I tend to tell people the sooner the better. Consults are always free, so you really have nothing to lose. If you decide the hire someone, they are going to take the same % of your recovery if you hire them on day 1 or 4000, and if you hire them early, your case is likely going to be worth more as they’ve helped guide you along the way, and you haven’t had to do all the work along the way. You get more bang for your buck by hiring someone early on.
That said, I get a lot of calls from people years after car accidents or in a panic because they just realized a statute of limitations is about to run or they just got a bad offer from an insurance company. Those are difficult cases for me to take though sometimes I will under limited circumstances. The longer you wait, the more complicated your case likely is for me to get involved in and to piece together. If you’re up against a statute, I’m flying blind trying to get a complaint drafted on a case I know very little about and hoping I don’t run into service problems because sometimes it’s difficult to find a defendant to get him/her served with the paperwork before the deadline runs. Litigation is expensive. I don’t want to front costs on a case we could have settled had you hired me early, but now because a statute is looming, we are forced to file it and incur costs we otherwise wouldn’t have had to.
Many lawyers won’t take a case within 6 months of a statute running because it simply takes us so long to obtain medical records, open your file and put together wage loss so that we have time to really understand and negotiate your case before being forced to file it.
Issues in PI cases can come up very early. Property damage issues, getting your car repaired, rental car issues, or PIP issues can arise very early on. If your PIP requests and IME and you go without talking to a lawyer first, there is considerable damage that can be done to your case, not only in terms of losing your PIP benefits, but also the impact it can have on your 3rd party case. The moment your insurance requests an IME, you should be calling a lawyer. It’s much better to be proactive on this issue than to try and do damage control after the fact.
Hiring someone early also helps with case value. We can advise with regard to medical treatment, make sure bills are being paid, keep an eye on troubling diagnoses, suggest when maybe it’s time for a second opinion, help with issues that arise with health insurance and generally answer questions along the way. This is one of those areas, people often think they can handle on their own, and plenty do, but I generally think you’re wise to hire a lawyer. Most will come out ahead for it, and not have to deal with the headache of it along the way. Pun intended.