Hiring A Personal Injury Lawyer

What To Expect In Response to Your First Phone Call

Unlike “high volume” TV-advertising firms, the practice at Hepworth Holzer is for a lawyer to talk with you during your initial phone call.   Our goal is to provide you a professional, quality, initial case review.  We will ask you for your basic contact information, as well as the details of your injury accident. Based on your answers, our lawyer will undertake an initial evaluation of your case.  If we cannot help we will let you know.  Sometimes we provide advice on how to go forward even though we decline the case.  If we think we can help, we will schedule you for an in-office consultation and more in-depth meeting. 

If you need us to we will follow-up with you at your home or even at the hospital. At our firm, we make every effort to accommodate clients and potential clients with this type of need.

Your Initial Face-to-Face Consultation

When we meet, we will ask you about for details about your collision and your injuries.

Details can be hard to remember, and some clients feel intimidated or stressed by this meeting.  The number one thing to remember is to bring all of the documents you have that are related to the accident.  This includes police reports, hospital bills, pictures, your insurance policy and anything else you have.  Our goal is to put you at ease and explain everything as thoroughly as possible, without “legalese.”

Questions You Will Hear When Hiring A Personal Injury Lawyer

There are a wide variety of questions you should be ready to address when you are looking at hiring a personal injury lawyer.  Some of the more basic ones include:

1. Did anyone receive a ticket?
2. Was a police report made? If so, do you have a copy?
3. Did you take photos of the vehicle?
4. Did you take photos of your injuries?
5. Did you give a statement to police, insurance adjusters or anyone else?
6. Were there any witnesses, and if so, did anyone get their contact information?
7. How much damage was done to your vehicle?
8. What medical treatment have you had thus far?
9. What medical treatment, tests or follow-up are currently recommended by your treating physician(s)?
10. How are you feeling?
11. How are your bills being paid?
12. What insurance companies are involved?

Attorney Fee Questions Should Be Addressed When You Are Hiring A Personal Injury Attorney

Legal services do cost money and it is very reasonable to wonder about that cost when hiring a personal injury lawyer.  Most personal injury lawyers work on what is called a contingency-fee basis. You can learn about it in detail, but basically this means that you are not required to pay for legal services unless and until the case has been won. The lawyer should have a fee agreement that specifies that he or she will be paid with a percentage of the financial settlement or verdict. The size of that percentage depends on a number of things including whether the claim is resolved before or after the lawsuit is filed. (It is possible, and common, to resolve claims before filing).

This arrangement remains popular because it allows lawyers to take strong cases brought by clients who might not be able to afford legal fees otherwise. We believe this is an essential and valuable part of our legal system, providing access to justice for everyone, no matter what their income or background might be.