How to Compare Personal Injury Lawyers in New York

These questions will help you compare personal injury lawyers in New York who can represent you when you’re after an accident.

Choose a Law Firm That Practices Exclusively in Personal Injury

Many law firms represent clients in several fields of law, including accidents and other areas such as immigration or criminal law.

Each of these practice areas has become extremely complicated over the last 30 years and continues to become more complicated. It’s difficult to become proficient in just one area of practice. You can’t be equally proficient when you practice more than one area of law and divide your time between subject areas.

Additionally, it’s distracting when a lawyer divides time between personal injury cases and other types of cases.

Even our personal injury case management software was specifically designed only for personal injury cases by an extremely large personal injury law firm.

We only represent people injured in accidents.

Is the Lawyer Highly Experienced?

Choose a lawyer with at least 8-10 years of experience exclusively in personal injury.

Law school doesn’t teach the knowledge needed to handle personal injury cases. Lawyers gain this knowledge by handling personal injury cases for several years.

We have far more than 10 years of experience exclusively in personal injury.

Has the Lawyer Represented Other Lawyers?

One sign of a good personal injury lawyer is that they have represented other lawyers injured in an accident. We have represented lawyers injured in accidents.

One lawyer came to us when her 20-year-old son, who was not married and had no children, was killed in a motorcycle accident. She knew that most lawyers settle cases like that for less than $200,000. We settled the case for $500,000.

How Do Personal Injury Lawyers on TV Compare to Other Personal Injury Lawyers?

Someone asked on Quora, “How do I hire an accident lawyer?” I thought I would write about this because part of one of the answers given is simply wrong.

The answer was, “Ask friends to recommend a good one. Most of those lawyers on tv do not handle your case themselves, they give them to inexperienced associates who work for low salaries.”

While asking friends to recommend a good lawyer is a good idea, the other part of the answer is incorrect: “most lawyers on TV give cases to inexperienced associates”. When I started, I was one of those associates at one of the largest personal injury law firms in New York that advertised on TV.

I may have been an inexperienced associate, but a supervising attorney closely supervised and mentored me while we worked on cases. That law firm was and still is one of the top personal injury law firms in New York.

The advantage clients of the large law firm had was that we could discuss case problems with many other personal injury lawyers in the firm.

The disadvantage that clients of the large law firm had was that they could never speak with their lawyers.

We take pride in personal service, and not one of our clients ever has difficulty reaching a senior partner.

Should You Use a Solo Personal Injury Lawyer?

Most solo lawyers practice in several fields of law, but not all. I started as a solo lawyer. For the first couple of years, I practiced in personal injury and criminal defense because criminal defense fees are paid up front, and it takes a few years to start making money in personal injury. After a couple of years, I stopped representing criminal defense clients and focused exclusively on personal injury.

A law firm with more than one lawyer has many advantages over a solo law firm with one lawyer practicing alone.

The biggest advantage is that another personal injury lawyer is always available to discuss issues. We always have decisions to make, and it helps to discuss ideas with someone else. While a solo lawyer can always call a friend, it’s not the same as when you’re working with other lawyers.

Your case may move faster through the court system when more than one lawyer can work on it. Court appearances are less likely to be adjourned because of conflicts, such as when a lawyer has a court appearance in the Bronx and Nassau County at the same time. We have enough lawyers available for court appearances in every county.

A law firm with partners will likely have more money to invest in your personal injury case. The old adage, “it takes money to make money,” applies to personal injury.

When the insurance coverage is sufficient to compensate you for your injuries, it makes sense to spend money on your case. Insurance companies frequently try to save money, while we like to spend money on experts. When it makes sense, we can spend $30,000-$40,000 on a case, and that has led to million-dollar verdicts.

Choose a Personal Injury Lawyer Who Only Represents Plaintiffs

Insurance companies with attorneys on staff will frequently hire outside attorneys, and many insurance companies don’t even have attorneys on staff.

Some personal injury law firms represent injured plaintiffs but also work for insurance companies and represent defendants.

We never work for insurance companies. We only represent people injured in accidents.

What You Should Know about Results Shown by Personal Injury Lawyers

Settlement and verdict results posted on personal injury attorney websites don’t prove competence without knowing more information.

Anyone can settle a case for $10 million if it was worth $15 million. When looking at case results, it’s important to know the facts of the case.

Better indicators are cases where a lawyer obtained the entire insurance policy in a difficult case, such as when the client ran a red light, ran a stop sign, or was drunk. Many lawyers won’t even take those cases because they don’t know how to settle them. This is where experience becomes important.

We have obtained the entire insurance policy in many cases where our client ran a red light, a stop sign, or was drunk. If you have a serious injury, we will take your case when other lawyers won’t.

See our personal injury settlements and verdicts.

Is the Personal Injury Lawyer Willing to Take Your Case Immediately?

Many personal injury lawyers will ask you to get medical treatment before they will agree to take your case. We see this a lot. If the personal injury lawyer isn’t sure if he or she wants your case, call us.

In one example, our client injured her back in a car accident. She saw a personal injury lawyer in the Bronx and was told to get treatment at a medical clinic and return to the lawyer in a few weeks. She wasn’t happy with the personal injury lawyer or the medical clinic he sent her to, and she called us.

Our client had been seeing an orthopedic surgeon for her back injury prior to her car accident, so we sent her back to her orthopedic surgeon. We settled her case for $750,000.

Reviews/Testimonials from Previous Personal Injury Clients

The most important thing to look for in reviews or testimonials from previous clients is how they felt about the way the lawyer treated them.

See some of our personal injury reviews.

Besides reading reviews and testimonials, ask the personal injury lawyer if you can speak with previous clients directly.

How Easy Will It Be to Speak with Your Personal Injury Lawyer?

It’s usually easy to speak with a personal injury lawyer when looking for a free consultation. If you have trouble reaching a personal injury lawyer by phone for a free consultation, that’s the first sign of problems!

Most personal injury lawyers will be very responsive the first time you call. But how easy will it be to speak with your personal injury lawyer (not a paralegal or secretary) after you sign the retainer? This is the single biggest complaint we hear about other personal injury lawyers.

Our clients can speak directly with us seven days/nights at our personal phone numbers, so you don’t have to go through a secretary or paralegal. On rare occasions, you may have to leave a voicemail, and we’ll call you back immediately. Listen to two voicemail messages (on our home page) from clients who were surprised when we didn’t answer the phone.

Everyone has questions during their case, and you won’t think of them all at once. This is to be expected, and we don’t mind how many times you call.

Personal injury cases make a lot of money for personal injury lawyers. This makes you as important to us as a large corporation is to a corporate law firm. Do you think a large corporation will have trouble getting its lawyer on the phone?

Will Your Personal Injury Lawyer Make You Work on Your Own Case?

We hear all the time from clients who switch to us that their previous lawyer made them “do all the work” including getting medical records and sometimes even paying for medical reports.

We don’t do that. Our goal is to remove the burdens, uncertainty, frustrations, and anxiety you may have. We don’t want to burden you with what we should be doing.

One of our current clients had a lawyer who made him get his medical records and other things and then wanted to settle his case for $7,500. When we took the case, we found many medical records were missing, and we are now demanding the entire insurance policy of $100,000.

See the services we provide for our personal injury clients.

Has Your Lawyer had a Disciplinary Action?

Has the lawyer ever been disciplined by the New York State Bar? Many lawyers have been disciplined by the New York State Grievance Department. We haven’t.

You can find out if a personal injury lawyer has been disciplined on the New York State Court Attorney Search page or Avvo, where you can see Attorney Philip L. Franckel, Esq.’s profile. From there, you can search for any attorney in New York, and the profile will indicate if there is a disciplinary action. The Resume/License section shows the lawyer’s status. My profile says “Currently registered” and “We have not found any instances of professional misconduct for this lawyer.”

Has the Lawyer Ever Served as an Officer of One of the 2 NYS Personal Injury Bar Associations?

Attorney Philip L. Franckel, Esq. is a former Member of the Board of Directors of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association.

Has the Lawyer Ever Been Sued for Malpractice?

It’s not easy to find out if a lawyer has ever been sued for malpractice. However, you can search for the lawyer’s name on the New York State Court website for lawsuits in the NYS Supreme Court against the lawyer. It’s not easy because you will have to search every county. It’s easier to search elaw.com, but you will still have to search every county and year with a free account.

We can state in writing, which we are doing right here, that we have never been sued for malpractice. It would be unethical, and we would be disciplined if we stated that it was not true.

A caveat is that even the best lawyers could have had a malpractice claim because anyone can make a mistake. The biggest questions in a malpractice claim are: what was the reason for the claim, does the lawyer have malpractice insurance to protect their clients, and does the lawyer have multiple malpractice claims?

We have malpractice insurance to protect our clients.

What Questions Should I Ask a Personal Injury Lawyer?

Now that you know how to compare one personal injury lawyer with another, read the questions to ask before hiring a personal injury lawyer and making your decision.

Questions to ask before hiring a personal injury lawyer

How Do You Know If You Can Trust Your Personal Injury Lawyer?

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