Following a serious and wrongful accident, walking into a first consultation with a personal injury lawyer can feel overwhelming. To help ease any concerns or anxiety you might have about meeting with an attorney to discuss all your legal options for recompense, it is helpful to have some critical questions prepared ahead of time.
Continue below to review the top 4 questions to ask a Indiana personal injury lawyer at your initial case evaluation. These questions will help streamline your consultation, placing you on the right track toward success.
What to Ask a Personal Injury Lawyer at Your Case Evaluation
Do I Have a Personal Injury Case?
Asking a lawyer about the validity or strength of your case is one of the basic and most essential inquiries to ask at a personal injury case evaluation. No one wants to waste anytime beating around the bush. Ask your injury attorney if the incident was most likely caused by another’s negligence, if you or your family are entitled to compensation for your damages, and how to file a claim. Which leads us to the next important question.
If a personal injury claim is valid, you should be entitled to remuneration for your economic damages, including lost wages, medical expenses, hospital bills, at-home nursing, long-term hospitalization, pain and suffering and much more. More specifically, you should be asking your lawyer how much compensation you are entitled to, and perhaps even what similar cases have paid out in the past. Obviously, the value of a case will largely be dependent upon the strength of the evidence and how long a person does or does not need on-going medical treatment and how long the injuries last.
How Much is My Case Worth?
The settlement you may collect largely depends on your total compensatory damages and losses, including lost wages, lost wages, hospital bills, medical expenses, mileage to and from doctors’ appointments, partial or permanent disability, and more. Settlements may also include non-economic or punitive damages as well, like pain and suffering, mental anguish, partial or permanent disability, permanent disfiguration, prolonged rehabilitation, loss of companionship, diminished quality of life, pain medication dependencies, reduced quality of life, and more. In order to truly know how much your case is worth, you must consult with a licensed Indianapolis IN personal injury attorney.
Will My Case Go to Trial?
There are various factors that influence the outcome of a settlement. Whether a claim gets settled out of court or goes to trial depends on many details of a particular case. For most plaintiffs, a personal injury lawyer in Indianapolis assists with this part of the process. They are prepared to go to court for their clients but do everything in their power to avoid it and settle out of court instead. In most cases, personal injury claims are settled out of court.
How Much Will Lawyer and Legal Fees Cost Me?
Although not all, most personal injury law firms get paid on contingency. This means that clients do not have to pay the law firm for their services if the lawyers are unsuccessful at recovering a settlement or verdict for them. When clients do receive a settlement, lawyers will be paid a percentage of that settlement as defined in the lawyer-client agreement. This can range anywhere from 33 and 1/3% to 40%, depending on various factors.
In addition to paying the lawyers, personal injury clients will owe additional expenses and court costs. For these expenses, the attorney will front them and will just reimburse themselves out of any settlement or verdict if the case is won. Expenses would include things like copies, postage, filing fees, costs to obtain copies of medical records, and doctor reports and depositions if necessary.
Are you looking for a motivated Indiana personal injury law firm to represent you or a loved one? Contact the Law Office of Craven, Hoover, and Blazek P.C. at 317-881-2700 to schedule a free personal injury case evaluation. We represent clients throughout the state of Indiana.
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