If you’ve been injured and are considering pursuing an injury lawsuit, one of the first things you should do is to reach out to a personal injury lawyer. Even if you’re not sure you’re going to move forward with a lawsuit, settling up an initial consultation can help you wrap your head around the process and give you confidence about the direction you’re moving. This first meeting is beneficial for both parties, and there are a few basic areas we cover during this consultation. Below, we take a closer look at four topics we’ll discuss during your initial consultation and explain why these areas are so important to your injury case.
What Will We Talk About During My Meeting With A Personal Injury Lawyer?
Here’s a look at four aspects of your case that we cover with every client that meets with us for an initial injury evaluation.
1. The Basics – First, we’ll go over the basics of your case. That’s the Who, What, Where, When and Why. This helps us establish a baseline for how we might go about proving your case, and whether or not we believe you have a case in the first place. There will be time to go over accident reports or witness statements in the future, but for now, we just want to hear your simplified version of events. We might ask a couple questions during this portion to get a better understanding of the incident, but for now this will remain a pretty casual conversation to figure out what you’re dealing with and how we can help.
2. Your Next Steps – Another thing we’ll touch on during this meeting is what we believe you should do next. This may involve getting an evaluation from your primary care physician or getting us some witness contact information. We always want potential clients walking out of this meeting with a clear understanding of what they need to do next to help with the process. For some, all we need from them is to be responsive if we call or email them about their case, while others may have to be a little more proactive. Whatever we end up needing from you, we’ll make sure you know what’s expected to help your case along.
3. The Next Legal Steps – We’ll also cover the legal aspects of what’s to come in regards to your case. We’ll talk about evidence collection, the filing of legal briefs, and what we can expect from the other side in terms of a settlement or taking the case to court. We’ll cover the big picture as well as the immediate next steps so you have some understanding of the short-term and long-term expectations as it pertains to the legal side of your injury claim. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.
4. How We’ll Communicate – By the end of this meeting, we hope that you’ll choose our team to move forward with your injury lawsuit. If so, we’ll also touch on how we’ll be communicating with you as the case progresses. Some people prefer regular text message updates, others like weekly phone calls, and others just want an email when there is a worthwhile change in the status of their case. We want to establish how you’d like to be kept in the loop, and we also want to figure out the best way to get a hold of you in a timely manner. If we need to ask you questions about your case or get contact information from a witness, we want to be able to do so quickly and efficiently, so knowing how to reach you is important for us too.
We’ll also cover any other aspects you are interested in during this first meeting, but most people are satisfied with the four umbrella topics listed above. So if you want to get the ball rolling on your injury claim, reach out to the experienced legal minds at Margolis Law Firm and set up your first injury consultation today.
