Will You Need Several Attorneys For Your Injury Case?
ShareHaving several personal injury attorneys to tackle a case is a fairly dramatic idea. While it looks thematic, the more likely scenario is that you'll be dealing with a single personal injury lawyer. Here is what determines how much help an injury case may require.
Potential Size
Most cases are fairly small and straightforward happenings. Even if the defendant is a large company, such as a big box store, your injury claim will usually go to an insurer. At the insurance company, an adjuster will research the claim and decide if it is legitimate. If the case is likely to hold water, the adjuster has a duty to try to settle the case.
In this scenario, the personal injury attorney mostly handles the paperwork. They draft a demand letter and back it with supporting documentation. Normally, this means assembling incident reports, medical scans, and expert opinions to explain why a claim should reach a settlement.
Complexity
Something that might bring more than one personal injury attorney to a case is legal complexity. If a case involves an incident that occurred across state lines, for example, it can be hard to sort out jurisdiction. Similarly, defendants might argue that a venue clause in an agreement shifts the jurisdiction where the case should be heard.
When a case starts getting complex, it's not unusual for a firm to appoint one personal injury lawyer to deal with the medical side of the issue. They'll then appoint another to handle the core legal questions.
Paralegals
It's common for a personal injury attorney to lean on one or two paralegals. These are professionals who have the skills required to deal with the basic components of claims and lawsuits. For example, they might help a lawyer track down police reports to provide an authoritative description of what happened during an incident. Paralegals can also hunt down photos, emails, texts, social media posts, medical reports, and more.
A paralegal can only assist an attorney. They can't represent you. However, working with paralegals often allows firms to tackle bigger cases without raising their rates.
Suing
Generally, the more legal action a case involves, the more likely a firm will bring in additional personal injury attorneys. If a defendant or their insurer rejects a claim, you will have to sue to get compensation. That often makes a case more complex, and that increases the odds you'll require more counsel.