Specializing in Personal Injury
Personal injury (PI) practice differs from other law practice mainly because of financial requirements. In this kind of law practice, a lawyer have to spend his or her time and money getting the case ready for settlement or trial; then gets paid in a year or two, if the lawyer wins the case. Lawyers don't necessarily get paid for all the time that they spend in the cases and have to do a lot of work.
A PI lawyer usually needs to hire doctors, engineers, accident reconstruction experts, and other professionals needed to analyze critical issues and testify in court. If a lawyer happens to handle many cases, he would have a hard time managing these people and get them paid on time. Thus, a personal injury lawyer needs to generate money to have the capability of handling cases. Given the financial and personal risks involved, you must examine yourself if you can really tolerate such difficult situations before embarking on personal injury practice career.
Obtaining a favorable verdict at trial is harder for personal injury cases. Many states are implementing "tort reforms" legislation that places upper limits on the amount of claims of an injured person. Also, a lot of insurance companies and corporate defendants are less motivated to settle before trial. This means that you are most likely to go through the process of filing a lawsuit which entails expenses on filing fees, depositions, expert witnesses and other court costs for the lawyer and long wait for the court decision for the client. Sad to say, because of the long process, many clients end up settling for a fraction of what the case is really worth.
Despite the public perception of PI attorneys as ambulance chasers, many PI practitioners find it to be extremely rewarding, especially when you help a client win a tough case. Too many news reports these days focus on insurance fraud and complicated conspiracies involving lawyers, doctors and clients. Oft neglected and rarely mentioned in the news are the PI attorneys who take on the giant conglomerate on behalf of the little guy, truly an inspiring and much-needed service that might otherwise go unfulfilled.
There is no cookie cutter PI lawyer - they come from different backgrounds, have different interests and cover the whole range of personality types; they do all share a desire to help those who have been injured and need a hand. Few moments in life can match that feeling of vindication when the jury returns a verdict in your favor after months of threats and abuse from opposing counsel. You'll find that your confidence level will soar and your belief in yourself will make you want to start all over again with a new client and a new opponent. A well managed practice will provide you with such wonderful moments on a continuous basis for as long as you choose to practice.
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