Friday, December 11, 2009

How Personal Injury Litigation Differs from Other Areas of Practice

By Tony Garrudo

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.

A personal injury lawyer must carefully maintain his caseload so that he is able to hire and pay his experts timely. Therefore, a PI lawyer must continuously make enough money to prepare for additional cases. Because of the personal investment necessary to maintain a successful personal injury law practice, a lawyer must be sure he can balance all these requirements before starting a personal injury firm.

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.

The public's attitude towards personal injury cases is quite discouraging to law practitioners but the rewards of winning a case are enormous. Oftentimes, we heard news on insurance fraud, scams, and conspiracies involving personal injury lawyers, doctors, and their clients. But on the bright side of things, nowhere in the practice of law is there more of a David versus Goliath scenario than a person on a court battle with gigantic insurance company or corporation.

PI lawyers come in different personality types, interests, aptitudes, strengths and weaknesses but practicing this profession can give you an opportunity to help other people who are wronged and truly in need.

About the Author:

No comments:

Post a Comment