Wednesday, December 9, 2009

What Is Personal Injury Law

By Tony Garrudo

Personal injury (PI) practice differs from other law practice mainly because of financial requirements. In this kind of law practice, a lawyer have to spend his or her time and money getting the case ready for settlement or trial; then gets paid in a year or two, if the lawyer wins the case. Lawyers don't necessarily get paid for all the time that they spend in the cases and have to do a lot of work. A PI lawyer usually needs to hire doctors, engineers, accident reconstruction experts, and other professionals needed to analyze critical issues and testify in court.

If an attorney is handling a large load of cases, he would have difficulty managing the people he needs for court and getting them paid in a timely manner. Therefore, a PI lawyer has to gather funds together in order to be able handle these cases. Since there are many personal and financial risks involved, you should take some time to reflect and determine if you can handle the difficulties the accompany a career as a personal injury lawyer.

It is often difficult for personal injury lawyers to win at trial. Many states have placed caps on the amount of money an injured person can be awarded at trial due to the "tort reforms" legislation. Additionally, a lot of defense firms have clients who are less likely to settle their case before trial. For this reason, if you file a lawsuit, you are probably embarking on a very long process which will include many expenses, including filing fees, expert fees, depositions and various other court costs that the personal injury lawyer will have to pay for in advance of trial. Unfortunately, because of the length and expense of litigation, individuals often settle their cases for much less than its true value.

The public's attitude towards personal injury cases is quite discouraging to law practitioners but the rewards of winning a case are enormous. Oftentimes, we heard news on insurance fraud, scams, and conspiracies involving personal injury lawyers, doctors, and their clients. But on the bright side of things, nowhere in the practice of law is there more of a David versus Goliath scenario than a person on a court battle with gigantic insurance company or corporation.

There are many types of PI lawyers with different aptitudes, personalities, interests, weaknesses and strengths but when practicing this profession you will be able to help people who were treated unfairly and truly need someone who is on their side.

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