Accidents on construction sites are unfortunately anything but rare. You’re doing strenuous, physical labor, and mistakes are bound to happen. More often than not, people dust off their suits and continue with their work when stuff like that happens, but they really shouldn’t. Just because you don’t feel the consequences right away, doesn’t mean that there aren’t any.
What To Do In Case Of A Construction Accident?
The first thing you should do in case you suffer an injury or an accident on a construction site is to call for an ambulance. Don’t walk it off, don’t ignore the symptoms – seek medical help immediately. This is a crucial step in case an injury has occurred. If you neglect this and don’t seek out medical help right away – it’ll be really hard to get any form of compensation as it’ll be nearly impossible to prove you’ve hurt yourself at work.
Why is this important? Well, you might end up missing work because of your accident and that will result in losing money. Who knows for how long you won’t be able to work. You could end up in a serious financial crisis on top of your health issues. That’s why it is important to seek medical help right away and immediately after consult with your lawyer to discuss the next steps.
When it comes to hiring a lawyer to help you with the case, it’s important to know what to avoid. Many people make mistakes believing that any attorney out there will be helpful and that is simply not the case. For those reasons, we’ve decided to highlight some of the most commonly made mistakes so you can avoid them.
Hiring An Inexperienced Lawyer
One of the most important factors to pay attention to when seeking legal representation is the experience. Knowledge and reputation come with experience – especially in a niche like construction accident cases. Ideally, you’d want an attorney that specializes in personal injury cases – in this case, construction site accidents.
What you need to look for s experience handling these types of injury cases and experience in situations where the case goes to trial. You can tell a lot about an attorney by looking at their track record. The one without enough experience under the belt might come up short when the push comes to shove and you might end up without the compensation you deserve.
Hiring A Non-Specialized Lawyer
Even though the experience is important, you don’t want an experienced family law attorney on your case. Like we’ve said, you need someone who has been through a lot of similar situations. A lawyer who specializes in a certain niche or area of the law is familiar with all aspects of the process, is respected in the court, and is deemed credible with the judges, defence attorneys, insurance companies and more. All of this can greatly affect the outcome of your appeal.
Hiring A ‘Settlement’ Lawyer
According to Fellows Hymowitz, a respected member of the legal community, a good construction lawyer must be willing to take things to court. In a lot of instances, insurance companies (who are usually the ones that pay out the damages) offer a settlement that might seem reasonable but is in reality nowhere near as much as you could get out of them. A good lawyer will fight for your money – in court if necessary. Don’t settle for an attorney that settles for a living – they’re just looking for a quick payday. A lot of money can be won in the court of law and a good attorney will tell you if there’s room for it.
Hiring A Lawyer That Guarantees A Victory
There are many factors in play here and any lawyer that’s guaranteeing a victory right away is just trying to lure you in. it’s impossible to know right from the start whether the case will be won or not. Not until you take a look at all of the facts can you get an idea of where you stand at. Even then, a reputable lawyer will lay out all of the facts on the table and inform you about the possible outcome of the case – they will never guarantee anything.
Hiring A Lawyer Than Promises A Big Payday
While it is possible to ‘win’ a lot of money in these kinds of situations – nobody can know whether you will. Once again, there are a lot of factors that affect the amount of money you’re entitled to. you have to consider the length of the recovery, medical bills, treatments, lost wages and salary, pain and suffering, and finally the seriousness and severity of your injuries. Although it is possible to give an estimate on how much you can expect based on the information you provided – no one can guarantee you a hefty check at the end.
Hiring A Lawyer That Asks For An Upfront Payment
The nature of personal injury cases is such that a majority of lawyers specializing in it work on a contingency fee basis. That means that unless you end up winning the case you don’t owe anything to your legal representative. This is a good system because it also motivates lawyers to work harder. After all, their fee is directly dependent on the outcome of the case. If an attorney asks for an upfront fee, you should probably consider hiring someone else. It’s not that they’re not capable of representing you – it’s just that you don’t have to pay upfront for this kind of service and therefore you shouldn’t.
Hiring A Lawyer Based On A Contingency Fee
The contingency fee will come out of the settlement money, so it can appear reasonable to look for the best deal out there. However, you should not do that. The lower fee could mean less experience, less knowledge, and overall lower quality of service – which could end up costing you more than you’d save. For instance, would you rather win a $100,000 in damages and pay a 40% contingency fee or win $50,000 and pay a 30% fee. Do you see the difference? Always opt-out for the quality instead of ‘saving’ a few hundred dollars.
Finally, it’s important to understand that it doesn’t matter if you find an attorney with an impeccable track record, low contingency fee, and a lot of experience – if you’re not feeling comfortable cooperating with them, you shouldn’t hire them. There has to be trust and open communication between the client and the representative – otherwise, it’s not worth it.
Hopefully, we’ve managed to give you a good idea of what you should not do if you’re ever in need of a construction lawyer.
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