Finding an experienced, aggressive auto accident attorney is particularly important if you have been involved in a car accident and have been injured and/or experienced any financial losses. But the most pressing question for many accident victims is: how do I find a good attorney who will represent my interests and not just take the first settlement offer from the accident-causing driver’s insurer? There are many choices out there as far as attorneys go and what lawyer you choose to represent you will have a very significant impact on the amount of money you eventually are able to recover. However, the experienced auto accident attorneys at Staver Accident Injury Lawyers, P.C. want to offer our assistance in describing the most important factors you should consider in selecting an attorney to represent you in connection with an auto accident.
The first thing to consider in deciding on an auto accident attorney is that you only get one chance to select an attorney. You will only get one chance to negotiate a settlement or obtain a jury verdict related to your auto accident claim. This is because one of the conditions that any insurer will insist upon before they write a check for an agreed settlement amount is that you will waive your right to pursue any future claims based on the accident after the settlement money exchanges hands. The same will be true if your case goes to trial, as any verdict that a jury renders, whether in your favor or in favor of the other driver or his or her insurer, will be final. You will, of course, be able to appeal the verdict, but there is typically little to no chance that you will be able to file a second lawsuit related to that particular accident. Therefore, it is absolutely imperative that you choose an experienced auto accident attorney who will represent your interests effectively and will fight to get you every dollar in compensation that he or she is able to.
Now that you realize the importance of selecting an experienced and aggressive attorney to represent you, how do you actually go about selecting such an attorney? The first place to start is to research who some of the potential attorneys in your area that handle auto accidents. This is where it is particularly important that you do your due diligence.
You will find that virtually every attorney’s website will tell you that they are very experienced in handling auto accidents. So it is important to look at the other areas of practice in which that lawyer also claims to work. You should be cautious about any attorney who claims that they perform work in just about every legal area. For instance, if there is an attorney who is advertising on their website that they handle all sorts of auto accidents, but they also say that they that they can represent you in family law, criminal defense, or other types of legal proceedings that do not relate to either auto accidents or personal injury claims more generally, that will tell you that particular attorney is more of a general practitioner than someone who handles mostly auto accident cases. This means that this attorney could not necessarily be the most sophisticated attorney to handle the claims related to your personal injuries from a car accident. It would be the same as asking your primary care physician to perform a complicated operation on your brain or your spine. The same is true when it comes to lawyers.
Besides researching potential attorneys’ websites, there are also resources out there than can help you determine what previous clients’ experiences have truly been with that attorney. (After all, an attorney will likely not post a review from a dissatisfied client on his or her website.). These will give you some unvarnished, non-self-selected views of the various attorneys you are considering choosing to represent you.
Some of the best resources for checking out attorney reviews are Avvo as well as the Better Business Bureau (if the particular lawyer or law firm is a member of the Better Business Bureau). Also, it is worth checking whether the particular attorney or firm has any social media profile(s), as those may give you a bigger picture of how former clients felt about the attorney because clients may have posted negative online reviews of the attorney or the law firm that will tell you more than any number of glowing reviews from the attorney’s website.
You should always meet with a prospective attorney before agreeing to let him or her handle your case. Do not let the attorney pass you off to a paralegal or case manager for your initial meeting. You can learn a lot about whether you feel comfortable with a certain attorney by meeting with him or her. If the attorney is checking his or her phone the entire meeting or is not paying attention to you, then you need to question if that is really an attorney you want representing you. If an attorney is willing to do that before you have even agreed to become their client, then imagine how they will act once they have officially signed you on as a client.
At Staver Accident Injury Lawyers, P.C., we have made representing car accident victims a particular focus of our more than fifteen years in practice. We are aggressive in representing every single one of our clients and will not stop until we have obtained every dollar of compensation we can for your claim related to an auto accident. Our car accident attorneys serve clients throughout the Chicago area, including Aurora, Elgin, Hinsdale, Joliet, Naperville, and Waukegan. If you have been injured and/or suffered financial losses from a car accident in Chicago or another part of Illinois, then contact the experienced personal injury attorneys at Staver Accident Injury Lawyers, P.C. at (312) 236-2900.
When you’re fighting for maximum compensation, we know what it takes to get it.
