At The Cooper Personal Injury Law Firm, we are dedicated to providing each client with the personal attention and care they deserve. We understand that this may be your first experience seeking assistance regarding a personal injury case. Our goal is to offer experienced legal advice to suit your specific need.
Some of the more frequent questions are as follows:
The answer to this question is perhaps the easiest answer of all. A consultation with a personal injury attorney should never cost you anything! Any attorney that would charge you for merely consulting them regarding the merits of your case is an attorney you should avoid. Any competent, reliable personal injury attorney will provide you, at no charge, a free consultation to discuss the merits of your case and answer questions you may have concerning your rights and how to proceed with your case. Since consulting with an attorney will not cost you anything, you should consult with a personal injury attorney who is an expert in the field of your particular case as soon as possible following your injury.
A common attorney’s fee charged by personal injury lawyers who are competent and intend to provide full services to their client is a one-third (33 1/3%) contingency fee if the case does not require litigation. There are some so-called “discount” lawyers who will offer to handle personal injury cases for a twenty-five percent contingency fee. The Cooper Law Firm is not a discount law firm and we do not take cases where we will provide less than full legal representation. If you are considering hiring one of the so-called “discount” lawyers, you should ask yourself what is it about that firm’s practices that permits it to charge less for its services. Do they do it by providing less service? Do they do it by having work that a lawyer should, or would ordinarily, perform and instead have that work performed by non-lawyers? Will the “discount” lawyer personally make all tactical and strategic decisions, including the actual negotiation of the claim, with the insurance company? A consumer should be very careful hiring a lawyer who discounts his or her fees, and you should make sure that the lawyer you are contracting with is going to actually perform and make the legal decisions, and such are not being delegated to non-lawyers.
Choosing the right personal injury attorney may be the most important decision an injured person makes in the presentation of a bodily injury claim following an automobile accident, or any other personal or bodily injury claim, such as motorcycle, pedestrian, truck or bike accidents.
Unfortunately, there are very little legal rules in place to guarantee that a lawyer holding themselves out as an expert in personal injury litigation is in fact qualified in the field. California does not have a specialization requirement for personal injury attorneys, and sadly, the law permits any licensed attorney to accept and handle cases for personal injuries, no matter how complex or involved!
Of critical importance is that the client should find out how much knowledge the attorney has of the particular injury you have suffered? An experienced personal injury lawyer should have a wide range of medical knowledge, and be well-versed in the specifics of your injury, otherwise they will not know how to present the claim to the insurance company, and just as importantly, without knowledge of the medicine involved in your injury, the attorney will not be qualified to monitor the care the injured person is receiving.