Personal Injury Attorney Las Vegas - Court Lawyer

One of the biggest decisions people make in making a personal injury claim in Las Vegas is what attorney to hire to help them through the process. Advice I could give people who are considering hiring a personal injury attorney is, first and foremost, if you go to meet with an attorney regarding a personal injury claim, and during that initial meeting you never speak to an attorney, but rather an assistant or a paralegal; that's probably a very good indication that you're not in the right place. An attorney handling personal injury cases should always meet with their client. This is for several reasons: 1- The client and the attorney need to build a report from the beginning. 2- For an attorney to be able to properly represent a client, he needs to know that client, know what that client is going through, how their injuries have impacted their life, and in order to help them he needs that information. Also, a client needs to know that an attorney is invested in handling the claim themselves. If an attorney's not at that initial meeting, there's a good chance that an attorney may never look at that file, or very seldom look at that file.

Beyond that, it's very important that an attorney specialize in handling personal injury cases. There was a time, long ago, where most attorneys were general practitioners, and handled all types of claims. Since that time the law has become very complicated, and that is inclusive of personal injury work. Make sure you meet with an attorney when you first show up at your appointment, and also, that you are meeting with somebody that specializes in handling personal injury cases, so that you're assured the opportunity for the best representation.

Many people ask me, "What information should I look for, what research should I do before I hire a Las Vegas personal injury lawyer?" Obviously, a referral from a trusted source is always the best way to go, but sometimes you don't have that luxury. What I recommend my clients do is do a Google search on a lawyer that you're thinking about meeting with first, just to see what you can find out (you might be surprised). There are good things on there, but there could be some bad things, and it's up to you, and you can ask the attorney about those thing. The other thing that I encourage people to do is, when they're meeting with a client, ask the attorney, "What is the extent of your involvement going to be on my case? What are you going to do personally?" At our firm, I don't do everything. I don't request the records from the hospital. I don't put the address on the letter and drop it in the mail box. But I do the important things. I deal with the insurance companies, and I talk to the adjusters. I answer all the legal questions. You want to make sure that you have somebody like that; somebody who's qualified to be handling the aspect of the case that they're handling. You don't want some high-school graduate who is 19 years old negotiating with an insurance company on your behalf, but unfortunately there are firms out there that do that.

The other thing that I encourage clients to ask their lawyer is, "How many lawsuits have you filed, and how many lawsuits does your firm file?" Insurance companies keep track of those things. If a personal injury attorney never files a lawsuit, the offers go lower and lower and lower, because the insurance company's not going to respect that law firm. You want an experienced litigator, who's done it before and can tell you what to expect, leading the charge.

I'm often asked, "If I make a claim with the insurance company, or if I hire an attorney to do so, does that mean, automatically, that I'm going to have to go to court?". The short answer to that question is "no". Much of what we do as Las Vegas court attorneys is help those injured as a result of someone else's fault deal with the insurance company for the at-fault party. Insurance companies are billion-dollar companies that have many people that work for them whose sole job is either to deny claims or pay less that someone's entitled to as a result of being injured by the insured. Part of what we do is help the insurance company to appreciate the gravity of our client's injuries, appreciate the impact those injuries have had on our client's life, and convince the insurance company that it's actually in their best interest as a business to be fair now, as opposed to incurring court costs and being forced to be fair by a judge or a jury down the road.

In a typical personal injury practice, probably less that 2 in 10 cases that start out as claims actually end up in the litigation room or the court process. Just because you hire a lawyer, and just because you make a claim against an insurance company for injuries or other damages you've incurred, certainly does not mean that you'll end up in the court system. It can't be guaranteed that you won't, but most of the time cases as successfully resolved without the need for litigation.