Choosing an Attorney

Choosing a Lake Charles personal injury attorney - Five questions you should ask:

1) Is the attorney highly experienced at handling serious injury and death cases? Damages arising from catastrophic injury or death must be properly presented to maximize your recovery. In cases such as these, with higher stakes hinging on the out-come, defendants often pull out all stops in trying to defeat the case. These cases are more likely to be hard-fought, and the attorney’s experience at fighting and winning these battles will be crucial to your recovery. The law firm of Broussard & Hart concentrates their law practice on serious personal injury and death cases only, and has recovered over $55 million for their clients, one case at a time. Client referral list available on request.

2) Who is actually going to handle your case? Some lawyers have fancy ad campaigns that look good, but those lawyers do not actually do the bulk of the work for the clients who sign up with them. When the client signs the contract, these attorneys turn around and refer the case to another attorney – someone the client may never have even heard of, much less met. At Broussard & Hart, we will personally handle your case from start to finish.

3) How accessible will the attorney be after taking the case? If you have suffered a serious personal injury or lost a loved one, it’s only natural that you might have questions that need to be answered while your case is pending. One of the biggest complaints made against lawyers through the Bar Association is that lawyers do not return phone calls, and fail to keep their clients informed as to the progress in their case. At Broussard & Hart, our goal is to return every client’s phone call within 24 business hours. Broussard & Hart’s standard practice is to keep clients informed as to the progress in their case by sending each client a copy of virtually all correspondence and work product produced during the representation. When you’ve got pressing questions about your case, Broussard & Hart will provide the answers.

4) If necessary to effect a fair recovery, is the attorney willing to take the case to trial? The truth of the matter is that when a case is properly prepared for trial, more likely than not, the case can be settled and a fair recovery made without the need to actually try the case. However, some lawyers and law firms are more reluctant than others to actually take cases to trial, even if the settlement offered by the defendant is less than most would consider fair. When a lawyer (or a law firm) gets this kind of reputation in the legal community, their ability to maximize their clients’ recovery is diminished. Ask the attorney you are considering about his/her trial work on cases like yours. Better yet, if you know a defense attorney who represents insurance companies and defends serious personal injury and wrongful death cases, ask them about a prospective attorney’s reputation in the community and their willingness to try a case to get a fair recovery for their client.

5) Does the attorney have the financial strength to properly handle the case load? At first, it might not occur to you that an attorney’s financial strength would be an important consideration in selecting one to handle a serious personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit. However, the attorney’s financial strength can be very important. As mentioned above, serious injury and wrongful death cases will be vigorously defended. In most cases, the defense will hire one or more expert witnesses who will testify on a broad array of subjects, including both liability and damages issues. An attorney representing the person who has been seriously injured or representing the family of a wrongful death victim, must employ expert witnesses to present the plaintiff’s side of the case. If a lawyer cannot afford to hire the best experts and wage battle with the defendants, for as long as it takes and until the case is properly prepared for trial, the client’s interests may be jeopardized. At Broussard & Hart, we have the financial strength to handle any serious personal injury or wrongful death case.