Lawsuit Information Center
If you have been in a serious car accident that was not your fault, you find yourself shopping for the best and most successful accident lawyer to take your case.
Make no mistake. The best auto accident lawyers get the best results. Top-level auto accident attorneys have the skills to aggressively stand behind your case and push as far as necessary to get to the maximum out-of-court settlement, even if that means taking it to trial.
So who is the best and most effective auto accident lawyer near you? You need to figure that out, right? The answer to that question often depends on your specific needs and circumstances.
Let’s talk about what we think is the most effective criteria for evaluating personal injury attorneys and picking the best car crash lawyer near you and let’s see if you agree.
What to Look for When Selecting the Best Car Accident Lawyer
Below are some essential elements for selecting the best possible personal injury attorney to represent you in your auto accident case.
Location – Auto Accident Lawyers Near Me
Your first instinct might be to try to find a car crash lawyer with a conveniently located office for your purposes. Someone with an office close to where you live or work. Most personal injury lawyers (including our firm) offer virtual and online consultations.
Being close to your lawyer’s office mattered a great deal in 1984. In 2024, that is nonsense. What you want is to find the attorney who will maximize the compensation you receive as quickly as possible. That is what matters, right? How much money you get and how fast you get it. Does that sound a little crass? It does. But make no mistake, a civil lawsuit is always about money. Our system of justice cannot erase your injury. It provides a settlement amount or jury payout for the harm done to you.
So searching for the top car accident lawyer “near you” may not be the best path if your goal is maximizing how much money you put in your pocket.
Look for Lawyers Who Focus on Car Accident Cases
You should always look for attorneys or law firms that focus primarily on personal injury cases, particularly auto accident cases. Handling auto accident injury cases requires a specific skill set that is developed through experience over time. So you want someone who has lots of experience with auto tort cases.
Some lawyers may focus their practice on family or criminal law but will take auto accident cases that come their way. The best car accident lawyers will devote most or all of their practice to auto accidents and personal injury cases. These are the car accident lawyers that will be best able to deliver you the results you are looking for.
Look for Auto Accident Lawyers With the Resources to Handle Your Case Properly
In an auto accident injury case, you will go up against big insurance companies like State Farm, GEICO, or Progressive. These are massive companies with almost limitless resources. You need an auto accident attorney with the staff and resources to battle these big insurance companies and not be overwhelmed.
When shopping for a reasonable auto accident attorney, look for a lawyer or firm with enough support staff and other resources. Also, ask about their caseload and whether they can devote the appropriate time and attention to your case.
How Much Will the Attorney Charge for Your Case
When shopping for a good car accident attorney, you should always consider how much that attorney will cost you. Almost all personal injury lawyers handle auto accident cases on a contingency fee. This means they get a percentage of whatever money they collect in your case and are reimbursed for their expenses.
Attorneys’ Fees
Most auto accident attorneys charge a contingency fee of 33%-40%. But this is negotiable, and some lawyers are willing to reduce their contingency fee. However, be careful because car crash lawyers are just like everything else in life. You usually get what you pay for. Lawyers who drop their fees often do so because they need the work. Ironically, the best auto accident attorney for you is likely someone who does not need your case because they are in demand.
Controlling Expenses
One thing that can significantly affect how much money you end up with in your auto accident case is how much your lawyer spends on expenses on your case. Lawyers get reimbursed for expenses on your case. This is NOT included in the contingency fee. A good auto accident lawyer know how to limit the number of unnecessary expenses in your case. You don’t want someone who is hiring expensive and potentially unnecessary medical experts.
Avoid Legal Ranking Sites With “Best Accident Lawyer” Lists
If you do a web search for “best car accident lawyers” or “accident lawyers near me” your search results page will include a lot of hits from third-party lawyer marketing companies like FindLaw, Super Lawyers, Law.com, etc. These websites make it seem like they will provide you with some sort of list that objectively ranks the “best” auto accident lawyers in your area.
However, what you get from these companies is not any meaningful or objective ranking of accident lawyers based on their skills, success rates, or client approval ratings. Instead, these companies show you a list of lawyers who have paid that legal marketing company to get “ranked” at the top of the list for the key phrase you searched for.
So if you click on FindLaw’s list of “Best Baltimore Car Accident Lawyers,” you will see a list of FindLaw’s advertising clients. This list only shows you who has paid the most to FindLaw to get their name at the top of the “rankings.”
But… look, we are probably coming on too strong by saying avoid. Our law firm and our car accident lawyers are on SuperLawyers and the Best Lawyers in America and we are there for a reason. So can you use these things as a factor in your consideration? Of course. Just make it one factor.
Avoid “Sponsored” Search Results at Top of Page
If you do a Google search for “auto accident lawyers,” the top 4 or 5 links on your search results page will say “Sponsored” directly above the page link. This means that this is what is called a “pay-per-click” link with Google. It means that the lawyer is paying Google to appear at the top of the search page for “auto accident lawyers” and each time someone clicks on their link Google charges them a fee.
Being at the top of the search page as a sponsored link is not any sort of indication about that lawyer’s skills or abilities in accident cases. It just means that they are willing to pay Google to be at the top of the search list.
Read Client Reviews – Not Just the “Star” Rating
The Google business profile for a lawyer or law firm will have reviews from prior clients along with a “star rating” of 1 thru 5, with 5 stars being the best and 1 being the worst. Google totals the start ratings from all the reviews and gives a cumulative average (e.g., 4.9 stars, 3.5 stars, etc.). A lot of people will simply look at the star rating to quickly assess whether the lawyer is good. Taking the time to actually read some of the reviews is a much better way of evaluating a lawyer. It will help you asses how genuine the lawyer’s star rating is, and also give you an idea of how prior clients felt about them.
Questions to Help Find the Best Car Accident Lawyer Near You
Once you have identified potential auto accident law firms with convenient office locations and the resources to handle your case, you may need to ask questions to refine your search further and select the best one for you. Below are some basic questions you should consider when evaluating accident lawyers and law firms. If you search for accident attorney near me, these are things you should be asking when you follow up on those search results.
What is the law firm’s track record in auto accident cases?
This is the question you care about most. This is 100 times more important to you than that car accident lawyers near me search.
A law firm’s track record or recent history of results in other car accident cases is probably the most important fact to consider when evaluating an injury attorney. A good auto accident lawyer or law firm should have a long and consistent track record of success and positive results in prior cases. This is like a win-loss record for a sports team. It may not tell the whole story, but it is the best overall indicator of who is good. Be wary of accident firms who cannot boast about their successful track record.
Getting the best car accident lawyer means a lot to the ultimate settlement compensation or jury payout you receive. A lawyer with a successful track record has earned a reputation among their peers, judges, and insurance companies. This reputation can play a crucial role in negotiations, as opposing parties are more inclined to offer a fair settlement payout if they believe the attorney is capable and willing to take the claim to court.
This is a tricky question for many to ask. It is hard to call someone out and demand their qualifications. But you have to push past it and ask the hard questions. The first answer you get might be confusing or unclear. You cannot accept a yadda, yadda, yadda answer.
You must ask for details and specifics in your follow-up to any vague answers that do not tell you what you need to know. How many million-dollar verdicts do you have? Have you ever taken a case to trial against this insurance company? How many trials have you had in the last year? These are not complicated questions for the best car accident lawyers to answer. Good accident attorneys welcome the questions so they can brag without having to be the ones to bring them up. The lawyers that start talking in circles? You should worry about these.
Has the firm handled cases similar to yours in the past?
Another essential thing to consider is whether the law firm or lawyer has handled prior cases similar to yours. If your auto accident case involves a unique type of physical injury, unique liability circumstances, or specific insurance companies, you should look for law firms that have handled cases with similar characteristics.
If your accident case involves something unique, like a degloving injury, you may want to look for a car accident firm that has previously handled that injury and had success with it. If the insurance company in your accident case is GEICO, you should find out whether the accident law firm has experience dealing with GEICO on claims.
How Much Does the Lawyer Think Your Case Is Worth?
You should always ask how much the lawyer thinks your case might be worth. Many auto accident lawyers will be cautious when answering this question and don’t expect to get a concrete value estimate. But you should still ask anyway. The lawyer has an opinion on how much your case might be worth.
The best auto accident lawyers are those that can answer this question by giving you a reasonable estimate range and supporting that estimate with evidence-based opinions and prior comparable results.
How Often Does the Firm Take Cases to Trial?
This is a subset of our earlier advice to look at your prospective attorney’s track record. A big part of track record is winning at trial, not just securing big settlements.
When selecting an auto accident lawyer or law firm, you should look for someone willing to take cases to trial. Everyone wants to settle out of court because it’s faster, easier, and usually cheaper. But to get the most money out of the insurance company, you need to have the threat of going to trial.
So it is crucial to consider the track record of results your law firm has secured in auto accident cases. Insurance companies pay close attention to law firms and attorneys who have a history of taking cases to trial and winning significant verdicts. Why? Lawyers with a proven track record of success in court send a clear message to insurance companies: they are not afraid to push for maximum compensation and are fully prepared to take a case to trial if necessary.
This willingness to go the distance leads to better settlement offers from insurance companies, who would rather avoid the risk and expense of losing in court.
If your car wreck lawyer has a reputation for settling cases and is afraid of going to trial, you will get lower settlement offers. So finding a car accident lawyer near you should be secondary in 2024. You need to find the best car accident attorney to maximize the settlement amount of your claim.
How to Find the Best Car Accident Lawyers
Many people go online searching for the best car accident attorneys near me. The auto accident lawyers at Miller & Zois work with local counsel in all 50 states on severe auto accident cases. If you have an accident case and decide that we may be the best lawyer for you, contact us today for a free consultation at 800-553-8082. You can get a free case evaluation online as well.