Who Is the Best Personal Injury Lawyer?

Determining the best at anything is often a subjective decision that relies more on emotion than objectively generated facts. For defining the best personal injury lawyer, you should consider each of the following objective criteria, most of which provide hard data for you to review.

Decades of Experience

The number of years a personal injury lawyer has practiced law is an important factor in determining who to hire for your case. It is easy to quantify the number of years an attorney has practiced personal injury law, which makes this criterion one of the first that should show up on your search list. The number of years an attorney has practiced law matters because experience means a lawyer has developed positive professional relationships with insurance adjusters, other attorneys, and civil court judges.

Proven Record of Success

Just because an attorney has accumulated several decades of experience does not mean the lawyer is a highly-skilled litigator. The personal injury lawyer that you hire should provide you with proof that the attorney has won a large percentage of the civil lawsuits filed that awarded monetary damages. In addition to winning civil lawsuits, the attorney working with you also should have a strong record of getting insurance claims approved.

Check out our results to verify the proven record of success established by the personal injury attorneys at Morgan and Morgan.

Specializes in Your Type of Case

Many law firms provide highly-rated legal support for clients, but they specialize in just one, or maybe two types of personal injury cases. For example, a personal injury law firm might claim to have the best car accident lawyers, but they cannot handle any other type of case. When you choose a personal injury lawyer from Morgan and Morgan, you can expect the attorney assigned to your case to specialize in the type of law that applies to your case. For example, if you are a victim of medical malpractice, you can expect to work with a lawyer who handles nothing but medical malpractice cases.

Conducts an Exhaustive Investigation

The key to proving negligence involves presenting a considerable amount of persuasive physical evidence, as well as the statements made by witnesses that verify your version of events. At Morgan and Morgan, in addition to assigning a personal injury attorney who specializes in your type of case, we also assign an investigator to help your attorney collect and organize physical evidence. An experienced investigator knows what types of evidence convince insurance adjusters to approve claims. The investigator assigned to your case also helps your personal injury lawyer interview witnesses to determine what transpired before, during, and after the personal injury incident that caused you harm.

Willing to Negotiate a Settlement

A large percentage of personal injury lawsuits never see the light inside a civil courtroom. Instead, both parties try to negotiate a settlement that is favorable to both parties. The personal injury lawyer that you hire must be willing to negotiate a settlement if negotiations become a viable legal option during a civil lawsuit. Negotiating a settlement avoids a costly and time-consuming trial, as well as speeds up the process for you to receive just compensation to recover the financial losses generated by your injuries. Your attorney also must be willing to negotiate a settlement with the insurance adjuster processing your claim.

Supports You Every Step of the Way

Not all of the criteria used to define the best personal injury lawyer require the presentation of hard data. One important criterion that is not about the numbers concerns whether a personal injury lawyer provides legal support for a client during every step of the insurance claim process, as well as the litigation process. Many law firms assign attorneys to cases that meet with clients for a free case evaluation, only to disappear during the remainder of a case. At Morgan and Morgan, the personal injury lawyer assigned to your case provides legal support from the day of the free case evaluation to the day when your case gets resolved.

Responds Promptly to Communications

The last thing you want is to deal with an attorney who either ignores phone calls or returns messages several days after receiving them. Going through the litigation and insurance claim processes produces a considerable amount of stress, which in some cases can overwhelm a victim of a personal injury incident. Working with an unresponsive personal injury lawyer exacerbates the level of stress felt by a personal injury victim. The attorney that you select to represent you should return phone calls and text messages within the same business day, and if you leave a message after business hours, the first thing the following morning.

Positive Client Reviews

Client testimonials represent a helpful resource to determine the skill level of a personal injury lawyer. With more than three decades of offering legal services, Morgan and Morgan has amassed an impressive number of client testimonials. However, client testimonials provide just one resource to determine the success level of a law firm. Client reviews left on sites such as Yelp and Google provide you with more insight into the reputation of a personal injury lawyer or a law firm dedicated to handling personal injury cases. We encourage you to read the reviews left by our clients. You should come away with several common themes like how our personal injury lawyers operate with transparency, as well as demonstrate the type of compassion that helps our clients navigate the difficult litigation and insurance claim processes.

We already emphasized the importance of hiring a personal injury lawyer who is willing to negotiate a settlement if both parties agree to find a middle ground with your case. However, how does the best personal injury lawyer negotiate a favorable settlement?

Calculate a Fair Value Form for Compensation

You can expect negotiations to go nowhere if your attorney submits an unfair offer for compensation. When you meet with your attorney for a free case evaluation, you must bring copies of every record that verifies how much money the personal injury case has cost you. Your attorney refers to the copies of bills and receipts to add up the tangible expenses such as the cost of treatment programs and the repairs done to personal property like your car and/or electronic devices.

The next step to calculate a fair value for compensation is to consider the costs associated with non-tangible expenses, such as pain and suffering. Placing a value on non-economic damages is a key component for determining a fair value for compensation. Many attorneys make the mistake of overvaluing non-monetary damages, but at Morgan and Morgan, we use a proven formula that calculates a fair value for emotional distress symptoms such as fear, anxiety, and depression.

Send the Other Party a Demand Letter

A demand letter includes the fair value for compensation calculated by your personal injury lawyer, as well as a detailed description of how your attorney arrived at the fair value for compensation. Demand letters also include a section that describes what transpired before, during, and after a personal injury incident. The fair value for compensation calculated by your attorney is used for both the filing of an insurance claim and a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages. Your attorney dates the demand letter and then sends it by certified mail to receive confirmation the other party received it. The other party has no more than 45 days to respond to your demand letter.

Negotiations

Negotiations that attempt to reach a settlement typically start after an insurance company denies a claim and during the discovery phase of the litigation process. Instead of appealing a denied insurance claim, you can reach a much quicker resolution by negotiating a favorable settlement. The discovery phase of the litigation process is when both parties meet to exchange physical evidence and the accounts provided by witnesses.

Your attorney starts negotiations by submitting a reasonable value for compensation. The other party either accepts or rejects the initial compensation offer. If the other party rejects the initial offer, you might receive a counteroffer or the other party decides to proceed to the appeals process for a denied insurance claim. A rejection of an initial offer can also move litigation to the trial phase of the process. Your attorney can reject a counteroffer or agree to settle your case and/or claim. Several rounds of counteroffers can occur until you reach a settlement or move your case to the next step in the litigation or insurance claim process.

Discover why Morgan and Morgan is considered one of the best law firms with over 1,000 of the best personal injury lawyers by scheduling a free case evaluation today.