Any good personal injury lawyer in London agrees to provide a potential client with a free consultation. That consultation allows the lawyer to learn more about the presented case. In other words, the consulted attorney often seeks the answers to specific questions.
Questions that personal injury lawyers ask most frequently during a consultation
When was the lawsuit filed?
If the filing took place after the deadline, the lawyer would have no way to proceed with the settlement process. An attorney might also ask this: When is the deadline for filing lawsuit. Lawyers that get consulted just one day before the deadline might not want to proceed on such short notice.
What are the details, regarding your claim?
Lawyers prefer to take cases that deal with a familiar set of facts. Some personal injury lawyers focus on helping victims of a truck accident. Some have extensive experience with helping the victims of a slip and fall incident.
What was the nature of your injury?
Besides preferring to take on cases with familiar situation, some personal injury lawyers like to handle a case where the victim sustained a special type of injury. For example, an attorney that had chosen to specialize in victims of traumatic brain injuries might hesitate to take a client with a severe back injury.
Is it clear that the other party was at fault for this accident?
An attorney would not welcome the chance to handle a case where the plaintiff and defendant were forced to share the fault. That could mean more work, and less money, in the form of compensation or a court-granted award.
Did you seek prompt medical attention on the day of the accident?
Victims that delay the effort to go after medical attention risk the chance for being charged with failing to mitigate their injuries. Their attorney must fight that charge, in order to win a fair compensation/award for that particular victim/client.
Other factors that could influence a lawyer’s decision, to handle or not handle a claim
The possibility that the acceptance of a given case might represent a conflict of interest: For example, if someone in the lawyer’s family worked at a given restaurant, that fact could dissuade the same attorney from handling a slip and fall incident that had occurred at the targeted restaurant.
Evidence that the plaintiff is seeking revenge: Personal injury lawyers do not like to represent clients that want to get revenge on a specific defendant. That motivation could push them to refuse a fair settlement and to try getting more money by taking their case to court. Only those with a reasonable argument should expect to achieve their goal by electing to undertake such an approach.