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| How to become an injury lawyer |
The law is a field that many people get into not just for the money, though, as they oftentimes have a passion for helping people. Those who are interested in getting into law in order to become a personal injury lawyer are those who want to make sure that innocent people get what is truly owed to them. People who enjoy making sure that justice is put above everything else do well as personal injury lawyers in terms of profit and personal satisfaction.
In order to become a personal injury lawyer, you have to make sure that you have a four-year college degree before you can even think about law school. And then, before being accepted into law school, you have to pass the LSAT with a high score. Only then will you be accepted into law school. Law school itself takes about three years to complete which means there is a total of seven years required for schooling in order to join the ranks with other attorneys.
What does an injury lawyer do?
Injury lawyer represent and advise people who have endured physical, psychological, and emotional injury as a result of wrongdoing or negligence of other people or organizations. They often deal with cases related to tort law including automobile accidents, work injuries, medical mistakes, malfunctioning products, and slip and fall accidents. Injury lawyers also often handle cases that involve damage to an individual’s property or reputation. They obtain the necessary documents, collect evidence and facts, and conduct interviews of clients and related witness to build their cases. The number one goal of injury lawyers is to help their clients gain the compensation they deserve for their injuries.
What kind of training does an injury lawyer need?
Injury lawyers must have a bachelor degree and law degree from an accredited law school. All law schools require applicants to receive a satisfactory score on the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) to be accepted. Law school provides intensive classroom instruction and offers a variety of practical experiences. Many injury lawyers complete internships and clerkships at law firms that specialize in injury to gain practical experience and establish valuable contacts. All states require injury lawyers to become licensed by passing the written bar examination. Many states also require injury lawyers to pass a separate ethics examination. Injury lawyers must complete regular continuing legal education to maintain their licenses and stay up to date with advancements and changes in the field.
What are the prospects for a career as an injury lawyer?
Employment of all lawyers, including injury lawyers is expected to grow about as fast as average for all professions, increasing 13% from 2008 to 2018 (1). The growing and aging population and increase in injury cases will drive job growth for injury lawyers.
Employment of all lawyers, including injury lawyers is expected to grow about as fast as average for all professions, increasing 13% from 2008 to 2018 (1). The growing and aging population and increase in injury cases will drive job growth for injury lawyers.
Job prospects should be good with strong competition. Injury lawyers with great academic records and extensive experience will have the best job prospects.
How much do injury lawyers make?
As of January 2010, the average annual salary for injury lawyers is $55,000; average annual injury lawyer salaries vary greatly on location, employer, education, experience, and benefits (2).
A career as an injury lawyer is a great choice for people with a strong interest in injury or tort law. Injury lawyers must have a solid understanding of the laws, rules, and regulations related in tort law and the ability to represent a variety of clients. Detail orientation, analytical thinking, perseverance, and good problem solving skills are necessary characteristics. Injury lawyers must have excellent communication and interpersonal skills and the ability to work under stress and pressure.
Now what? The next step is easy!
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16 Tips to Become a Better Personal Injury Lawyer
- Don’t just dabble in personal-injury cases; the insurance defense lawyer is too good for that, and he will only smile as he runs over you while you are dabbling.
- Study and read about how to be a better trial lawyer. If you don’t enjoy much of what you are reading, try something else (not just another book; try another line of work).
- Select good cases — this does not mean: select only those cases that are “sure winners;” he who does not take risk is not a real trial lawyer.
- Investigate the facts, and keep investigating: a) it’s fun; b) the insurance companies are great at doing a lousy job at this; c) facts (if wound into a good story) win cases.
- File suit in every case (with extremely rare exceptions; I told you this would be provocative). You have little leverage over insurance companies without litigation. They don’t really ever pay you “voluntarily.” They only pay justly you when trial is closing in on them and you are an imminent threat to their money. When they pay you “voluntarily,” you have been had.
- Cerebrate about your case and your client. In the beginning. In the middle. In the end. About the good believeable facts, and the bad. If you don’t cerebrate about your case, one among many serious casualties will be your ability to sincerely, powerfully and spontaneously talk with the jury in closing argument. Juries know when you have not lived the case, and when you don’t know your client and what her injuries mean to her and her life.
- Don’t attempt settlement until the insurance company smells trial in the next room, in its back pocket, at its bottom-line.
- Give the insurance company a firm deadline for settlement, and stick to it (unless the client changes his mind). Pre-trial settlement deadlines — if enforced by your firm over much time and many cases — pressure all sides to hear an early version of “the-jury’s-knocking-on-the-door,” and thus pressure the parties into staring headlong into the possibility of a much worse result at trial.
- Never, ever “beg,” “keep after” or try to cajole an insurance company to settle. The appearance of weakness is weakness. Relax. It’s their money they’re about to lose.
- Try cases to verdict and get good results — insurance companies do not respect an attorney with a track record of not going to verdict.
- Try cases to verdict and get good results — your track record precedes you, and each good “We the jury find our verdict in favor of plaintiff and award damages in the amount of …” is wind at your back in your next effort to settle.
- Try cases to verdict and get good results — the insurance companies’ reasonable fear of a “runaway” verdict or a too-sympathetic jury is a very, very good friend of yours.
- You cannot worry — at all — about your own financial state or about turning down substantial sums of money. You and your client never had it to lose. It’s not your money. Money-hungry lawyers are scared lawyers, not great trial lawyers willing to risk.
- Be honest with your client, not proud or self-indulgent. Your client needs to know your unvarnished professional opinion on settlement and the chances of reasonable-high and reasonable-low verdicts at trial, not your self-indulgent invective about how unfair are the insurance company, insurance defense counsel and Virginia juries.
- Be completely ready for trial. Completely ready. And ready early. Many a bad verdict results from the assumption of settlement; many a bad settlement results from not being ready to try your case.
- If the case does not settle within your deadline, try the case, and try it with focus and determination until you hear the knock on the door and the foreman speaking. Then put your arm around your client and feel good about what you have done.
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