Los Angeles Personal Injury Lawyer
An old fable describes the tragic case of a starving man who starved to death while standing at a buffet table groaning under the weight of all his favorite dishes; he couldn’t decide which delicacy to eat first. Selecting a personal injury attorney in Los Angeles confronts you with the same bewildering and overwhelming embarrassment of riches. He will have no trouble finding a personal injury attorney in Los Angeles. He may have some difficulty finding the right attorney to handle your claim or case.
When you Google “Los Angeles personal injury attorney,” your search engine returns 1,310,000 results in less than half a second. In the greater Los Angeles-Orange Country area, more than 1,200 attorneys are engaged in the “general” practice of personal injury law; if you add specialty and “boutique” personal injury practices, the number more than triples. The term “general practice” is inadvertently a bit misleading, because it does not mean that attorneys cover all areas of personal injury law; instead, it means that a great law and paralegal firm includes specialists in each area. Not surprisingly, car accident specialists lead the number of listings, but practice areas range from homeowner disputes to litigators filing claims in nothing more than major industrial accidents. Of course, the lists include almost every niche between the extremes, and the entire list reads like a “how-to” manual for Los Angeles citizens who harm themselves and others.
How to Select a Los Angeles Personal Injury Attorney Given your plethora of options, you should use your tools and resources to select the best qualified Los Angeles personal injury attorney to handle your case…
• Match your attorney to your injury – The field of personal injury law is so vast that no one can dominate or excel at it. Therefore, lawyers dedicate their practices to different niches within the field. If you have been seriously injured, and especially if you have been permanently disabled as a result of an auto accident, seek out an attorney who dedicates his time and talents exclusively to car accidents. In Los Angeles, more than 400 attorneys and firms advertise special attention to car accidents.
• Read the reviews – Several major websites post accurate and detailed information about Los Angeles injury attorneys. Lawyers.com and Martindale-Hubble get the most hits every day, so peers or individual clients can’t skew ratings and rankings. On those sites, you’ll find more diverse opinions about lawyers in individual practice and the benefits of working with a great firm. More importantly, you’ll frequently find case notes, winning percentages, and frank discussions of the attorneys’ strategies and tactics.
• Conduct exploratory interviews – Los Angeles’ best, most respected and trusted personal injury attorneys will be happy to meet with you to review your case. Your first consultation shouldn’t cost you anything and gives you the opportunity to assess an attorney’s education, knowledge and experience. More importantly, an exploratory interview gives you an opportunity to test the chemistry between you and the attorney. Because you will be working together to prepare and present your case, you will spend a lot of time together. If you don’t enjoy good chemistry, your case will suffer.