacted them (they probably got your information from the police report or maybe even a police officer or ambulance driver). Or, maybe some guy in a car with a police scanner radio showed up at the scene of the accident to talk to you about representation (by the way, this person is called a “runner” and using runners is illegal). Or maybe someone showed up at your hospital room bedside or at your home, uninvited, seeking to sign you up for some lawyer–or maybe the lawyer himself showed up or sent a limosine to your house.

Even if nothing like that happened, one look at the television, Yellow Pages, and internet confirm:there are an awful lot of personal injury lawyers in Chicago and Illinois out there looking for clients. Some even have no scruples about how they get a client or what sort of mud they drag the profession through to get a client to sign with them.

When considering hiring a lawyer, you have to ask yourself: do I want to hire a lawyer who breaks the rules or do I want a lawyer who I can trust? Remember, the personal injury lawyer you hire has to be someone you can count on, and whose word means something. This Chicago personal injury lawyer or Illinois injury lawyer is going to be representing your interests–you will share personal, private information with this personal injury lawyer–this personal injury lawyer will be responsible for handling your settlement or verdict money, and you will have to rely on the personal injury lawyer you choose to hold to his or her agreement with you regarding fees costs, and liens that come out of your settlement.

Are you going to feel comfortable trusting a lawyer who hires an illegal “runner”? Or an attorney whose representative hangs around at a hospital? Or an attorney with rhyming slogans that insult your intelligence like “If You’ve Been In A CRASH, We Can Get You the CASH”– Does a slimy slogan like that demonstrate respect for you and your intelligence, or is more like something a used car salesman might say?

Should you hire the Chicago Personal Injury lawyer who has the biggest Yellow Page Ad? The most TV commercials? Did you know that most of the big advertisers handle no, or very few, cases in-house, and refer the rest out to other attorneys? In all likelihood, the lawyer you see on TV or in the Yellow Pages is NOT the lawyer who is ever going to talk to you, work on your case, or do anything having to do with your case other than get a portion of the attorney fees.

I hate to say it, but my profession (lawyers, especially personal injury lawyers) has in some ways EARNED its bad reputation with cheesy conduct. But most people do not have more than one or maybe 2 claims in their entire lives, so how can YOU know whether you are getting a straight shooter or one of the personal injury lawyers in Chicago who are part of the problem?

I put together the following list to help injured people in Chicago and those who have an Illinois injury make an informed choice about how to pick a lawyer when they have been injured in an accident. These are some important things you should be thinking about when choosing a lawyer.

1. What do his clients say? Do the clients of the lawyer you are considering have nice things to say about the lawyer? Do they say he is trustworthy, and a good person? Does he return telephone calls, and is he scrupulously honest? Does he work hard on their cases, and does he do the best with what he has to work with? Or on the other hand, does the lawyer you are considering have NO clients who are willing to say these things about him or her? Does the lawyer substitute dollar amounts of verdicts or settlement for client satisfaction? Think about this: a $2 million dollar settlement sounds good, right? But what if the case was really worth $20 million. Now that $2 million doesn’t sound so impressive anymore, does it? This is why you cannot rely on numbers alone.

2. Does he or she concentrate their practice on injury cases for injured people? There are two things to consider here. First, when you hire a Chicago personal injury lawyer, do they have experience and skill in injury work? Or are they a real estate lawyer or a lawyer whose main experience is writing wills? Or going to traffic court? Illinois DOES NOT recognize specialty area of practice in the law, but when you are in front of a skeptical jury, believe me, you want someone speaking for you who has been there before. There are so many tiny and technical details in an injury case and unless your Chicago personal injury lawyer is familiar with all of these details and rules, you are not getting your money’s worth. Second, are you bringing your case to a defense lawyer who handles an occasional plainitff’s personal injury case? Any honest lawyer will tell you–in the current climate, defending an average injury case at trial is a cake-walk compared to having the smarts, skill and talent necessary to convince a jury to award money in Chicago personal injury cases or an Illinois injury case these days. There are some Defense attorneys, who are basically insurance company lawyers with careers dedicated to ruining people’s cases and doing whatever it takes to make sure injured people get nothing. But, they have little or no experience bearing the burden of proof at trial and actually being sensitive to the needs of an injured client, and the requirements of their case. DO YOU REALLY WANT AN INSURANCE COMPANY LAWYER “HELPING” YOU?

3. Does the lawyer work on a contingency basis (only a fee when the case is won)? A sure sign that the Chicago personal injury lawyer you are speaking with is not in the business is if he or she asks you for a retainer or an hourly rate to work on your injury case. In very tough cases, or in certain types of cases, like medical malpractice cases, some very good lawyers ask for a costs retainer or an hourly rather than a contingency fee agreement. But in the vast majority of cases, a Chicago injury lawyer and Illinois injury lawyer will agree to take your case on a contingency fee, and will even agree to advance costs while the case is going on.

4. Does the lawyer have a real office, and do real people answer the telephone when you call? The number one complaint against Chicago injury lawyers is that they are impossible to speak to and they do not return phone calls. Everyone knows that a Chicago injury lawyer is very busy, but if your Chicago personal injury lawyer is too busy to ever speak with you, or at least have a nice, courteous, respectful staff member call you to help you and answer your questions, then you might have someone with too many cases to help you, or a Chicago injury lawyer who should care more about your car accident, work injury, or other personal injury.

5. Does the Chicago personal injury lawyer actually go to Court and take cases to trial? A Chicago personal injury lawyer who is an office lawyer who never goes to Court and does not take cases to trial in front of real live juries can never have the experience and perspective of a real Chicago personal injury lawyer or Illinois personal injury lawyer. With the thousands of Chicago personal injury lawyers out there, you might be surprised to learn that it is actually a very few who are known by the personal injury trial Judges as lawyers who will and do take personal injury cases to trial. Do you want a Chicago personal injury lawyer who goes through the motions and makes outrageous promises, or do you want a Chicago personal injury attorney who goes to Court and takes personal injury cases to trial who then has the experience to correctly evaluate and advise you about the value of your personal injury case?

Choosing a lawyer is a very important decision. You should choose a Chicago personal injury lawyer carefully, and choose one with whom you are comfortable. My list above is not the be-all and end-all, but the above list truly and honestly represents the list of things I would look for if I needed to hire a Chicago personal injury lawyer for myself or a friend or loved one. I truly hope that it will help you.

If I can be of further help or you wish to consider contacting me about handling your case, so can CLICK HERE.