If you happen to meet an accident as the result of the negligence of another person entity or company, you need the personal injury lawyer to represent and process your claim. The injury lawyer must be equipped with knowledge, skills, and expertise in the area of tort law. This law includes economic and non economic damages to the victim’s property, rights, and reputation. This type of lawyer only handles the cases that fall under the tort law and it includes but not limited to car accidents, medical malpractice, work injuries, slip and fall injury, and product liability.
The Responsibility of the Injury Lawyer
The injury lawyer has lots of responsibilities to his/her clients and this includes ethical and professional conduct mandated by the state bar association – the licensing institution of the lawyers. Once they are licensed to practice, they are now allowed to file legal complaints, draft the legal documents, offer legal advice, and argue cases in the court.
The personal injury lawyer has to review your case carefully. They need to do extensive research so that they will be able to build a strong and upright case. It is their utmost duty to help the claimants obtain justice and get the right compensation for all their sufferings and losses. Remember that the compensation does not only cover the financial loss or the medical expenses of the claimant. It must also cover the non economic losses and this includes emotional, psychological, and mental pain.
This type of lawyer must agree and follow the austere standards in legal ethics when they deal with their clients. Even if the guidelines will vary from country to country, the lawyer must not forget that they have to show competence in undertaking legal matter. They also have to evaluate each of the cases carefully without bias. They owe their clients the duty of confidentiality and loyalty. They must work according to the interest of the client.
Compensation of the Injury Lawyer
There are number of factors that can affect the lawyer’s fees. Some the factors are the outcome of the case, energy and time dealt on the case, level of difficulty of the claim, reputation and experience of the lawyer, the costs related to the case. The injury lawyer can offer several standard options on how to pay them. Some of the options are the hourly rates, retainers, flat fees, and the contingency fees.
Among the options, the contingency fee is the most popular one. This is an agreement between the claimant and the lawyer that a set of percentage from the monetary award of the claimant will go to the lawyer. It means that the claimant is not obliged to pay the lawyer if the case is lost and many of the personal injury lawyer work on this basis.
There are also lawyer who prefer to be paid in an hourly rate. The rate will depend on the agreement of the claimant and the lawyer. The charges must start from the beginning until the case is resolved. There are also other lawyers who accept flat fee or retainer in which there is an arrangement that a certain amount of money has to be paid before the legal representation starts.
