If you’re considering filing a cerebral palsy lawsuit over your child’s injuries, one of the most-important steps is finding the right attorney. You need to understand what’s going to be required on your part, and for that, you need an attorney who has considerable experience handling cerebral palsy birth injury lawsuits.
During your initial consultation with your potential attorney, consider these three factors:
1. Fees
A lawyer earns income by being good at what they do; winning cases. In personal injury cases (including birth injuries), the attorney literally only earns a fee if they win your case. If the attorney doesn’t put money in your pocket, you don’t pay them a dime. This is called a contingency agreement, and you should make certain to find a lawyer who works on contingency.
2. Experience
You’ll want to make certain that the attorney you’re working with has experience with these types of cases. Attorneys are not expected to be medical doctors, but they do need to have specific knowledge of negligence law and how it applies to the medical world in order to argue these cases successfully.
If you don’t have an experienced lawyer, you’re putting yourself at an immediate disadvantage. You can be absolutely certain that the parties you’re suing have a team of experienced lawyers; after all, you’re dealing with doctors, hospitals and other entities that have a lot of money to spend defending themselves.
3. Compassion and Realism
An attorney who works on cerebral palsy cases has to be compassionate to the parents that they work with, but they also have to be realistic. This means that they will take a look at other cases similar to your own and determine how much you can actually expect to get in terms of a jury award.
The other thing that they will do, which is both an act of compassion and realism, is explain to you that you are not guaranteed to win your claim. You may be offered a settlement for less than the money you are seeking in court, and this sometimes is your best option. You may also be denied your claim altogether by a jury. Make sure your lawyer is always honest with you in addition to being compassionate and competent.