Most people believe in doctors and trust their professional opinion and choice of treatment. And in most cases, doctors provide help on many different levels, and they are completely reliable. However, mistakes happen and sometimes you find yourself in a situation where you need to file a lawsuit due to a doctor’s malpractice. If this is your case, and you’re not a lawyer, you should not do it alone. Instead, we recommend that you hire an attorney to help you with the legal process.
However, before choosing a lawyer, you should do your research and try to find a professional, productive attorney that will find a way to turn things around in your favor. Here are some questions you should ask before hiring a malpractice lawyer.
1. Their past success
The first question you should ask the lawyer you plan to hire is whether they have experience with working on cases like yours. It doesn’t matter that a lawyer has many resolved cases in their record. If they have never had a case like yours, they may not be able to help you. Try to collect as much information about their past success as you can. Keep in mind that you’re hiring that person because you want them to help you win over this case. That implies that you should understand why that person is doing that job, what kind of cases they had a chance to work on, and more.
Of course, it is possible for a lawyer that hasn’t had an opportunity to work on a medical negligence case to help you achieve the best possible results. And this is a risk that you need to consider if you are willing to take it. The most crucial thing is to understand the way the person is thinking. A good lawyer will never be too confident about providing you with an ideal outcome. But when you hear their strategy and how they plan to proceed with your case, it will be clear to you what are the odds to achieve success in the end with that malpractice lawyer.
2. How busy are they
Your case may be the most important thing and the top priority in your life. But you need to see if it is the same for your malpractice attorney. Lawyers can get very busy and overwhelmed with numerous cases. If this is the case with the attorney you plan to hire, he or she will probably not be able to commit to your legal process and find the solution as quickly as you want. You should discuss how much time they have and if they are busy at the moment, whether they can organize and find time to work on your case. If not, you should skip working with them.
Talk about how much time weekly the lawyer can dedicate to talking or texting to you. All of these are details that can be a crucial factor that affects your desired outcome. If you can’t contact them when you need them, or if they are too busy to devote to you at all, skip hiring that attorney and keep looking.
3. Ask about how they charge
While it might be convenient to hire a malpractice lawyer who has a low flat rate, this could prove to be a very impractical idea in the long run. If an attorney offers very cheap services, it may mean they are mostly focused on gathering a large number of clients, and not on providing optimal service. It means that they do not value their work and that they choose quantity over quality. If you start working with this type of malpractice attorney, you will probably not be satisfied with how the procedure progresses, nor with the final outcome.
More expensive lawyers usually focus more on helping you to file a lawsuit properly and be there for you for anything you might need. You may pay more, but you’ll also receive much more support. All of this should be the topic of your first conversation with your potential malpractice lawyer. On www.pilaw.com you can schedule a free, confidential consultation with professional lawyers and find out whether their approach and terms suit your needs.
4. Who will do the main work
It is not uncommon that people hire a malpractice lawyer to help them with their case, and they end up working with another person without even knowing. In the initial meeting, you need to ask the attorney who is in charge and who will do the main work. There are lots of documents and paperwork that needs to be done for every legal case. This type of work is usually handled by paralegals, which is fine because the lawyers should be doing much important part of the work. But sometimes lawyers have too many cases, and they forward some of them to their paralegals.
So you may end up paying and working with a completely different lawyer, which you want to avoid. Paralegals are not skilled in resolving cases, so the outcome will likely not be the desired. In these cases, the lawyer usually doesn’t answer their calls, you notice they are not being informed enough, and the whole process is taking too long. But when this already happens, you have to go through too much work to solve everything. That is why we recommend discussing all of this at your first meeting. After you gather all relevant information, you will know whether that person is right for you. If you get the feeling they are not being completely honest, move on and keep looking for a better attorney for yourself.
Conclusion: Filling a lawsuit due to a doctor’s malpractice and going through the whole legal process can be complicated and exhausting. So if you’re not a lawyer, we recommend hiring a malpractice attorney who will help you with the legal procedure. There are many good and bad lawyers out there and it can be hard to find someone you like. That is why we recommend asking the right questions at the first meeting. Gathering the right information will help you get the feeling about a certain lawyer and decide whether you want to hire them or keep looking.
