Your Personal Injury Lawyers
4 Signs Your Personal Injury Law Firm Isn’t a Good Fit
Hiring a personal injury lawyer is a very important task. Ideally, you will arrive at the decision after having selected the individual who most closely represents your needs, goals and values. Unfortunately, even with careful consideration and screening, you may find yourself aligned with a personal injury law firm that doesn’t meet your expectations.
How do you know it’s a bad fit?
Below are four signs your personal injury law firm simply isn’t working for you:
1. Your lawyer is bad at answering your questions.
Your lawyer and other members of the law firm should be able to answer your questions about your case concisely and willingly. While your lawyer should certainly possess a firm grasp of complex legal issues and precedents, he or she should be able to talk about those issues in plain English. Declining to answer your questions in a simple, straightforward manner simply may be a sign of poor customer service.
2. Your lawyer is impossible to reach.
In an ideal world, a lawyer would be available to answer a client’s questions at any given moment. This is not feasible, but a lawyer should make time to answer a client’s questions in a timely manner – ideally within 24-48 hours. Be wary if your lawyer is never available to take your phone calls, answer emails or meet you for an in-office visit.
3. Your lawyer doesn’t provide you with any updates on your case.
Personal injury and disability cases can take months or even years to resolve in some cases. Weeks or months may pass with little to no activity. Even so, your lawyer should always be available to provide you with an update on the progress of your case. You may have cause for alarm if, when taking the initiative to check on the progress of your case, you hear statements like “Oh – there was a major development a few weeks ago. Are you available to come in tomorrow to sign some paperwork due Friday?”
4. Your lawyer encourages you to accept a low settlement offer.
Your lawyer is tasked with getting you a fair and sufficient settlement. Be wary if your lawyer encourages you to accept an offer that fails to address your short- and long-term injuries and expenses adequately. Some things to watch out for include:
- Failure to ask about your lost wages and their impact on your household
- Not obtaining your records from your doctors or medical providers
- Not seeking medical evidence to prove the severity of your injuries
- Instructing you to sign a settlement agreement before clearly explaining its impact
Any of these four warning signs may indicate that it is time to seek the services of a new personal injury law firm.
Have you recently been injured in an accident in Ontario? Are you looking for a lawyer to handle your claim? Call us today to schedule a free, no-obligation case evaluation. Reach us at 1-800-JUSTICE® or by completing this online form.
