Have you experienced an injury while at sea and need to contact a personal injury lawyer about pursuing maritime injury settlements? If you are due maritime injury settlements in order to recover the damages and pain and suffering you incurred at sea, finding a good lawyer is important. Cases involving maritime injury settlements could go either way, the greatest factor in having a successful case is the maritime or personal injury attorneys you have working on your behalf.
So how do you find the best lawyer for your maritime injury settlements claim? We’ve put together a comprehensive list of factors to look for, below:
- Specialization.
When you have a valid maritime injury claim, any practicing attorney will be happy to take your business (read: money). However, the guidelines that apply to maritime law are not your run-of-the-mill personal injury situation. Maritime injuries are a little more complicated than most personal injury cases, and it’s important that you use a lawyer who specifically works in the field of maritime law.
It’s even better if the lawyer that you’re working with does nothing but represent maritime injury cases. They’re more likely to have handled other cases similar in nature to yours when every case that lands on their desk is a maritime law case. - Work on groundbreaking cases.
Much of the judicial feel relies on “prior president” when determining the outcome of cases. Basically, this means that when a specific type of case has never hit the courtroom before, the outcome of this case will be used to help future cases of a similar nature determine how it should be handled. When you have a potentially important maritime law case (and we believe any injury you sustain at sea is important to you), what better way to know that your case is in the best hands than to entrust your case with the maritime lawyers who have actually played a hand in making the precedent that your claim will be determined by?
Perhaps, your case in and of itself is the next big groundbreaking case in maritime law. If so, you should definitely look for a lawyer who has the caliber to create groundbreaking results. - Results.
What do you call the lowest-scoring student to graduate medical school? You call him Dr. Because he’s still allowed to practice medicine. Likewise, the same can be said for lawyers. It doesn’t matter what training they have. It doesn’t matter how many years they’ve been in business. It doesn’t matter if their name is on the door of the firm. All that matters is that they are able to win your case.
Before hiring a lawyer, ask for a few examples of similar cases they’ve worked on, and what the results were. If the lawyer is unable to produce evidence of their results, this should be considered a red flag. - Initial consultation.
You’re going to be working closely with your lawyer for the length of your case. Even if the lawyer is awesome at their job, and even if they’re the master of your exact type of claim, if you don’t jive with them, you’ll struggle throughout the process.Before choosing a lawyer to fight for your cause, have an initial consultation with at least three different lawyers. Ask a lot of questions, and pay attention to how well they communicate, their demeanor, and how well you mesh. There’s a certain IT factor that makes you work well with a lawyer, that you can’t know until you meet face to face and talk.
Most lawyers are open to having an initial consultation with perspective clients at no charge. If the lawyer you are considering won’t meet with you until you commit to paying them to work for you, you might want to keep looking.
If you were injured while on a cruise or in another maritime environment, you deserve to be compensated for your pain and suffering. These types of cases are complicated and could go either way for the plaintiff. The best favor you can do for yourself to ensure the best outcome is to hire a maritime injury lawyer who is best suited to your situation.
