The Difference Between Personal Injury Law and Other Types of Law Practice

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By Tony Garrudo

Personal injury (PI) practice differs from other law practice mainly because of financial requirements. In this kind of law practice, a lawyer have to spend his or her time and money getting the case ready for settlement or trial; then gets paid in a year or two, if the lawyer wins the case. Lawyers don't necessarily get paid for all the time that they spend in the cases and have to do a lot of work. A PI lawyer usually needs to hire doctors, engineers, accident reconstruction experts, and other professionals needed to analyze critical issues and testify in court.

If a lawyer happens to handle many cases, he would have a hard time managing these people and get them paid on time. Thus, a personal injury lawyer needs to generate money to have the capability of handling cases. Given the financial and personal risks involved, you must examine yourself if you can really tolerate such difficult situations before embarking on personal injury practice career.

It is often difficult for personal injury lawyers to win at trial. Many states have placed caps on the amount of money an injured person can be awarded at trial due to the "tort reforms" legislation. Additionally, a lot of defense firms have clients who are less likely to settle their case before trial. For this reason, if you file a lawsuit, you are probably embarking on a very long process which will include many expenses, including filing fees, expert fees, depositions and various other court costs that the personal injury lawyer will have to pay for in advance of trial. Unfortunately, because of the length and expense of litigation, individuals often settle their cases for much less than its true value.

The negative attitude of the public towards personal injury cases is discouraging to lawyers but the reward received when a case is won is tremendous. So many times, we hear negative news about scams, insurance fraud, and conspiracies involving doctors, personal injury attorneys and their clients. However, on the bright side, the personal injury lawyer taking on a case is a perfect example of the David versus Goliath scenario with the lawyer battling a large corporation or insurance company.

There are many types of PI lawyers with different aptitudes, personalities, interests, weaknesses and strengths but when practicing this profession you will be able to help people who were treated unfairly and truly need someone who is on their side.

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