Suffering a traumatic brain injury is a scary and potentially life changing event. Choosing the right brain injury attorney to represent you legally may make a significant difference in the outcome of your litigation and your ongoing security. Brain injury law is a specialized field, and you will need a brain injury attorney with experience, knowledge and skill to represent you. Finding the right brain injury attorney may seem like an overwhelming task, but we’ve outlined a few easy steps that can help you connect with the right attorney for you. Just remember the three R’s: Referral, Research and Reference.
Referral: Just like medicine, law is a broad field with both general practitioners and specialists. Brain injury attorneys number among the specialized fields, since they’re not the kind of counsel you need for everyday issues, like writing a will or dealing with a speeding ticket. However, just like your family doctor refers you to a medical specialist, your family lawyer can refer you to a brain injury attorney. Your family lawyer can help you find a brain injury attorney through their own professional network, or through using their research tools to look at recent brain injury cases and reach out to the attorneys on your behalf.
Your doctors can also be a referral resource in your search for a brain injury attorney. If you’re seeing a specialist for your brain injury, ask them for recommendations of brain injury attorneys that have worked with their patients in the past. Specialists deal with injured patients daily, and may be able to refer you to a brain injury attorney that has a strong record of client satisfaction.
Research: You can do your own research to help in your search for a brain injury attorney. This is a step that you can pursue alongside referrals or on your own. Either way, before making a decision to hire a brain injury attorney to represent you, it is important that you personally find out what you can about the attorney, their practice and their track record. One easy way to do this is to look at the attorney’s website. Many times, an attorney’s website will reflect their areas of practice, as well as provide news about recent cases or events. An attorney whose website makes no mention of brain injury practice may lack the expertise that you need. On the other hand, a brain injury attorney who has a long history of representing clients with brain injury cases as well as membership in organizations who assist brain injured people, may be well prepared to handle the intricacies of brain injury litigation.
References: Thankfully, traumatic brain injuries are not common. However, this means that you probably don’t know someone else who’s been through the process of a brain injury lawsuit. Once you’ve narrowed down your potential brain injury attorneys through referrals and research, ask the attorney for the names of some of their clients. This is a great way to learn about the brain injury attorney from people that have been through the process. You can learn a great deal about how the attorney communicates with their clients, how attentive they are and how they generally go about handling a case. You want a brain injury attorney that will work well with you, so take your own preferences into account when talking to references. If you would like to be kept up to date with your case, make sure that your attorney uses email or other ways to keep communication open. Talking to clients that have worked with a brain injury attorney previously may help you narrow down which attorney will provide you with the kind of service that will make you comfortable and confident.
Finding a brain injury attorney to represent you after your traumatic brain injury is not an easy task, especially during such a physically and emotionally difficult time. However, these steps can help de-mystify the process and ensure that you end up with a brain injury attorney that can handle the intricacies of your case and provide you with the kind of service that you need.
Posted by Michael Ronemus
Michael Ronemus is a member of the Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation Group of the American Association of Justice – a nationwide group of trial lawyers. Mr. Ronemus is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Brain Injury Association of New York State, the leading advocacy group for new yorkers with brain injuries.
