How much does a good personal injury lawyer cost and how to find one?
As far as costs for a personal injury attorney, the industry standard is a contingency fee. What that means is that unless an attorney helps you get a settlement, or they go to trial and they get a judgment in your favor, you don’t have to pay them. There might be some costs associated with the case, but the attorney doesn’t get fees unless they’re able to get you a settlement or get you a judgment. Now, there are a lot of law firms that advertise that fact but that’s really no reason to hire anybody. Everybody does that; that’s like saying that attorneys are going to show up to court in a suit. That’s just what you do and it is the industry standard. It is not necessarily why you should hire anybody.
Instead, there are a few things that I’d recommend that you look for:
1.Trust
The core of an attorney-client relationship is trust. Do you trust this person? Your case is important and it’s your case, it’s not the attorney’s case. You need to be able to trust someone who is giving you advice, who is walking you through the process and who is giving you recommendations. If they are recommending that you go see a doctor, you should trust their opinion and see a doctor. The key to an attorney-client relationship is trust.
2.Communication
Do you communicate with this person effectively? When you call, are you able to speak with them? If you can go to their office, can you sit down in front of them and speak with them? Communication is key. An attorney’s number one job is to communicate with their client. We must be able to communicate with you so that you know what’s going on and we have to be able to do so effectively.
Outside of speaking to you about your case and communicating with you, do you trust this person to communicate to other people? A personal injury attorney is going to be speaking with an insurance adjuster, other attorneys, judges, and jurors if your case goes to trial. Do you trust this person to communicate on your behalf? That’s key. If they are unable to explain to you what’s going on in your case, from point A to point B to point C, then there might be an issue with them explaining that to a jury.
3. Where does the attorney practice?
Another thing that you want to consider is: where was I injured and does the attorney practice there? Is the attorney a local attorney? Every county is made up of different populations of people…And it’s those people who are going to be sitting as jurors if your case goes to trial. Is this attorney familiar with these people? Is this attorney familiar with this county? Outside of the people that are in the county, is this attorney familiar with the local rules? Every county is a little different, so it’s important that for your personal injury case that you get advice from an attorney who represents clients where you were injured.
Bononi & Company has represented injured people in Westmoreland County for over 35 years. We’d be happy to talk to you about your case. Our phone number is 724-972-4180. We will talk to you over the phone and we can meet with you in person at our Latrobe office, Greensburg office or our Johnstown office to talk to you about your case and how we can help you.