What to Expect and How to Prepare for Your Free Personal Injury Consultation
Personal injury consultation in Florida? This article will help you understand you should expect and questions to ask.
When you have been injured in a personal injury accident, choosing the right attorney can feel daunting. Don’t let the fear of making a wrong choice keep you from retaining a lawyer. Almost all Florida accident lawyers offer a free consultation.
If you are searching online for a “personal injury lawyer near me” with free consultations, be sure to contact us at Abrahamson & Uiterwyk. Our lawyers have over 30 years of experience handling personal injury and accident claims throughout Florida.
Before you meet with Abrahamson & Uiterwyk, make sure you are well-prepared. Be sure to gather all pertinent information and have a list of questions written down to ask during your consultation. To get you started, we’re sharing how to get prepared and what to expect at your initial personal injury consultation.
Information You Should Gather for Your Consultation
Make the most of your initial consultation by bringing as much information and evidence about your case as possible. Some of the most important documentation to have with you includes:
- Government-issued ID,
- Accident or incident report,
- Scene photos,
- Police citation,
- Insurance information,
- Insurance company correspondence,
- Injury photos,
- Witness information,
- Emergency room records,
- Doctor reports,
- Diagnostic lab results,
- Receipts for accident-related expenses,
- Pre-existing medical conditions,
- List of current prescriptions,
- Your notes, and
- Any other pertinent information.
Some of these may not apply to your situation, which is fine. For example, you may not have the accident report back yet or the police may not have issued a citation.
If you haven’t already written down notes about the accident, start now. It’s not uncommon to forget small details as time goes on.
You should write up a comprehensive account of everything that happened at the scene of the accident. Having all of this documented in one place will help your future attorney as well.
Questions the Attorney Will Likely Ask You
When you meet with an injury attorney for your free consultation, most of that meeting will be spent discussing what happened during the accident. The attorney wants to know your version of events and what injuries you sustained. An experienced attorney will ask you plenty of questions to learn more about your case.
Attorneys also use this time to assess you as a potential client. They do this as a way of evaluating how you will appear on the stand or during a deposition.
The attorney will likely ask you about the following information during your consultation.
Timing
One of the first questions your attorney will ask before proceeding is when the incident or accident occurred. Attorneys need to find out whether the statute of limitations has already passed. In most cases, this may not be an issue. However, there are some claims where the statute of limitations is about to expire or already has. In those situations, it’s nearly impossible to get the court to accept your filing, so an attorney may decline to take your case.
Facts of the Case
Expect that you will be asked about specific details of your accident. They want to know whether you received a traffic citation or if criminal charges were filed. The attorney will probably ask if you previously provided a recorded statement to the insurance adjuster and what you said. They are trying to determine whether you may have inadvertently admitted fault or said something that could harm your case.
Medical History
Your attorney needs your prior medical history to understand what your life was like before the accident. When you bring all that documentation with you, it saves time and allows the attorney to move on to the next set of questions.
Questions That You Ought to Ask the Attorney
Use your list of prepared questions to help assess whether a firm is the right fit for you. Some clients come to us after disappointing meetings with other firms. There are several reasons for this. It may be because they were caught off guard by something said or their case was transferred to an attorney with less experience.
We want you to be happy and feel secure in your decision to retain Abrahamson & Uiterwyk. When you have a list of questions to ask us at the initial consultation, you can make an educated decision on whether our firm is right for you.
Questions you should be asking at your first meeting include:
- What will happen after this free consultation?
- How long do you think my case will take to resolve?
- Will you be the attorney assigned to my case?
- What is your background with these types of cases?
- How long have you been practicing?
- What is your record at trial for similar cases?
- What is your billing structure?
- Who will deal with my current medical bills?
- What is your timeframe for returning client calls and emails?
- How long do I have before we need to file a lawsuit?
- Do I need to do anything else after this meeting?
- How are you different from other Florida personal injury firms?
- When will I receive payment after my case settles?
- How much will you take from my settlement?
There may be some other questions to ask that are specific to your case. Perhaps you have been negotiating with the insurance company already, and they extended an offer. You may have questions related to that offer and whether it’s fair. It’s better to have more questions on your list than not enough.
Contact a Florida Accident Lawyer for a Free Consultation
If you have been injured in a Florida personal injury accident, don’t attempt to resolve your case on your own. Retaining an experienced attorney can help you maximize your case value. We can also help expedite the claims process.
We understand that this is a stressful and confusing time for you. We offer professional, yet compassionate, legal representation. We want to help you resolve your claim and to seek the maximum amount possible while ensuring you don’t feel left out of the process.
Our attorneys have over three decades of personal injury experience. Let us put that knowledge and experience to work for you. Contact Abrahamson & Uiterwyk today to schedule your free initial consultation.