Being in a car wreck is terrifying. Dealing with the aftermath of your car wreck can literally ruin your life. You have to cope with your injuries, and those of the passengers in your car. You might have to struggle with your insurance company or the insurance companies of the other drivers in the car wreck, to get the support you need to recover. You have to deal with repairing the damage that your vehicle sustained in the car wreck. On top of that, every time you close your eyes, you relive the car that slammed into yours. If your injuries interrupted your ability to work, you might be dealing with financial stress as well.
When these are the struggles that you’re coping with, the last thing you need is an vehicle accident attorney who is incompetent. Having a great car wreck lawyer who really goes to bat for you is critical in getting the support you need to recover. The opposite is also true — if you have an auto accident who doesn’t do their job, it isn’t just a waste of money. Your useless auto accident attorney could be the very reason that you lose thousands of dollars that you need from insurance to recover. Your car crash could be exponentially more difficult with a bad attorney. To help you avoid this pitfall, we’ve put together a list of red flags that should tell you to run and find a new attorney, pronto!
Three Signs That You Need a New Attorney
- RED FLAG: Your attorney makes you feel like you work for them, not vice versa.
A good attorney takes the steering wheel in your case and gets you the best settlement or outcome for your circumstances. If you feel like the entire case is resting on your shoulders and your lawyer is just there to offer a few minutes of their time every few weeks (or months), just to tell you what you’ve done wrong, you have the wrong lawyer. A few signs that this is the lawyer you’re using include:- They’re impossible to get a hold of. They don’t return calls or emails. You have more contact with their voicemail than you ever get from them.
- You have to manage the calendar and light a fire under their rear every time a deadline approaches. Personal injury cases are very time-sensitive, your lawyer should be proactive to make sure paperwork is filed in a timely fashion.
- They’re generally disorganized. Car accident law is a very paperwork-heavy area of law. If your lawyers’ office is a disaster, or the paperwork is chaos, you don’t want your case to get mixed up in the madness.
- RED FLAG: You do not get a trust-worthy vibe from your lawyer.
There is a strong measure of trust that you have to extend to your lawyer when you put your car accident case in their hands. If they mismanage your case, it’s not just a mild inconvenience to you; it’s your livelihood. This goes both ways:- Don’t trust a lawyer who sounds too good to be true. Alarm bells should start sounding off if your lawyer is making you promises about the outcome of your case. In reality, the outcome of your case is outside of their control. If you’re hearing guarantees about the settlement you’re going to win, your lawyer is lying to you and you should find a new one.
- Don’t trust a lawyer who is a giant Debbie-downer. If your lawyer has a permanent negative attitude, and maybe even rubs you wrong, you should hit the ‘eject’ button and keep looking. How can you trust that the lawyer is going to work well with other drivers, insurance companies, and the courts to get you the best outcome if you don’t even want to work with them?
- RED FLAG: Your lawyer doesn’t have a reputation that speaks for itself.
A good lawyer has a long line of satisfied clients in their wake. You should be able to ask the lawyer for references from clients with similar cases. If the lawyer refuses to offer this to you, you should consider it a red flag. A giant red flag.
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