Excuse the cliché but if you’ve been the victim of a personal injury, the personal injury attorney you choose can make or break your case.

What a nightmare to find out, after your personal injury claim is closed, that your personal injury attorney was ineffective, leaving you with little or no money in your pocket to take care of lingering injuries, expenses, and stress.

Let’s prevent that from happening to you.

Allow me to walk you through the steps to find the right personal injury lawyer, starting with this introduction to this 6-part series.

To briefly review the term personal injury, the topic of my last blog, a personal injury attorney focuses his practice on personal injury law. In the legal world, a personal injury is an injury to your body, mind, and/or emotions caused by the negligence, wrongdoing, or mistake of another party.

Car accidents, for example, are common personal injuries which can require a personal injury lawyer to protect the victim and fight for his or her rightful compensation for all losses and damages from the at-fault insurance company or party.

Other personal injuries include but not limited to: motorcycle accidents, pedestrian accidents, bicycle accidents, medical and dental malpractice, slip and fall injuries, wrongful death, work accidents, dog bites, assaults, construction site accidents, and product liability claims.

So let’s say, for instance, you’ve been in a car accident, and you think you need an attorney to lead you through the complicated aftermath: dealing with insurance companies, injuries, doctors, bills, work loss, car repair, stress overload, family strife, and fair compensation.

Insurance companies are notorious for getting away with low-ball, ridiculously stingy and unfair pay-outs to injured victims. Almost always, it takes the clout and expertise of a top-notch, trial-tested personal injury attorney who is willing to go the distance with his or her injured client—the courtroom if necessary—for the insurance company to engage in “fair” negotiations or, more accurately, “fairer” negotiations.

It’s a tough and almost impossible mission for the injured victim by himself or herself to successfully negotiate the rough, unfamiliar waters of greedy, deep-pocketed insurance companies who are interested in one thing—their bottom line. To boost their profits, insurance companies employ a full-time team of clever, highly trained lawyers to legally beat you out of the just compensation you deserve.

Yes, unbeknown to you, you are a formidable adversary to the insurance beast, and it will do whatever tactics it takes and whatever the cost (and their pockets are very deep) to pay out to you as little as possible.

For justice and your own protection, you know that it’s in your best interest to at least explore the possibility of hiring an attorney, but you can’t help but feel a little bit lost.

You wonder, “How in the world can I find an excellent personal injury attorney when I know nothing about personal injury law or personal injury lawyers?”

Reading all six parts of this blog will jumpstart your search and help you sift through the attorneys in your area to find the best personal injury attorney for you and your case.

Here’s the big picture of this 6-part blog, “How Do I Find the Right Personal Attorney after My Personal Injury?” You’ll find all parts, packed with information, quick reads.