Hiring a personal injury specialist with the experience and expertise that you need can be a difficult experience. There is no doubt that we live in communities that are over-saturated with commercials, radio ads and billboard advertising about personal injury lawyers. Hiring a personal injury specialist with the experience and expertise that you need can be a difficult experience. It’s not often that a person needs to contact a lawyer in their life – outside of perhaps buying a home or making a will.
If you or your loved one has suffered life changing injuries, it’s better to hire a lawyer sooner rather than later for reasons that you can read here. The question is, how do you hire a personal injury specialist to help you recover the compensation that you deserve and protect your financial future? How do you ensure that the person you hire has the proper experience and expertise that you need to ensure your loved one is fully compensated? This is no easy task, but here are several suggestions that we have put together based on our years of experience in representing victims in Hamilton and throughout the Province.
[nvquote name=”Matt Lalande” url=””]Hiring a personal injury specialist with the experience and expertise that you need can be a difficult experience. It’s not often that a person needs to contact a lawyer in their life – outside of perhaps buying a home or making a will.[/nvquote]
No matter who you hire to represent you and your family in your personal injury case, it’s important that you hire local – Hamilton has some of the best trial lawyers in the Country. Our firm has a tremendous amount of experience with representing car accident victims that have suffered terrible and unimaginable life changing injuries.
However, if you choose to not retain our Hamilton car accident law firm, we strongly suggest that you hire a local Hamilton Law firm that you could speak to, visit, call and easily schedule appointments with at your convenience. Hamilton Ontario has some of the best trial lawyers and litigators in the country. There is no need to hire personal injury lawyers from Toronto to represent you in a car accident case if you live in Hamilton. Our city has some of the best and most recognized lawyers in Ontario.
You can read more about this here. In short, if you have been approached by a hospital tech, a nurse, and orderly, a therapist, a physiotherapist, and ultrasound tech, a surgical tech, a radiation therapist, a medical assistant ect. or more importantly, someone not employed by the hospital it’s best that you not meet with them or ever sign any documentation that they provide you.
We have heard horror stories over the years of people called “runners.” Runners are people employed by law firms to visit the families of injured people in the hospital. For example, runners may deliver flowers to a family member and during delivery, strongly suggest retaining a certain personal injury law firm.
In the article that we linked to above, we discuss that sometimes patients confide in their medical doctors after spending a significant amount of time with them during rounds in the morning. It’s not uncommon for patients and their families to ask doctors whether or not they should hire a lawyer. If that particular doctor has a personal friend or is related to a lawyer, sometimes that reference can be made quite ethically. Also, social workers that assist you with your discharge will more likely than not recommend two or three personal injury law firms for you to contact. This is normally highly appreciated and recommended.
However unsolicited suggestions about personal injury lawyers and personal injury law firms should be avoided. It’s better to do your research, talk to a social worker, ask friends and family, coworkers and other people for a referral. You can also read online about particular lawyers and if any of the websites peak your interest, feel free to give them a call. You can call our firm 247 at 905-333-8888.
When you or your family are looking to hire personal injury lawyer, don’t rely on billboards or radio ads alone. Do some research on the lawyer. Read their website. Read all of their articles. Read their blog. Read how much information they provide. Talk to people. Talk to coworkers. Talk to family members. Talk to people in your community. Our website is full of information about what we can offer as lawyers. Have a look around, and don’t be afraid to contact us if you have a question. Remember our consultations are free and we never ask for money up front. Even if we meet to discuss your case, there is absolutely no obligation to hire us. We are simply friendly to talk to and happy to inform you of your legal rights.
If you’re considering hiring a lawyer to represent you or your family obtain compensation to protect your future, it’s important that the lawyer you are considering specializes in personal injury law. This cannot be stressed enough.The Ontario insurance regime is extremely complex. Typically experienced lawyers will have years or decades of extensive legal training and have a very specialized knowledge of the Ontario insurance system, and the law. It’s important that you hire a lawyer that is experienced and practices personal injury law as a specialty, and has connections to the multidisciplinary stable of experts required to help prove your case.
This is very important. There is no substitute for experience. It takes time to develop the expertise to help navigate clients through Ontario’s complex insurance system through the settlement or verdict. A lawyer with more than 15 or so years’ of experience has no doubt developed an expertise in representing injured victims through various and countless scenarios. That lawyer might have developed a relationship with insurance defence lawyers, insurance adjusters, experts, evaluators, engineers, accountants, occupational therapists, orthopedic surgeons, physiatrists, neurologists, ENTs, and other experts that can assist in developing your claim. It’s important that the multidisciplinary approach regarding experts is properly utilized by your personal injury lawyer in order to prove, on a balance of probabilities, your economic and non-economic damages.
There is no doubt the trial experience is vital and necessary. Courtroom skill is an essential requirement. Ask how many times that lawyer has stood in front of a jury. Ask how many times that lawyer has argued bench trials.
It is very important to understand that once a lawyer has completed jury trials and bench trials, cases are viewed in a much different light. Risk can be properly and better understood and assessed. Although a jury is unpredictable, standing in front of a jury time after time no doubt helps a lawyer valuate cases differently and with experience. Once a lawyer has a significant amount of experience, in combination with trial experience, the assessment of cases is normally looked at differently. Trial work is not for the faint of heart, but once a battle has been won – or lost – preparing for that next battle becomes more and more fine-tuned and systematic. Trial experience matters.
We often tell her clients that personal injury law is not like family law or criminal law. When you mix the legal system, the insurance system and the medical system together – everything will slow moving – no matter how fast your lawyer processes your case. Cases sometimes take years to resolve.
Typically, most lawyers will contact their clients when there is reporting to give, appointments coming up, reports to obtain, examination for discoveries to prepare for, mediations to prepare for, and to obtain updates. Every few months we will reach out to clients to request updates about new doctors they have seen, new medications they have taken, new rehabilitation clinics they have attended, new specialists they have visited etc. so that we can order the appropriate clinical documentation to provide to the insurer in support of your case.
That being said, your law firm should be 100% approachable at all times. We welcome our clients to call us, email us or even drop in to visit us if they need any information or direction on their case. If we are unavailable, we will get back to you normally within 24 hours.
Never be afraid to ask a lawyer about results. We are so proud of our results, that we share some of them on our website. If a lawyer tells you that the information is confidential, then be sceptical. There is no reason that a lawyer cannot give you a range of settlements and verdicts that he or she has obtained over the course of his or her career without divulging the name or identity of a client. Results matter.
If you or your loved one has been hurt or suffered life changing injuries in a car accident, it’s important that you speak to lawyer as soon as possible. While doing your research, talk to family, friends, read websites, read bios, send emails, use live chats and shortlist two or three lawyers that you would like to speak to.
If you’re in the hospital, the personal injury lawyer that you would like to meet, should attend himself or herself in person and not send someone else. Make sure to be prepared with interview questions and documents and if that lawyer feels like a good fit, we recommend that you sign a retainer without delay. Hiring a lawyer early in the process can be tremendously helpful with your discharge home and helping ensure that all your requirements and needs are met and pay for by the insurance company.
Feel free to call us at 905-333-8888 if you have any questions. You may also use our live chat, or send in a contact form 24 seven. We will endeavor to get back to you as soon as possible. We would be happy to meet with no obligation.
I was a dental hygienist that suffers from really bad scoliosis. My insurance company ignored my doc & cut my benefits off & told me I could do “something”. Matt got me CPP Disability and and LTD settlement – I don’t know what I would have done without him.
My daughter was killed by a drunk driver and it forever changed all of our lives. It seemed that for two years time stopped. This was no an easy journey. Matt let me sit in on the discovery of the driver and boy, he never let up. In the end, our grand-daughter was taken care of and we were compensated for our loss – which we then donated to a cause we believed in.
I call Matt my knight in shining armour. After I was struck by a car while cycling and permanently crippled, he fielded all communications with my especially difficult and downright nasty insurance adjuster. Every step of my care was a battle and I did not have the strength to fight alone.
I lost my leg in a terrible motorcycle accident and Matt help me recover compensation I need because I could not work and the cost of prosthetics and rehab are out of this world. I don’t know what I would have done without him.
My brother ended up paralyzed after a car accident and Lalande did SO MUCH to help get things straight from him getting out of the hospital to all his care for life. We are so grateful for Matt & Heather. I don’t know how my family could have done this without them.
