You have been injured in an accident and want a personal injury lawyer. A friend or doctor may have given you a recommendation of a personal injury firm, or you may have discovered a local lawyer on the net. However, when you have met your lawyer, you found that the relationship is not the most suitable.
There may be several explanations for why you are unhappy with your lawyer. Your lawyer may not be returning your phone calls. When you call the attorney’s office, you only communicate to the secretary or get voicemail. Thus, you have never talked to the same person twice. When you finally reach the lawyer, the lawyer is not familiar with your facts. They have no idea what is going on in your situation. Does any of this sound familiar? If yes, then it is time that you have to consider changing your personal injury.
The Right to Change Attorney Anytime
If you wonder a lot and hesitate what to do with your current personal injury attorney that you are not unhappy with, you have the absolute right to fire your lawyer at any time. Either it is the first day you have hired them, after months, years, or even right before your trial, you can fire and hire another attorney. You and your attorney are comrades concerning your circumstance case. Thus, you need to have a friendly relationship and respect each other. In this case, you, as the client, have to talk openly and be confident in your attorney. If these things are not there, then you want to find another personal injury lawyer.
The Cost to Fire and Hire Another Attorney
Please do not worry much about the cost, because firing one and hiring another will not cost you more. In this case, you will only pay one attorney’s fee. When your injury case ends, you have to pay one attorney’s fee. However, this fee needs further division among the firms representing you based on “quantum meruit,” that is, the reasonable value of those services, or in other words, exactly how much work each firm did. If the next attorney did the work, she or he receives the majority of the attorney’s fee. If both firms did more or less the same jobs, then both will divide the pay equally. The method of dividing the payment should not be the problem. The law firms will work it out once you have resolved your injury case.
The Difficulty to Find a New Attorney
When changing your attorney, you may have a question popping up in your head. Could I have difficulty finding a lawyer to handle my case since they have to split the fee with my first lawyer? Well, the answers may vary. Suppose your first lawyer has been handling your case for quite some time and has done a considerable amount of work on the situation. The new lawyer might be hesitant to take over your case since he or she …
Insurance terms and court proceedings may be hard to grasp, and it may make you feel lost. This makes you feel intimidated if you are going it alone, and it may also work in favor of the insurance company. Insurance companies are good at evading payments and may take advantage of your naivety to either underpay you or blame the accident on you. A personal injury lawyer has a good understanding of the justice system and a wealth of experience in handling almost similar cases and knowing how to negotiate with the insurance for higher payment amounts. 
In most cases, an insurance company can downplay the seriousness of the injury to pay you less. A personal injury attorney always seeks the report of independent medical experts to give the correct diagnosis. They also have their investigators check out the accident scene and give an expert analysis where they are needed. They do all this at their own expense, and if you lose the case, do not ask for a refund on the costs incurred. 