Hiring A Lawyer? Ask What Experience They Have

There are many posts here at the Injuryboard that talk about what you need to look for when you hire an attorney. If you spend a little time here and read some of the pieces like:

How Do You Value Your Case?, Mike Bryant | October 03, 2009 9:29 AM

What To Do After An Accident When The Adjuster Is There First, Mike Bryant | September 19, 2009 6:26 PM

I was in an automobile accident. What should I do? Ten Tips For Hawaii Drivers, Wayne Parsons on September 14, 2009 – 3:59 AM EST.

What would a caveman bring to meet with the lawyer? ,Steve Lombardi , September 15, 2009 11:00 AM

Solving Legal Problems, Being a Client, Back to the Basics , Steve Lombardi , September 15, 2009 8:48 AM

Car Accident Injury Client: What Makes the Case Good or Bad? (The Collision & Medical Care) , Rick Shapiro September 16, 2009 9:38 AM

Being a Client: More Tips To Help Improve Your Case If You’ve Been In An Car Accident , Devon Glass , September 17, 2009 8:39 AM

Presumed Guilty: How to Avoid Having Insult Added to Injury When You’ve Been Hurt in a Car Crash, Pierce Egerton , September 18, 2009 4:28 PM

you will learn a lot about what questions you should ask.

Steve Lombardi has spent time looking at what shouldn’t affect your decision when looking for a lawyer.

These Lawyer Ads Do Not Represent Our Profession, Steve Lombardi | December 17, 2009 12:01 PM

What I ran across recently was a blog by a lawyer, Christopher Michael Davis, from Washington who spent a little more time on the issue of what not to depend on. Of interest was his explanation of what happened to one of "The Hammers" who advertise out there:

In 2002, one of Schapiro’s clients, Christopher Wagner, sued Schapiro for malpractice. Mr. Wagner had been injured in a car accident and had responded to one of Mr. Schapiro’s television ads. Mr. Wagner alleged that he had incurred medical bills of $182,000 but that Schapiro’s firm advised him to accept a settlement of only $65,000 from the driver and then promised that he could get more money by filing suit against the state of New York. It turned out that the state had no liability for the accident and Schapiro never pursued Mr. Wagner’s case further.

In a video deposition, Jim Schapiro testified that he had never tried a personal injury case in court and that he had been living in Florida for the last seven years. Mr. Wagner’s attorney also discovered that Schapiro’s Rochester law firm staffed just one lawyer who had only tried four cases. A New York jury found that Schapiro had engaged in misleading and deceptive advertising and that he committed malpractice. Schapiro was ordered to pay $1.5 million to Wagner.

Never tried a case? Wow, that is amazing. Minnesota has a state certification for civil trial specialists and there is also one nationally. It not only says that the lawyer has tried cases, but has tried enough of them and passed a test to hold them out as specialized. One of the very few specialties that a lawyer can advertise. Joe Crumley and I are both certified in the state and nationally. We, like the other certifies lawyers, have spent the time in trial that clients should ask about. It can make a difference.