The world of personal injury is a specialty area, like Wills or Trusts or Probate, Family Law, Landlord Tenant or Criminal Defense. You wouldn’t want to hire an Estate Planning Attorney to represent you for a DUII or an Eviction Lawyer to handle your divorce. Similarly, you don’t want an attorney to handle your personal injury case who isn’t a Personal Injury Lawyer.
Unfortunately, this is a common area for attorneys to dabble in, even when they shouldn’t. On the surface, PI cases can seem simple. Client has car accident, get medical records, write letter and send to at fault adjuster and get money and close case. I cannot stress enough that hiring one of these lawyers is a terrible idea. These generalists or attorneys who aren’t trained in personal injury have no idea some of the pitfalls that might exist.
The world of personal injury is highly nuanced. There are statutes and caselaw and sometimes federal law, always state laws, and contract laws that may apply to your personal injury case not to mention local court rules. Personal Injury Lawyers deal in auto policy contract interpretation, substantive laws of various states, subrogation laws that vary by type of health insurance contract. Settlements and judgments can impact government benefits if you aren’t careful or disrupt health insurance coverage. You may need advice about tax consequences of settlements, specifics of settlement agreements, know about bad faith laws, how to know where to find all of the money, whether you have a diminished value claim and how to make it. It’s impossible to lay out all of the ways I have seen generalist attorneys mess up PI cases, sometimes permanently, but I’ll just stress it’s important to do your research and find the background of the lawyer you hire! Read the google reviews, look at the website. Ask for referrals. You will be working with your lawyer for months if not years, so find someone you’re comfortable with and confident in and take the time to do your research before you sign that retainer agreement!