Month: November 2023

First-time clients often ask what personal injury lawyers do. This question arises in a few contexts.

Some clients wonder if they can handle their cases themselves. Other clients want to know what personal injury lawyers do to earn their fees. And some clients simply want to understand the process the lawyer will use to resolve their cases.

Here is an overview of what a personal injury lawyer does to get you compensation after an accident.

The Role of a Personal Injury Lawyer

Injury lawyers have the education and training to apply tort law to the facts of your case. 

When you meet with a lawyer during an initial consultation, this knowledge helps the lawyer:

• Analyze your case
• Assess the legal merits of your claim
• Estimate the compensation you might receive
• Develop a strategy to recover compensation for you

A lawyer might determine that you have low odds of recovering compensation after a slip & fall accident because you were trespassing when you got injured, for example. 

Conversely, a lawyer might assess that you have a strong case for compensation after a car accident where the other driver ran a red light.

Armed with this information, you can decide whether to pursue a claim. If you decide to proceed with your claim, you and your lawyer will discuss legal strategies for getting compensation. 

The lawyer will explain the risks and benefits of each strategy, and you will pick one to follow.

The Process of Resolving a Personal Injury Claim

Every injury case has unique facts. You will work with your lawyer to develop the evidence needed to prove your case. The lawyer may also engage private investigators and expert witnesses to gather and analyze evidence.

Once you gather your evidence, most cases follow the same general procedural pattern:

Insurance Claim

In most situations, the at-fault party has some form of liability insurance. Under these policies, the insurance company might pay the damages associated with legal liabilities covered in the policy. 

Some examples of insurance policies that might contain liability coverage include:

• Auto insurance
• Malpractice insurance
• Homeowners insurance
• General business liability insurance
• Property insurance
• Product liability insurance

When the insured person or business causes an injury, the injured person can file a claim with the insurance company. 

The insurance company assigns a claim adjuster to determine whether the claim falls within the scope of the policy. If it does, the insurer must pay the damages covered by the policy.

This seems simple, but insurance companies have a financial incentive to cut or deny claims. As a result, they often make the insurance claim process as complex as possible. Without a lawyer, the claim process can be frustrating.

Injury lawyers have experience dealing with insurers and knowledge of insurance company practices. This helps them assemble the evidence and legal arguments needed to support the claim. This minimizes the risk that the insurer will reduce or deny your claim.

Settlement Negotiation

If you prove liability, Georgia law requires the insurer to make a good faith effort to reach a “prompt, fair, and equitable settlement.” But insurers and claimants usually differ about what a fair settlement looks like.

The first settlement offer from the insurer may not cover your losses. You and your lawyer will need to negotiate with the insurer for a better offer. Fortunately, injury lawyers have experience negotiating with claim adjusters.

Typically, your lawyer will present facts and legal arguments to push the insurer to accept a higher settlement. 

For example, suppose an insurer reduced your claim because it believed your back injury in a motorcycle accident was preexisting. Your lawyer could provide copies of your medical records and an opinion letter from a doctor to prove the accident injured your back.

Litigation

Most cases settle; only about 3% of personal injury cases reach a trial verdict. But not all of these cases settle before filing a lawsuit.

A lawyer may recommend filing a lawsuit for a variety of reasons, including:

• A lawsuit provides leverage in settlement discussions
• A lawsuit stops the statute of limitations from running out
• The discovery process can compel evidence from the at-fault party

To file a lawsuit, your lawyer must conduct a pre-filing investigation to make sure the lawsuit is not frivolous. Filing a frivolous lawsuit can expose you and the lawyer to sanctions from the court.

The lawyer will prepare the pleadings to initiate the lawsuit. The pleadings briefly outline the basis of the claim and the relief sought. Thus, an injury lawsuit typically explains what happened in the accident, the injuries you sustained, and the damages you suffered.

Discovery begins after the pleading stage. During discovery, you will request evidence from the other party. You will also respond to the other party’s discovery requests. These requests can ask for documents, physical evidence, and deposition testimony.

Your lawyer will implement a strategy to get the evidence needed to prove your claim. At the same time, your lawyer will also develop the evidence required to limit your exposure. 

For example, if the other party shifts blame to you by saying your actions led to your injuries, your lawyer will gather evidence to disprove that claim.

After the judge resolves motions by the parties, each lawyer presents their case at trial. Your lawyer will typically request a jury trial when you file the lawsuit.

At the close of the presentation of evidence, the jury will deliberate. If the jury finds in your favor, you will be awarded damages.

What makes a law firm successful?

Your practice is a professional services organization, but it’s also a business. Contemporary law office management comprises all the business processes that keep the firm operating, including marketing, finance, accounting, human resources, policies, procedures, and workflow management.

Thanks to improvements in communications and new legal practice management software, effectively managing your law office doesn’t have to take up all of your time. With a well-defined focus, the right processes, and the right legal technology, you can run your practice more efficiently and free up hours of time to spend on client engagement and billable activities.

How to manage a small law firm?

From organizational leadership to administrative work and everything in between, effective law firm management is about far more than just practicing law. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to managing a law firm, but practicing even one of these seven habits will help your firm stand out from the crowd.

The 7 habits of highly effective law firms

1. Define and communicate your firm’s focus

Focusing on a specific practice area allows potential clients and other attorneys to recognize you as an expert in your practice area. Attorneys with a practice area focus gain valuable experience, knowledge, and a network of contacts that enable them to solve problems faster and provide a higher level of service. Whether your focus is family law, civil litigation, personal injury, or estate planning, every practice area tends to have its own vocabulary and customs and care about different data.

Using a legal practice management system with custom dashboard views allows you to filter matters by practice area and other custom fields so you can dictate exactly what you want to see on your matter dashboard. 

2. Provide clear leadership from the top down

In a professional services firm, people are the organization’s greatest assets. As a law firm owner or partner, your role includes motivating employees and communicating the firm’s strategy, direction, and values. The skills needed to be an effective people manager are learned ones. If you’re new to managing staff, seek out CLE courses or an online or university class.

Good leadership also means investing in professional development opportunities for your attorneys (Check out these 5). This might look like offering 1:1 meetings between junior and senior associates, providing funding for courses, or sending employees to conferences.

3. Establish standard operating procedures (SOPs)

The key to keeping a law firm organized is to have a standard set of procedures (SOPs) that are understood and followed by the entire team. SOPs create a practice management “how-to” guide that’s unique to your firm. 

Your standard operating procedures will be tailored to the type of law you practice, but they will typically address tasks like:

• legal case management
• new client onboarding
• document automation and management
• appointment scheduling
• document review and approval
• time tracking
• billing and payments
• trial preparation
• archiving client files at the end of an engagement 

To develop your SOP, start by documenting and organizing all relevant information. Then, make it accessible to all employees in a searchable, digital format. Include a firm organization chart, all policies and procedures, and a data map for the organization. If you’re struggling to manage your SOPs, a legal practice management software solution can help with automating parts of your workload.

4. Organize and minimize paper with document automation

A paperless law firm is an achievable goal. But realistically, most of us still have to deal with incoming mail and client documents on paper. But, you can digitize as much as possible. By scanning documents into digital formats, they can be stored within the firm’s practice management software, shared with clients on a portal site, and archived efficiently. Plus, legal practice management software enables you to create and save templates, so important documents only need to be created once.

5. Use legal technology to your benefit

Technology is changing the legal industry in powerful ways. Outside of document management, organization, and automation, legal practice management technology has become a game-changer for growing law firms.

Simplify your time and billing

If your firm operates on an hourly billing model, a practice management platform with time and billing software capabilities can save you hours each week, allowing your firm to maximize revenue and capture details to help you understand activity and productivity levels. 

Upgrade your calendar

Intelligent calendar technology can automatically schedule critical deadlines for a matter based on the applicable federal, state, and/or local court rules. Your firm can save even more time with a system that provides current court forms for your practice area and jurisdiction, reducing the time required to create and file documents.

Increase your referrals

Legal practice management technology can also help generate referrals, giving you and your employees valuable insight into past referrals while managing incoming opportunities in one easy-to-access place.

Work from anywhere

Perhaps the most significant benefit of legal practice management software is seen when it comes to managing remote workers. Secure cloud applications designed specifically for law firms have made remote work significantly easier, and assistance from a cloud-hosting provider or technology consultant can help you put together a comprehensive technology strategy for your firm.

A suitable legal practice management tool will enable your team to collaborate effectively, offering a central hub for managing projects and tasks and connecting your calendar, documents, and emails to client cases. When you’re on the hunt for a practice management platform, be sure to find one that supports your practice area and jurisdiction.

6. Be vigilant with finance and accounting

As with any business, accurate accounting is important for law firms. Timely billing and efficient cash management are key to profitability. Perhaps more importantly, effective accounting is critical for compliance with Rule 1.15 of the ABA’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct, outlining firm responsibilities regarding trust accounts, record-keeping, and notifying clients of the receipt of funds or property. 

When combined, automated invoicing and payment processing software help firms everywhere save time, improve efficiency and reduce paper consumption. A good billing and payments solution will process all types of credit cards and e-checks, take payments from trust and operating accounts, and integrate with your practice management system.

7. Track KPIs

Most law firm leaders say they would like to add more clients, increase revenue and improve profitability. To know if your firm is on track in meeting those goals, make it a practice to gather and analyze key performance metrics on a regular basis.

Revenue and client goals are easily measured. Profit, calculated as total revenue minus total expenses for a given period, can be improved on either side of the equation: increase revenue or reduce costs by automating manual tasks. 

In addition to measuring profit, analyze utilization rates to assure that associates and partners are maximizing billable hours. Track income by practice type (or by client) to gain deeper insight into which type of work or client generates the most revenue. These metrics offer insight into your practice and can inform your decisions on a growth strategy for your firm, setting you up for future success.