Litigation experience is vital for building the groundwork in a personal injury case.
If you have been injured in any kind of accident that was not your fault, hopefully you are already aware that you need to get a skilled personal injury attorney on your side right away. But if you know anything about personal injury claims, you may also know that the majority of cases are settled out of court. In most situations, you will not need to file a lawsuit, and even if you do file, the case is likely to be resolved before your attorney actually has to get up and argue your case before a jury.
This may lead you to wonder…
…Does it Really Matter if My Personal Injury Lawyer is a Skilled Trial Lawyer?
The answer is YES.
Although chances are slim that your specific case will need to be argued before a jury, there is significant value in having an attorney who is completely prepared for this possibility.
Trial Experience Does Affect Insurance Negotiations
Insurance representatives definitely get to know the top personal injury firms working in the areas they represent. They sometimes even know specific attorneys by experience or by reputation. What this means is that insurance claims handlers know which firms and attorneys will actually take a case to court, and which will not.
If your attorney falls into the group that practically never files a lawsuit, this will put them at a disadvantage when negotiating with the insurance company for a settlement. The insurance company is quite likely to offer less compensation knowing—or believing that they know—that the attorney does not want to go to court, as a reluctance to go to trial leaves the attorney with no other option but to accept the offer.
If you want insurance companies to take your claim seriously, you need a serious personal injury lawyer with courtroom experience on your side.
Preparing for Trial Starts on Day One
Another reason it is important to work with an experienced trial attorney on your personal injury claim is that preparing for litigation actually starts on the very first day you retain your attorney. When gathering evidence in the early days of your case, your attorney needs to be thinking about what kinds of evidence will be needed to prove your claim in court, what is the best and most impactful way to present this evidence, and what additional evidence or arguments may be needed to defeat any arguments raised by the defense at trial.
If your attorney is not doing this from the start, you will be at a disadvantage if you do end up needing to take your personal injury claim to court. And since this kind of work cannot be done retroactively, you owe it to yourself to start out with a trial attorney as your personal injury attorney.
Call Fernando D. Vargas for Help
Fernando D. Vargas makes an excellent choice of personal injury lawyer for your case, because he has decades of experience resolving cases in and out of court. You can rely on him to work hard to prepare the most effective argument possible for you to receive full and fair compensation and not give up if your case needs to go to court. Call us at 909-982-0707 now for a free initial consultation.
