The days after an accident can be harrowing. You’re in a fight to heal, pay medical bills, and recover lost wages. Finding a car accident attorney is just another task that demands your attention, but it’s a crucial task because choosing the right representation can help secure a better future for you and your family. How do you choose the right representation? By looking for the qualities we’ve listed here.
7 Qualities to Look for in a Car Accident Attorney
1. Experience
Experience is perhaps the most important quality a lawyer should have. Especially in the case of a car accident, you need an attorney accustomed to speaking with insurance companies. They should know how to build a solid case and when to reject low settlement offers. Any lawyer who lacks this knowledge could jeopardize your case and your future.
To be more specific, you need an attorney with at least several years of experience. This means you must ask how long an attorney has been practicing in the areas of car accidents and personal injuries. Your lawyer should also have a solid reputation within the legal community – ask for client and professional referrals – and a record of bringing cases to a successful resolution, whether by settlement or trial.
2. Storytelling Abilities
This likely sounds like a superfluous trait for attorneys, but it is in fact very necessary. Lawyers must have the ability to craft a compelling story on paper, to insurance adjusters, and before judges. In other words, you need a professional who can turn the facts of your case into a well-told, cohesive narrative that advocates for your rights. Ask your attorney how many cases they’ve handled. This is indication number one of their storytelling abilities.
3. Flexible Skills
Knowledge is crucial, but skills are something else altogether. They can provide an attorney with an edge their colleagues simply lack. Legal skills encompass a broad field but generally include:
- Teamwork
- Problem-solving
- Persuasion
- Preparation
- Reasoning
- Time and resource management
- Attention to detail
Skills turn knowledge into action. They allow an attorney to shape the many facts of a case into a clear case. After all, the most important factor for your claim isn’t a lawyer’s likeability or intelligence – it’s the degree to which they can transform information into results.
4. Unvarnished Character
Many lawyers can be described as wise, smart, or even proactive. But attorneys who combine these traits with honesty and integrity can add more meaning to your case. Here’s why: lawyers effectively fight for clients only when they respect and abide by the law. Clients entrust lawyers with sensitive information, usually at the worst times of their lives. Anything less than an unvarnished character betrays that trust.
Character should not be mistaken for charisma. Equally important, character cannot be imitated. A person either possesses it or does not. Hard work, integrity, and respect for others are qualities that come naturally to some, and they present themselves in ways that are unmistakable. You’ll know when you’ve found an attorney with a character of pure gold.
5. Genuine Compassion
When an attorney cares about the community and people they serve, you can bet they also care about their clients. This quality is every bit as important as character, storytelling abilities, and experience. And it makes itself known to those who serve as connectors in their communities to help:
- Move beyond stalemates
- Resolve disputes
- Dispel tensions
- Bring people and resources together
With this in mind, it’s important you consider a lawyer’s contributions to their community. You can’t measure these contributions in dollars or a single event. Instead, it’s a trait that’s visible year-round in the support a lawyer provides to community members, charitable organizations, and fundraising events.
6. Determination
If you Googleabogados de accidentes in Texas, plenty of names will likely populate. But you must look beyond the immediate search engine results to find an attorney with determination. Negotiating with and fighting insurance companies are challenging tasks. Adjusters craft their tactics to discredit those who launch lawsuits against them.
This means your lawyer must be tenacious and tough enough to push past the insurance company’s efforts. How can you know if your attorney possesses these qualities? Ask them about some of the previous car accident cases they’ve fought. What arguments did they use to refute the insurance company’s claims? What were the case outcomes? You won’t be provided with specific details, but you will understand how far your attorney will fight for you.
7. Courtesy
A lawyer is obligated to be courteous to clients, other lawyers, and officers of the court. They even owe it to the insurance company to be courteous to its representatives. This doesn’t mean a lawyer should be weak-minded. Just the opposite, a professional can play hardball without using underhanded tactics or resorting to rudeness. And their courtesy will reflect well on your case.
At this point, you might be wondering how you can find a team of attorneys with all the qualities listed here: inherent courtesy, determination, and more. The answer is surprisingly simple. Schedule a consultation with an attorney and start a conversation. Ask all the questions you need and use the answers you receive to choose your lawyer. You won’t go wrong using this approach.