how to be successful personal injury attorney

How to Become a Successful Personal Injury Attorney

• Focus on Torts One of your first classes in law school will be Torts, which will focus on civil litigation. ...
• Intern With a Local Personal Injury Attorney While law school will provide an important foundation for your career as a personal injury attorney, there is no replacement for quality on-the-job experience. ...
• Speak With Current Personal Injury Attorneys ...

Full Answer

How much do top personal injury attorneys make?

While statistics vary depending on the source, personal injury attorneys can make a decent annual wage. Some sources put the figure around $73,000 while others claim it can eclipse $200,000.

How do you target personal injury clients?

How to Get Personal Injury Clients (28 Tactics!)Website Design.Mobile Marketing.Search Engine Optimization.Social Media.Pay-Per-Click.Premium Placement Directories.Geo-Fencing.Re-Targeting.More items...•

What is the best way to market a law firm?

10 steps for marketing your law firmCreate a marketing budget. ... Build a well-designed law firm website. ... Ensure your site is search engine optimized. ... Claim your free online profiles. ... Make sure your law firm has a social media presence. ... Manage your law firm's online reviews effectively. ... Try your hand at content marketing.More items...•

Get Good Grades in College

The better your college transcript, the more competitive you’ll be when it comes time to apply to law school. However, don’t sacrifice a rigorous course of study just to pursue a 4.0. Your prospective law schools will want to see that you have a well-rounded education that includes a good mix of classes, particularly those that challenge you.

Take the Law School Admission Test (LSAT)

Most law schools heavily base their admissions on the applicant’s college transcript and performance on the LSAT. This test is designed to measure applicants’ logic, critical reading, task management and prioritization, and research skills.

Apply to Law Schools

Once you have a satisfactory LSAT score in hand, it’s time to apply to law school. With fewer than 200 accredited law schools in the U.S., the admissions process at the top schools can be highly competitive, so it’s a good idea to get an early start.

Earn a Juris Doctor (JD)

After three years of law school, you’ll receive a JD degree and be eligible to take the bar exam in the state you’d like to practice in. (This doesn’t have to be the state you attended law school in—as long as your school is accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA), you’ll generally be qualified to take the bar exam in any U.S.

Take Advantage of Internships

While you’re in law school, you may have the opportunity to intern with a practicing attorney or serve as law clerk to a judge. Not all of these internships are paid; however, even unpaid internships can offer an invaluable view into the nitty-gritty of practicing law.

Take (and Pass) the Bar Exam and MPRE

In addition to taking the bar exam, most states also require bar applicants to take the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE). This test measures a prospective attorney’s knowledge of legal ethics and professional responsibility standards.

2. Some Companies Lease Out your Case

If you hire a law firm that doesn’t have any personal injury specialists of their own, they will lease out your contract to someone else. That person will do all the legwork on your behalf, and get paid for it, then you will get the bill plus a tidy commission added on by the original firm for doing absolutely nothing.

3. Lawyers Have More Than 1 Client

Personal injury attorneys can have dozens of clients in their books at one time. This is partially because that’s how money is made in this industry, and partially because the court system moves at a snail’s pace. Since everything moves so slowly, there is plenty of time in between cases to deal with newcomers.

5. People Usually Settle

As a continuation from the above, people tend to settle out of court. It may take discussions and a few months of back and forth, but people usually find an offer that appeases them and meets their costs. It costs a company more to go to court than it does to fix things outside of court, so they will tend to avoid it if possible.

7. Settlements are Decided on Proof

The settlement amount that your claim is offered to stay out of court, depends on how much of a case you can prove. If you have them over a barrel with video, photo, and witness statements as evidence, then you are likely to be able to make your own demands. The amount you get relates entirely to your proof.

8. Personal Injury Law Firms are Small

Not in terms of reputation of profits earned, but there is little in the way of clerics, support staff, and PAs in the world of the law firm. There’s usually a receptionist and then the lawyers do everything else. Your personal injury attorney handles 95% of the work related to your case by themselves.

9. Insurance Firms want your Case to Fail

Your own insurance firm, someone else’s insurance firm – it doesn’t matter. Every case won sets a precedent for future losses on their behalf. They don’t want you to win, even if you are the one paying them.

10. It Takes Time

Personal Injury claims take a long time to complete. They run on for months and sometimes years. Don’t think it will be a quick fix. Document everything as you recover because the judge might not even see you until after you are fully recovered… they might not even see you at all, so give them photos.

Timing is critical

Your personal injury case has a time limit. This is because every state has a statute of limitations to take legal action. There are time limits for both criminal prosecution and civil lawsuits.

Be truthful with your personal injury lawyer

Sometimes people feel if they are completely honest with their lawyer, this will hurt their case. This isn’t necessarily so because your lawyer will understand if the issues you’re worried about are even relevant to the case. If it’s not relevant, then your lawyer can lodge a legal objection to it being brought up in court proceedings.

Relevant communication

We get that when the negligence of another party injures you, things can get emotional. And an empathetic lawyer is crucial to getting your emotional needs met. However, sharing every grievance with your lawyer when it’s not relevant to the case doesn’t help. We understand you have important things to say.

Managing expectations

Perhaps one of the most challenging aspects of being a personal injury lawyer is managing our client’s expectations. We understand you may feel vulnerable and emotional. And, this is one of the most difficult things you’ve had to face, especially if your injuries are severe or have your financial future compromised.

Why hire Morgan & Morgan personal injury lawyers?

Now you know a lot about how to have a successful relationship with your personal injury lawyer. It’s a two-way street, like all relationships. At Morgan & Morgan, we take our client-attorney relationships very seriously because we like to think our clients are an extension of the family.