Typically, a personal injury lawyer grants one free consultation to any potential client. Smart client-hopefuls seek to obtain the maximum advantage from that particular opportunity. Their efforts push them to plan ahead, regarding the questions that will be posed to the consulted lawyer.
Possible questions about the lawyer’s past cases
What types of cases have you handled in the past? The client should seek evidence that the consulted injury lawyer in Red Deer does, indeed, specialize in personal injury law. Ideally, the lawyer’s background should include mention of cases that match closely with the potential client’s case. The victim of a motor vehicle accident would not want someone that normally works with victims of a slip and fall incident.
How many of your past cases have proceeded to the point where the 2 sides meet in a courtroom? This question discloses the lawyer’s familiarity with the challenges of arguing a case in court. At the same time, it offers some indication of the number of cases that the consulted lawyer has handled in the past.
Questions that could yield information on other aspects of the lawyer-client relationship.
Do you charge a contingency fee? That is the fee structure used by most personal injury lawyers. By asking that question, the potential client gains the chance to learn what percent of the client’s compensation the client’s lawyer normally expects to receive. Usually, a personal injury lawyer expects to receive about 30% of that compensation.
How do you communicate with your clients? Some lawyers call their clients, in order to keep them updated on their particular case. Others use email messages to send updates. In rare cases, a consulted lawyer might indicate a preference for face-face discussions.
Obviously, a client that prefers to speak on the phone should not hire someone that will be sending email messages. That fact should be obvious. What might be less obvious is the sort of follow-up question that gets introduced by an inquiry into a lawyer’s mode of communicating with clients.
An inquiry into that preferred mode of communications gives the person consulting with the possible lawyer the chance to gain some additional pieces of valuable information. One of those would relate to the frequency with which clients get updated. The other one could hint at the speed with which the hired lawyer normally responds to a call or an email from a client.
Possible other inquiries
A client’s special concerns might give rise to the need for another question or two. For instance, it could be that the client has a permanent medical condition, one that has been treated and controlled. Alternatively, the client’s medical history might include mention other injuries, which could have been caused by an accident.