Are you a medical malpractice victim? It's important to find a good medical malpractice lawyer.
Most of the medical malpractice laws can turn out to be pretty complex. This very fact makes it a must to have a lawyer on your side. Keep in mind that proving that a health care professional provided sub-standard care is a pretty tough proposition. Only a medical malpractice attorney will have the experience to navigate these requirements. Thus, he is the best person who can get on to building your best case.
In Florida, Medical malpractice law is something of a specialized field. This owes to the overlap of medical and legal issues, as well as the unique procedural challenges that often come with such kinds of cases. Most of the lawyers who specialize in medical malpractice will either represent injured patients that are plaintiffs, who are suing health care providers, or defend health care providers against medical malpractice lawsuits. This implies that they represent defendants.
In case you have been injured by a medical error, you will be required to hire a professional lawyer. However, keep in mind that experienced medical malpractice lawyers often reject to take a lot more cases than they accept. So, the process may be time-consuming.
The first step is to ask for personal recommendations from your reliable friends and relatives. It might be that your friends do not know any medical malpractice lawyers; however chances are someone you know has had a good experience with some kind of lawyer. It might be that specific lawyer has an established relationship with an experienced med mal lawyer. This can help you further in finding the lawyer of your choice. At least, it can be a good start.
When you lack any personal recommendations, but you just want a list of prospective lawyers near you, you can start with some reliable website. The best part is that you can do a free search to come up with a list of local lawyers with the help of several tools.
While short listing a few lawyers of your choice, you need to consider certain factors. Check into the biographical information. This includes whatever you can find online that relates to the lawyers and their law firms. Check if they appear to specialize in medical malpractice. You can find if they have any information on the firm website that is helpful to you. It might contain some easy-to-understand blog posts to help prospective clients understand what to expect. In case these materials give you a level of comfort, that surely is a healthy sign.
You should check to see if the attorney belongs to personal injury trial lawyers' associations like the American Association of Trial Lawyers or your state's trial lawyers' association. However, it does not take much to pay dues and join. So, check out whether the attorney is an active member or holds leadership roles. Such roles suggest he or she has the respect of other medical malpractice lawyers as well.
Make it a point to check for any online reviews of the lawyers you're considering. However, keep in mind that many former clients will rip an attorney if their case is unsuccessful based on outcome alone. This is regardless of the attorney's role in that outcome. It will also give you an idea whether or not it was a viable case to begin with. At the same time, you can contact your state bar association or visit the bar association's website to find out if the lawyer is in good standing. Evaluate the yellow pages of your telephone directory. Check whether the lawyer advertises. If yes, analyze further to judge for yourself whether he or she is compelling or helpful enough.
When you have shortlisted a few good candidates, make sure to contact them timely. You can do it either by email, phone, or through the firm's website itself. There are many firm sites that have a "chat" feature these days. In this section, you can type a message to a firm representative and get a response in real time. This way you can start a dialogue that way.
Make sure to ask what percentage of the firm's caseload is devoted to medical malpractice. Keep in mind that the higher the better. You can find out what portion of cases goes to trial rather than settle. In case the firm has a reputation for settling, the insurance companies might know that, and negotiate as per that.
You can ask for details on the attorney's fee agreement and payment of case costs. You can then hire a medical malpractice lawyer on the basis of the contingency fee. This implies that the lawyer will be paid a percentage of any money collected through settlement, or on a judgment if the case goes to trial. Never leave out asking questions related to costs. Ask whether the firm will absorb upfront expenses like expert witness fees, document preparation, and filing fees.
Take your special needs in account. You can ask about a face-to-face appointment when it is important for you to meet with the attorney in person. However, you should not cross a lawyer off your list just because he or she can't schedule a meeting on short notice. Keep in mind that good medical malpractice lawyers are usually busy. So, they may not be able to spend as much time as they would like with prospective clients.
You should ask about the firm's practice of delegating work to administrative assistants, clerks, paralegals, and other support staff. Also, you will want to know how much of the firm's work on your case will actually be done by the attorney.
The lawyer’s competency and experience are the top two factors to consider. In case you can't stand your lawyer, or if you and the lawyer just can’t along, then you should not go ahead, else you will have a ghastly experience with your medical malpractice claim.
You need to assess yourself and the lawyer to figure out whether you and a medical malpractice lawyer are going to be a good fit. You certainly do not want to be the type of person who will just turn the case over to the lawyer with instructions for him to call you when it is over.
