You were injured in an accident and within minutes were able to find a personal injury attorney in Portland OR to represent you. Sadly, since you were too preoccupied with your injuries, worried about hospital bills, and recovering from trauma, you didn’t exercise the due diligence required when deciding on your legal counsel. It turns out that your attorney had lots of experience as a lawyer, but just not the kind you required: auto accident and personal injury!
While scenes like these happen more frequently than anyone cares to admit, being represented by an inexperienced Injury Attorney Portland OR is like rubbing salt to an open would. You’ve already been wronged once, when you were injured. And now, it feels like you are being wronged once more, just because you choose a lawyer that didn’t have the right qualifications or the right kind of experience.
Victims of personal injury situations don’t often think straight. And one can’t usually fault them for that. Trauma often throws good judgement out of the window, forcing people to make uninformed decisions. If you are a friend or family member of someone injured as a result of a personal injury or accident event, then it is incumbent upon you to assist them in their time of need. And one of the best service you could do is help them with the decision to seek appropriate legal representation. On the other hand, if you yourself are the victim struggling with recovery and rehabilitation, then it will behove you to seek the aid of a friend or family member to help you make that decision.
The most appropriate way to decide on which personal Injury Attorney Portland OR you should engage to represent you is to ask for a consultation. If he or she is a professional with integrity, they will offer the first consultation free of cost. That’s the time for you or your family members/friends to gauge the suitability of the lawyer for your particular case.
Some other hints to an attorney’s suitability to represent you in a personal injury case would be:
1. Years of practice: Does he/she have 25+ years of successful practice as an accident or personal injury attorney
2. Track record: How many personal injury cases have they negotiated, litigated or managed. Someone who has dealt with over 5,000 personal injury claims would be an ideal choice
3. Acclamations: Check to see if he or she has special credentials, like a lifetime membership of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum
While these are some of the qualifications that you should look for in deciding whom to have as your injury attorney, there’s no substitute to the “warm and fuzzy” feeling you get once you have met with him/her in person. Your gut instinct will guide you in making a decision that’s best for you!
