When you or a loved one suffered an injury due to possible medical malpractice, your decision about who will represent you in your case may be the most important one that you will make. You cannot hire just anyone to represent you because medical malpractice cases are often hard-fought and complicated. These are cases that require a more skilled attorney than many personal injury cases because they are more nuanced and scientific.
Finding the right medical malpractice attorney near you requires diligence and patience. It is better to take some time to closely examine many possible attorneys rather than hiring the first person that you see. Not all medical malpractice attorneys are the same, as you will learn through research. One of the keys is to leave yourself enough time to find the right attorney because these cases require extensive investigation before you (or your attorney) can even file a lawsuit. At the same time, you have a deadline to file your lawsuit before the statute of limitations expires.
Find Top Medical Malpractice Attorneys With the Ability to Handle Your Specific Case
One thing to keep in mind when you are looking to find a medical malpractice attorney is that you want someone who can handle your case. Medical malpractice is more complicated than the average personal injury case. They are often heavily scientific as you need to recreate what the doctor did in the lead-up to the injury.
The standard of proof in a medical malpractice case is that the doctor must have acted unreasonably in comparison to what the average doctor would have done under those circumstances. However, you need someone with a knowledge of science and medicine because they need to make the case to the jury that the doctor was negligent.
A medical malpractice attorney near me will need to work with medical experts to establish what happened. Working with scientific experts takes another level of expertise than an average personal injury lawyer might not have. In other words, an attorney who usually handles slip and falls or auto accidents might not have the level of expertise necessary to handle a medical malpractice case.
Find Malpractice Attorneys Near Me Who Can Manage Long-Term and High-Stakes Litigation
Medical malpractice cases are usually higher stakes cases because the damage amounts can be high. Hospitals come to fight with high-powered attorneys to defend them, and the best medical malpractice lawyer is someone who should be up to the task. These can be protracted litigation events that can last for years as you work through various stages of the case.
You need to pay close attention to the attorney’s background to make sure that you are hiring lawyers specializing in medical malpractice near me. Ask the attorney about previous cases that they have handled and try to get specific details. To do so, you should ask much more than a yes or no question when wanting to know whether the attorney has experience with your type of case. Learn more about what your prospective lawyer has done in this specific practice area before you trust them with your case.
Questions to Ask When Trying to Find the Best Malpractice Lawyers
Questions that you can ask when you are looking to find a medical malpractice attorney include:
- Can you describe some settlements you negotiated or cases that you have won?
- How many medical malpractice cases have you handled?
- Have you had any cases that have gone to trial?
- With what types of medical malpractice cases do you have experience?
- What are your principles of client service?
Pay attention to how specific the attorney gets in answering your questions. You want to hear a level of detail from the attorney that shows knowledge of the medical malpractice field as opposed to broad general answers. Anyone can give you generic lawyerspeak, but not everyone can tell you exactly what they have done in the past and how they propose to handle your specific case.
Speak to the Attorney
When looking for a malpractice lawyer near me, your actual conversation with them will go a long way towards determining whether they are the right attorney for you and your case. Especially when you are dealing with a medical malpractice case, your attorney may be by your side for years through many conversations. It is not uncommon for a medical malpractice case to last as long as a decade by the time each side finished their appeals in the case. While you can always change attorneys, it is difficult to change legal representation during a case.
Thus, your personal rapport and chemistry with the lawyer will be critical. While your relationship with the attorney will be professional as opposed to a friendship, the chemistry, and level of trust is important. After all, the medical lawyer near you is the one who will be giving you crucial advice on your legal options. They will defend you at depositions and if the court calls on you to testify at trial. It is not an exaggeration to say that your financial future is in their hands.
Learn the Attorney’s Personal Style and See If You Are Compatible
Different lawyers bring different styles to the table. You might mesh better with someone who is more talkative and engaging, or you may prefer someone who is direct and gets down to business quickly. You never know how you would relate to the lawyer until you sit down to have a conversation.
Speaking to the attorney would also give you some insight into their client service. When you are dealing with a lawsuit, you need someone who is responsive and goes out of their way to serve their clients.
In your early conversations with your prospective attorney, you should ask yourself:
- Does the attorney give you direct answers to your questions?
- Does the attorney answer emails and return your calls? How long does it take for them to respond?
- Does the lawyer do what they say they will do, and does it happen when the lawyer says they will do it?
- What is the lawyer’s tone when speaking to you?
Remember, when the lawyer is having their initial conversations with you, they are trying to earn your business. Getting clients and winning cases is how they earn their living. If they do not go out of their way for you when they are supposedly trying to gain your trust, it will certainly not get any better once you sign the representation agreement.
With that in mind, you should take advantage of the free consultation that the medical malpractice attorney offers. The obvious reason is that it would not cost you anything. There is nothing that obligates you to sign a representation agreement with the attorney, and all it costs you is your time. You certainly can take a free consultation from more than one attorney as you seek to find the best medical malpractice lawyers near me.
Get Recommendations and Read Reviews
One way to learn more about malpractice attorneys in my area is to speak to family and friends to see if they have any recommendations or know of anyone. Often, the best way to learn about what an attorney really is like to work with is to speak with people who they have represented in the past. They can give you a window into the true experience.
People who have achieved good results from working with the attorney are satisfied customers and spread the word to others. You can put the word out there to friends that you are looking for a medical malpractice lawyer and need recommendations.
Here, you want to look at the best medical malpractice attorneys, as expressed through reviews by actual clients. You should look at objective reviews from people who have actually worked with these lawyers. Google and Yelp are good sources of reviews about medical malpractice lawyers.
There are also other sources of attorney reviews that are written by other attorneys. However, you should take these with a grain of salt because local medical malpractice lawyers often agree to write reviews for each other. You should be more interested in what actual clients have to say because they relate to everyday experiences.
Attorney Credentials and Awards
The first thing to do when doing your due diligence on attorneys is to look them up with their state bar association. Of course, each attorney must be licensed to practice law in their jurisdiction. Beyond that, the state bar association would have information about their disciplinary history if they have one. Thankfully, most lawyers who practice law have clean disciplinary histories. You should be aware of whether an attorney has committed any rule violations in the past. Some violations are more severe than others, but you should always know their record before signing a representation agreement.
In addition, you should review the attorney’s professional associations and any possible awards that they have received. These are a sign of their standing in the legal community. When an attorney consistently receives awards from local and national organizations, it is a sign that they command respect from their peers.
Try not to get too caught up in an attorney’s educational background. There are plenty of good medical malpractice lawyers who did not go to the top law schools. There are also plenty of people who received great grades in law school who may not be the most effective advocates for their clients.
The Attorney’s Resources Available to Use for Your Case
The best medical malpractice attorneys also will have the resources to handle your case effectively. We are not going to sugarcoat it; medical malpractice cases are very time-consuming and require a firm that can work with you. The law firm needs to have the infrastructure to handle a case that may take years to resolve, meaning that the attorney has help and the ability to draw upon other attorneys if necessary to litigate your case.
We cannot stress enough that medical malpractice matters are complex and unlike any other personal injury case.
You can expect extensive discovery in your case, which will include:
- Interrogatories
- Requests for information
- Document production and review
- Depositions
The best malpractice lawyers can work through this process and the infrastructure necessary to handle a complex case with extensive evidence. You could be in a battle to receive evidence and then may need to review everything that the other side produces. That’s why you need the best, most nimble malpractice attorney with a deep bench behind them.
Compare Costs
You should understand the basis for each attorney’s particular contingency fees. Medical malpractice attorneys will typically charge a contingency fee for your case, meaning that they receive a part of your settlement or jury award if you are successful. However, not all attorneys have the same percentage as their contingency fee. Further, some attorneys will pass along court fees and some other charges to you even if your case is not successful. They must tell you this upfront.
Please keep in mind that the lawyer who charges the lowest contingency fee is not necessarily the best medical malpractice attorney. Nonetheless, you must consider cost in the overall scheme of things as one of many factors that you review. If you have more than one attorney that you like after you have spoken with medical malpractice lawyers in my area, then perhaps you could use their costs as a way to distinguish between them.
As you can see, you must put a lot of thought into your attorney in a medical malpractice case. In the end, the work that you do in finding the best medical malpractice attorney will find the right person to represent you and get you the full financial recovery that you deserve for all of your injuries and losses.
