Looking for the right personal injury lawyer to represent you is the most important decision in placing your life back after a catastrophic accident. Frankly speaking, choosing a good lawyer is a challenging task, especially for first timer. Some attorneys are genuine and sincere, while some are unethical and they just want to make extra money from the victims.

Let me share with you some useful tips which you can apply if you need to hire a personal injury lawyer:

• First thing first, in order to look for genuine lawyers, you are recommended to look for the American Bar Association to obtain the referral list of personal injury attorneys in your area. In order to be fast, you can go to the official website and click on “Find Legal Help”. You will be able to get reliable legal resources from there. Besides that, you can also talk to your friends or someone you know to ask for recommendations.

• After you have got the contacts of the lawyers, you should then make an appointment to meet up with a few lawyers personally. It is important for you to inform the lawyers about the situation you are currently facing. Check with them whether they have dealt with the particular situation before. Here are some questions you need to find out from the lawyers: How many cases they have won before? How difficult your case will be to win? How much upfront do you need to pay? What is your total cost? If your case is too complicated and research is required, you are reminded to find out when the lawyers are able to get back to you.

• Before you select the lawyer, you must compare their fees carefully. You need to check whether there is any fee required to evaluate your claim. At the same time, you must find out how the consultation fee is calculated. In general, many personal injury attorneys allow their clients to pay them out of their settlements. To play safe, you must make sure that you get a fee agreement in writing from the legal firm and review it carefully before signing.

• You need to bear in mind that you have to spend a lot of time with the attorney until your case is completed. Hence, you must select a lawyer which you can get along well before hiring him or her. The lawyer must be patient in answering all your doubts and questions. At the same time, the lawyer must be able to provide you regular updates from time to time.

• Your lawyer must be a good negotiator. Why do I say so? For your information, only a very small percentage of personal injury cases go to court. Most are settled through negotiations. Hence, in order for you to obtain the maximum compensation, you need to have a friendly lawyer who has excellent negotiation skills.