How to Choose the Best Accident Lawyer in San Antonio and What You Need to Know Before Hiring a Law Firm

Drive through San Antonio and you’ll see billboards everywhere you look. Most of the faces you see on these billboards are personal injury attorneys who focus on motor vehicle accidents. So, how does one choose the best attorney to handle their case? Here are a few things you need to know. Most people don’t know all of these thing so we are here to provide you some “insider” information.

1. Unless you’ve been injured in an accident, very few attorneys will want to help you. Why? Because there is no money to be made. Injury payments are almost always correlated to the severity of the injuries suffered. Sore neck from an accident? Don’t expect a big payout. If you have broken bones or surgeries, then payout will be much larger. If you have permanent injuries or if a fatality was involved, those carry the largest payouts.
2. Most attorneys have little to no trial experience. While most motor vehicle accident cases resolve in a settlement of some kind, the heavy majority of attorneys have no intention of taking your case to trial. In fact, some never go to trial. The insurance company knows which firms take cases to trial and which ones settle everything. Guess who gets paid more settlement money? Thats right…the ones that are not afraid to try a case in a courtroom. Going to trial is expensive, so many firms don’t want that financial burden. Either does the insurance company. If they fear that an attorney will try a case, they may be willing to pay more money to resolve that case. So, although your case is likely to end in settlement, you are better off hiring a lawyer who strikes some fear with the insurance company. Hire an experience trial lawyer.
3. Many law firms are settlement “mills”. What does that mean? This usually means they just want to get your case in and out as fast as possible. Unfortunately, the client suffers if the law firm accepts a low settlement offer from the insurance company. This is the risk you take if you hire a law firm that does “too much volume”. Hiring the best accident lawyer in San Antonio will help you avoid hiring a settlement mill for a law firm.
4. Some attorneys will refer your case to another law firm to handle: There are firms that will accept your case, but then refer it out to another law firm to handle. This is so they can receive a cut of the case without having to do any work! Make sure when you talk to any attorney that you are considering hiring, you ask if they will refer your case out.
5. Some attorneys will have their young associates handle your case so they don’t do any work: It’s kind of a bait-and-switch maneuver. There are accident law firms out there that will take your case, but then have a young inexperienced associate handle the case. In some cases, that’s fine but just beware that this happens.