Practical and Useful Guidelines to Wisely Choose a Worker’s Compensation Attorney
Unfortunately, as you may already know, serious injuries and/or illnesses can happen in almost any working environment. If you’ve suffered a serious work-related injury or illness, you should hire a Worker’s Compensation Attorney to manage your Workers’ Compensation Claim. This is because the Oklahoma Workers’ Compensation Law is complex and highly specialized, and a skilled attorney will understand the ins and outs of your unique situation. As a client, you will not be well served by attorneys who “dabble” rather than specialize in Workers’ Compensation Claim cases. Set your sights on finding an attorney with specific expertise in workers’ compensation, with a proven track record in this type of case.
Law practices, like every other business, use multi-media to advertise their services. But you cannot base your choice of attorney on glitzy ad campaigns. It is up to you to learn to use the most reliable indicators of a quality attorney — 1) the number of years that your attorney has had hands-on experience, 2) their depth of knowledge, 3) attention to detail, and 4) trustworthiness. These characteristics can rarely be evaluated in an advertisement. Certainly, it will take some extra time and effort for you to find the right attorney, but it can make all the difference in the success of your case.
Always keep in mind, a good lawyer approaches every case with one goal in mind – Get what a reasonable jury would award as fair and adequate compensation for the injured party. You must always negotiate from a position of strength with the other side. That means that the other side sees that you and your lawyer have put together the necessary information and witnesses to go to trial if necessary.
Let’s review some useful and actionable steps to take for finding a quality workers’ comp attorney to represent you.
Start with recommendations from friends, colleagues, and family members. Word of mouth is often said to be the best advertisement, one that money can’t buy. Many reliable and good workers’ compensation attorneys do very little advertising because they can comfortably rely on word-of-mouth referrals from their satisfied former clients. So ask around in your own circles to find who has worked with a good attorney. If nobody is able to give you a referral, you may also reach out to the state and/or local bar associations (or local legal aid offices) and ask for referrals. For you or anyone you know, the probability of finding a quality attorney as a result of a referral is far greater than if you were to flip through the phone book or do an internet search.
Next – once you have made a list of prospective lawyers, visit their websites and consider:
– Is there an emphasis on workers’ compensation expertise or does the practice appear to handle a wide variety of cases?
– Are there articles with information specific to workers’ comp law?
– Have former clients provided testimonials and online reviews?
– How old is the practice? Does the firm have a proven track record or success?
– As a prospective client, can you schedule a complimentary initial consultation?
More tips for finding a good attorney will be shared in Part 2 of this article. This is great info to save, should you ever find yourself needing to identify the best attorney for your case.