If you have a legal matter for which you need an attorney it is always good, but not easy, to know how to pick a good, qualified lawyer. Once you retain a lawyer that person has enormous influence over your life and case. That person is basically you going forward in the eyes of the court, jury and witnesses. You therefore have to be careful and diligent in choosing one.

First of all the lawyer has to be experienced and skilled in medical malpractice law and practice. The first thing you can do then is to check the lawyer out with the State and local Bar Associations to get a background. Most jurisdictions have some sort of local court list of the lawyers work load and results in those courts over the years. You can always also ask others who have used or worked with that lawyer. The point is to do your due diligence first in all cases. You simply cannot go by a lawyer’s ad or listings where the lawyer tells about himself. You should also be particularly careful of the lawyer who simply advertises for medical malpractice or personal injury cases but who then simply refers the case to a skilled lawyer who actually does the real work. You should ascertain whether the lawyer you retain is going to refer the case or do it himself. There can be decent lawyers who refer but they’re small in number and you do not know if they’re referring to a good lawyer or just a good friend.

Once you get passed the hurdle of narrowing down the field then you need to meet with a few of the final contestants. In this way you can evaluate each other because you both need to get along for a long time in the average medical malpractice case. You need to see how the person acts, thinks and presents himself. You also need to have some sort of idea how and where the lawyer gets expert medical witnesses for testimony for court. You need to know if he has good quality witnesses and whether he has the funds to pay such experts. After all, as in anything else, there are degrees of experts and choosing the right one for the right case is an art.

The starting framework of your team is so important that here at MedWitness, Ltd. we actually get involved in the planning of the medical aspects of the case and selection of appropriate medical expert witnesses for the case at a very early stage. Failing to prepare early is a big reason many plaintiff victims of medical malpractice or catastrophic personal injury end up losing their case or only partially winning by recovering much less money. The insurance lawyers defending medical malpractice cases are highly trained and very experienced. They have medical experts at the finger tips as well. To beat such a defense team a victim must choose her counsel carefully. Victory is not a chance it’s a choice. You must dig your well before you get thirsty!