Prerequisites For An Attorney Accepting An Injury Case
Just because you have a personal injury case, it doesn't mean that any personal injury attorney will accept your case. Lawyers typically review cases before deciding whether to accept them. Below are some of the factors your case may have to satisfy before a lawyer accepts it.
Actual Injury
Attempted injuries or near misses don't cut it in court. You need an actual injury for your case to be viable. For example, you might not have a case if your employer nearly exposed you to a toxic substance. You only have a case if the employer actually exposed you to the toxic substance and you got injured.
Liability
A lawyer will only accept your case if someone else is responsible for your injuries. You don't have a viable case if forces of nature (acts of God) caused your injuries or if you were injured due to your own mistakes. For example, you can't hold someone liable for your injuries if the injuries were caused by an earthquake.
Monetary Damages
Personal injury lawyers typically handle injury cases on a contingency basis. A lawyer will take your case and take a percentage of your compensation if you win; the lawyer gets nothing if you lose. This means an injury lawyer will only take your case if they can recover monetary damages. The only exception is if you are willing to pay the lawyer out of your pocket.
Compensation Money
Just because you can win a case, it doesn't mean that you will see your compensation money. In most cases, it is insurance companies that compensate injury victims on behalf of the insurance carrier's clients. For defendants who don't have insurance or whose cases are excluded from insurance policies, personal funds become the sources of compensation money. Thus, compensation becomes difficult without personal resources or insurance coverage. Lawyers are understandably reluctant to pick up such cases.
Conflict of Interest Absence
A conflict of interest arises if a lawyer has a competing interest in a case. For example, a lawyer that is already defending a truck company against truck accident claims cannot represent victims of the accident; that would be a conflict of interest.
Absence of Case Overload
In some cases, a lawyer will reject your case, not because of legal reasons, but just because the lawyer is flooded with cases. Lawyers, just like other professionals, don't want to bite off more than they can chew since that would not be in anyone's best interest.
Call local personal injury attorneys to learn more.
People who become injured due to the negligence of others often hire personal injury attorneys to represent them in a lawsuit. If you're in this type of situation, you should examine the articles on this blog to learn more information about the process. We aren't in the legal profession and we don't know everything there is to know about the law, but we have done some research on our own to find out the basics of personal injury litigation.
As you read this blog, you'll learn what steps you should take to hire an attorney and what to expect if your lawsuit goes to trial. You'll also find information about the laws pertaining to personal injury cases. We hope the articles on this site will help you to decide your next steps in the litigation process.