Do you need to hire an attorney to represent you in a personal injury case? If you have been injured and need a lawyer, you’ll be happy to hear that you’ll have plenty of options.

There are between 150,000 and 200,000 personal injury lawyers in the U.S. right now. You can hire one to set you up with the legal help you need.

But you shouldn’t hire just any local attorney. Instead, you should strive to find the best attorney in your area to supply you with legal services.

Before agreeing to work with them, you should also hold an initial consultation. This free consultation should shed light on whether or not they’re going to be the right fit for your personal injury case.

Today, we’re going to talk about what you can expect from this initial consultation. It’ll guarantee that you’re able to get things off to a smooth start when you begin working side-by-side with a personal injury lawyer.

Here is how things will usually go during your initial consultation with a personal injury attorney.

Providing Details About Your Case

When you first sit down with an Orlando personal injury attorney (or someone who is local to you) for your initial consultation, they’re going to ask you to provide them with details about your case. You’ll want to lay out as many details as you can for an attorney so that they’re able to see where you’re coming from.

It doesn’t matter if you’re interested in filing a car accident lawsuit, a wrongful death lawsuit, or another type of personal injury claim. Your goal is going to be to set your attorney up with all the relevant details to it.

The more details you’re able to provide for an attorney, the easier it’ll be for them to evaluate your case and tell you how strong it is from a legal perspective.

Answering Questions From Your Lawyer

After you’re done sharing details about your personal injury case, a lawyer will more than likely have at least a few questions for you. They’re going to want to fill in some gaps to paint a clearer picture of what happened during the event in question.

You should provide a lawyer with the best answers that you can. You should also be prepared to provide a lawyer with any documentation that they might want to take a look at it.

It would be a great idea to bring along any and all documents that you might need when holding an initial consultation with a personal injury lawyer. It’ll make your consultation go so much better than it would otherwise.

Discussing a Plan for Your Situation

Once you’ve answered all your personal injury attorney’s questions, they’ll be able to let you know if they believe you have a strong enough case. If they don’t think you do, that could very well be the end of your initial consultation.

From there, you’ll need to decide if you would like to have an initial consultation with another attorney or if you’d like to move on with your life without going through with a personal injury claim. It’ll be up to you to decide this.

If, however, an attorney tells you that you have a strong case, the next thing you’ll do is discuss a plan for your situation. Your personal injury lawyer will be able to lead the way and create a plan for how you’re going to proceed.

At this stage, an attorney will also be able to share some insight on who you should and shouldn’t talk to about your case in the near future. There might be police and/or insurance companies banging down your front door. At the very least, an attorney may want to be present when you speak with others about your case.

Talking About Your Potential Compensation

The whole reason why you’re going to want to file a personal injury claim in the first place is so that you can hopefully collect compensation. You’ll want to obtain compensation to pay for things like medical bills, lost wages, etc.

A great personal injury lawyer will be able to let you know how much potential compensation you can expect to get in a case like yours. They’ll be able to use their experience to estimate what your case might be worth to you.

This is another aspect of things that’ll make it easier for you to decide if you want to continue moving forward with a personal injury case. If your lawyer doesn’t feel as though your case is going to be worth much, you might want to pull back on filing a personal injury claim.

Going Over Your Possible Options

If you ultimately decide that you do, in fact, want to pursue a personal injury claim, a lawyer will turn to the topic of discussing your options with you. There will be a couple of options that you can use.

First and foremost, you can try to have your personal injury attorney negotiate a settlement with the person or company you’ll be filing a lawsuit against. More often than not, personal injury cases will involve an individual like yourself suing an insurance company for compensation.

Many insurance companies will try to avoid going to court by agreeing to pay a settlement to the person suing them. This could work out well for you since it’ll help you get your hands on money fast.

You’ll also have the option to take your legal battle to court if you’d like to take that path. It’s going to be a longer process, but it could result in you securing more compensation than you would be able to earn through a settlement.

Making Sure You’re Ready to Go to Court

If you think you would like to try to take your case to court, your attorney will help to make sure you’re ready for it. Going to court for a personal injury lawsuit can be stressful since there is no guarantee that you’re going to walk out of court a winner.

Your attorney can talk to you about what court will be like in your specific case. It’ll help you consider this option further and allow you to make a final decision on whether you want to take your legal fight to court.

There are obviously going to be some fees that will be associated with hiring an attorney to handle your personal injury case. But you won’t usually have to pay an attorney upfront in a personal injury case.

Most personal injury lawyers will instead charge a contingency fee that will hinge on them being able to collect compensation for you. This fee usually falls between 15 and 40% on average, though it all depends on which personal injury lawyer you hire.

During an initial consultation, your attorney can go over their fee structure and make sure you understand it. They can also touch on how you’ll collect compensation if it’s awarded to you.

Asking Any Lingering Questions You Have

At the end of your initial consultation with a personal injury attorney, you might not have any questions that you want to ask. But you might also still have quite a few questions that you want to run by a lawyer.

A good lawyer will open up the floor to you and let you ask them as many questions as you want. You’re welcome to pepper them with questions until you feel comfortable moving on to the next stage of the process.

Filing a personal injury lawsuit is a big decision, so you shouldn’t leave any pressing questions unanswered. You should also use this opportunity to ask your attorney any questions you might have about their practice and their experience working on personal injury cases.

Picking out the right personal injury attorney is going to be of the utmost importance, so you’ll want to be sure you have a qualified candidate in your corner. Your best bet will be working with someone from a firm like the Alpha Accident Lawyers, especially if your personal injury case involves serious injuries.

Schedule an Initial Consultation With an Attorney

The initial consultation that you hold with a personal injury attorney will let you learn a lot about them. It’ll also give them a chance to learn about you and your case.

If you’re giving serious thought to filing a personal injury claim, you should schedule at least a few initial consultations with local attorneys. It’ll help you inch your way closer to finding an attorney that you can trust to do a great job.

Read through more of the articles found on our blog to get more great legal tips.