5 Red Flags to Look for When Hiring a Ruskin Accident Lawyer

When searching for an accident lawyer near me, it’s easy to just read all of the great things that a lawyer says about themselves on their website and automatically think that they’re great and that you should hire them to handle your car accident case. However, that’s the last thing you should do. When interviewing lawyers to handle your case, it’s important to pay attention to how the lawyer treats you and your case before they’ve been hired, and also to the things that they promise you to entice you to hire them.

Below are 5 red flags to look for when hiring a Ruskin accident lawyer. However, keep in mind that even if a lawyer exhibits one or more of these red flags, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the lawyer or their firm isn’t a good firm or that the law firm doesn’t have some good lawyers in it. The presence of one or more of these red flags should, at the least, cause you some concern - because the presence of any one of these can be a glimpse into the window of how you’re likely to be treated as a client. It should also cause you to question whether that firm or lawyer is really the right fit for you or whether you should continue shopping for a lawyer.

When you’ve been injured in an accident, THE MOST important decision you’ll make is choosing the lawyer that will handle your case. This can’t be stressed enough, as there are a lot of lawyers out there and not all of them are suited or qualified to handle a personal injury case, even if they say they do.  And a lot of firms, quite frankly, who may have perfectly qualified attorneys, have strayed away from individual client care and are now focused too much on the business and marketing aspect of the profession. And for someone whose been injured and is looking for a lawyer, it’s not easy to figure out who you’re actually dealing with until, unfortunately, it’s too late.

Remember, when you’re injured in an accident you only have one case, whereas any given lawyer or law firm can have upwards of a 100 or more, and in the case of a large firm, possibly thousands of cases at any given time. And what’s most important as an accident victim -  is finding a lawyer that’s going to treat your one case like it’s just as important to them as it is to you, no matter how big or small your case may be.

So when you’re looking to hire an accident lawyer, be on the lookout for these red flags.

1.  Not Offering You a Free Consultation

The free consultation is the most important step in the hiring process of a personal injury lawyer and it’s something that’s offered by every injury lawyer and law firm.  It’s important because hiring a lawyer shouldn’t be just calling a phone number off a billboard and just agreeing “ok, since I see your face on all these billboards and commercials, you’re now my lawyer”, no -  rather it should be an interview process. That’s exactly what the free consultation is designed for.  It’s your one opportunity to sit down face to face with your potential lawyer and actually talk to that lawyer about your case because, chances are, unless the lawyer was referred to you or is a family friend, it’s probably the first time you’re actually meeting that lawyer.

More importantly, this is also your time to ask questions and get a feel for how you and that lawyer interact, which is extremely important. Believe it or not, not all lawyers get along with their clients and vice versa.

Unfortunately though, what often happens is that many lawyers and law firms, and this is especially true nowadays since there are so many firms that mass advertise and have a volume business -  they won’t even offer you this meeting. Instead, once you call them and give them some information about your case, they’ll just push to get their paperwork to you as quickly as possible so that you sign up as a client. This is a lot easier now that more and more people and law firms are using DocuSign and, surprisingly, a lot people just go along with this, like this is somehow how it’s done.

So if you call a law firm looking to hire a lawyer and they don’t offer you a free consultation with a lawyer, ask for one. Your case is too important to just rush through this very important decision.

2. Sending a Non-Lawyer Out to Meet With You

This one is way too common. So here’s the scenario – you’re in an accident, and you’re injured from that accident, so you call a law firm. The person who takes your call at the firm asks you some questions, takes down your information, and then schedules someone to come out to your home to meet with you. That’s great, right – you’ll get the chance to talk to someone about your case in person, and you’ll get any questions you have answered at that time. Then, when it comes time for your meeting, a person from the firm, or on behalf of the firm, shows up at your home, but they’re not a lawyer. Instead, the law firm has sent out an investigator or, or maybe even a paralegal or a legal assistant with a bunch of paperwork for you to fill out and sign. This should be a huge red flag for you because, if you just sign that paperwork, you’re now their client and you haven’t even met your lawyer yet.

Now, presumably your case is important to that lawyer or law firm, because they just spent resources sending someone out to meet with you. But if the lawyer who you call, or the one who is going to be handling your case, or both, can’t take the time out of their day to sit down and talk to you personally about your case – which is important to you and should be just as important to them – if they can’t do that at this early stage in your case when they are trying to get your business, this should be a huge red flag for you. What this tells you is that later on in your case, if you actually sign up with them, that your lawyer probably won’t have time for you then either. And the last thing you want is to hire a lawyer who you’ll never, or rarely if ever, get to talk to.

3. They Don’t Specialize in Handling Personal Injury Cases

There are a lot of lawyers out there and many of them handle a variety of different kinds of cases, ranging from bankruptcy to criminal law, Divorce, and even personal injury law. While this was common in the past, in today’s legal environment things have become much more specialized. And the reason for this is that the law is constantly changing and it can often be very difficult to keep up on all the changes unless you’re immersed in the subject on a regular basis.

A lot of lawyers use the analogy of a heart surgeon. If you had a heart problem, would you go to your family doctor for it. Of course not, you’d go to a specialist. Well, the same is true for a lawyer. And while you would think that any competent lawyer could handle, for example, a car accident case, they can’t, at least not as well as a lawyer who handles car accident cases every single day.

So if you’re shopping for a lawyer to handle your accident case, hop on their website and see if that’s all they do. If not, that red flag should be waiving.

4. They Promise You a Certain Result

Believe it or not, this actually happens. Some lawyers will make promises and guarantee outcomes just to get a new client to sign up with their firm. The problem is that no lawyer can promise or guarantee anything with regard to the outcome of your case. This is especially true early in your case as there are so many different factors that go into determining the value of a case, and many of those won’t even be known until you’ve been treating for your injury for a period of time. Things like how much your medical bills are, or if you’ll need future medical treatment. If so, what will the cost of that future treatment be? These are things that could never be known at the outset of most cases, and are very important factors in determining the value of a case.

So if a lawyer tries to tell you how much money they’ll get you or how much your case is worth before you even hire them, you may want to keep shopping.

5. They Promise You How Long Your Case Will Take

Just like promising a certain result for your case, promising you how long it will take to resolve your case is virtually impossible. There are so many different factors that affect how long any given case may take, things such as 1) the amount of insurance coverage involved; 2) your medical treatment; and 3) are there any disputes as to liability. For example, if it’s a car accident case, is it clear who is at fault or is the insurance company challenging this. If so, a lawsuit may be needed and that will take time. Sometimes, even the negotiation process alone can take a lot longer than anyone would ever imagine.

The bottom line is that all cases are full of unknowns, and when a lawyer tries to tell you otherwise, especially when you haven’t even hired that lawyer yet, you should look at it for what it really is - and that’s to get you to sign up as a client.

To sum it all up, the legal profession is not unlike most highly competitive industries where it’s all about growth and streamlining the entire process. But given how important an injury case is to the person who suffered the injury, and the fact that their case is their one and only opportunity to recover for what are often life changing injuries, choosing a lawyer to handle your case should not be taken lightly. 

Just like you would do when choosing how to invest your finances, which you certainly wouldn’t do by just looking a billboard, choosing your lawyer should be done with the same due diligence. So be on the lookout for these red flags, and if you see one, strongly consider whether you should continue your search, because hiring the right lawyer could make or break your case.

Call Jim The Lawyer, Accident and Injury Attorney,

After Your Ruskin Car Accident

Hiring an experienced car accident lawyer can make all the difference in the outcome of your Ruskin car accident case. Lawyers who focus their law practices on car accident cases possess the knowledge, skill, reputation, and resources to help get you the best results, no matter how complex or contentious your claim becomes. 



There's no time like the present to start searching for the right car accident lawyer near me to handle your injury case. If you’ve been injured in a Ruskin, Florida car accident, Jim The Lawyer is here to help you fight to get the maximum compensation you deserve for your injury. If you’ve been injured as a result of someone else’s negligence, contact Jim The Lawyer, Accident and Injury Attorney, at (813)937-9907 for a FREE Consultation and Case Evaluation.