Do I need a lawyer?
Answer:
The law never requires someone to get a lawyer, and it is possible for
you to get lucky and end up with the same result that a lawyer could
have obtained for you. Without an experienced, personal injury lawyer,
you will never know if your settlement was fair or if a lawyer would
have been able to obtain a larger monetary recovery for you. An analogy
I like to use is when you seek medical attention: if you have a fever,
cough, temperature or other physical symptoms, you could go to the drug
store and find some medication that you hope will work, and try it. If
you are right, you will get better and will have saved the cost of going
to the doctor. If you are wrong, you may find that you have a much more
serious ailment that over the counter medication will never work on, and
the longer you delay going to the doctor, the greater the potential for
your ailment to get worse, over time.
A lawyer, in a personal injury case does not charge any money up front
for an initial consultation. If after that free consultation you want to
handle it on your own, you can. You may find that there was a lot more
to your case then you realized and handling it the right way requires a
lawyer with years of experience handling cases just like yours. Since
most clients will never pay more than 1/3 of their settlement as
attorney’s fees, I tell clients that as long as I am able to recover for
them at least 1/3 more than they could get out of the insurance company
on their own, then it is worth hiring a lawyer. And I usually go on to
tell them that they are going to pay the same 1/3 attorney’s fee whether
their lawyer is fresh out of law school, or an experienced lawyer with
20+ years as a personal injury trial attorney, so why not hire the more
experienced lawyer? The fees are the same, but the results can be
dramatically different, if you call and hire me.
More General Questions:
If I do get involved in a lawsuit, how long will it take from start to finish?
How much am I likely to recover if I do go to trial on my case?
How do you recover damages from someone that does not have insurance?
How do I pick a personal injury lawyer?
What happens if I had an old injury to the same area of my body that gets injured in a new accident?
How quickly do I have to hire a lawyer? How quickly do I have to file a lawsuit?
What do I do if I need a personal injury lawyer but am unable to get to your office?
What is the Statute of Limitations in Florida?
Do I need a lawyer?