- Understand that civil justice is ALWAYS based on what a jury would do. Your lawyer must be an accomplished trial lawyer. The other side will evaluate your case on many factors but the most important is how experienced is your lawyer in trial in front of a jury. The track record of your lawyer trying cases is vital. Many lawyers if not most, seldom if ever go to trial. There are many lawyers who claim to be trial lawyers but have not been in front of a jury for many years if ever. ALWAYS GET PROOF OF THE LAWYERS RECORD WITH JURIES !!! Ask for verdict sheets, look up actual court records showing actual results. Ask the lawyer : Have you personally selected a jury, given an opening statement, presented evidence and done a closing argument to a jury? How many times? SHOW ME AN OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT OF YOUR WORK.
- What service will the lawyer provide? Will they personally handle your case or hand it out to others? How often will they keep you advised of the progress? Will they be doing focus groups? Are all costs advanced by the lawyer? Will they be charging you interest on the costs they advance? This should NEVER happen. Look carefully at their retainer agreement. Some lawyers with little or no trial experience will charge as much as 40 to 50% of the recovery even before going to trial. Our fees never exceed 40% through trial and are often less if the case settles 3 months before the first trial date.
- Ask for proof of results the lawyer has obtained. Not just a listing on a web site, but ask if the result was a jury verdict vs. a settlement. Lawyers results that are all settlements should be suspect since this may indicate little or no experience with jurors.
- How many times has the lawyer been the lead trial lawyer in a case? Some lawyers have only sat as an assistant at trial.
Please contact us if you wish to discuss how to select a lawyer.
