As a worker, there are certain circumstances that occur where you may need a lawyer. If you get injured on the job and need to fight for workers’ compensation or have had a conflict in the workplace that needs to be resolved, you will need legal counsel to get the compensation or help you deserve. Read below for a comprehensive guide on consulting lawyers as a worker.
Evaluate Your Needs
Depending on your situation, you will need a specific type of lawyer. If you are in a battle with your company’s insurance company about adequate compensation for an injury or illness incurred at work, then a personal injury or workers’ compensation lawyer is what you need. If you need help with discrimination or hostility in the workplace, then an employment lawyer may be the right fit for you. Whatever your needs are, there is likely to be a trustworthy local lawyer to help you out.
Research Lawyers in Your Area
Once you know what your needs are and what predicament you need help resolving, it is time to do some research. Workplace injuries that happen while using company machinery or under the supervision of an incompetent manager can cause a lot of issues in your personal and professional life. From days missed from work to medical bills, you need to hire workers compensation lawyers who can help you get financially compensated for everything that happened in the aftermath of your injury. It is important to hire lawyers that have an office nearby so that you can regularly meet with them in person during this process, so try to only look local unless it is a very niche case that needs a specialized law firm.
To begin the search, ask fellow workers, union heads, and friends and family if they know of any good lawyers in the area. Often word of mouth recommendations are the best way to find reliable services like legal help. Once you have compiled a list of potential law firms, research their individual websites to read about their values, past cases, and specialties. It is also good to read client reviews either on their website or on review websites to see if their lawyers offer the kind of help you need and get good results.
Schedule Consultations
After you have narrowed down your list of law firms, focus on individual lawyers that focus on your legal needs. Read through their qualifications to determine whether or not they have enough experience defending people like you. If you feel good about the lawyers you are looking at, then choose two or three that you think could help you and schedule a consultation. Before the in-person consultation, you should compile a list of questions about your case to ask the lawyer to see if they feel like they can take on your case. It is during this initial meeting that you should also discuss legal fees and whether or not they are a law firm that doesn’t get paid unless they win the case. That means that you do not have to pay them unless they help you get the monetary compensation you need.
These initial consultations are often free or low-cost, so if you schedule two or three with different law firms, it will not cost you very much. You should also bring all documentation you have related to your case to the first consultation so that the law team can review it while you are there and ask you questions to get a feel for the case and whether or not you have a chance of winning. Do not be afraid to ask as many questions as possible during this time to see if the law team is amicable and transparent about how the process is going to go down.
Choose the Right Lawyer for Your Situation
Following your initial consultations with a few local law firms, decide which lawyer is right for your case. The final decision should be based on qualifications, experience, optimism about your case, and transparency shown towards you during the first meeting. With the decision made, contact your chosen lawyer and schedule your second meeting where you can dive deeper into your case. This is when the lawyer will start to ask you deeper questions about the case and prepare you for any court appearances you may need to have or meetings with insurance company lawyers that you may have to attend.
Work with and Listen to Your Lawyer
Once your decision-making is done, now is the time to sit back and let your lawyer do the hard work. As the victim of an injury, discrimination, or anything else that has gone wrong in the workplace, your focus should be on healing and getting back to normal. For your part, your participation in the case will be rehearsed with your lawyer, so you should always listen to what they have to say as they are the experts in this field of law.
As they build the case, you should work to build a good rapport with your lawyer so that you are on the same page when the serious stuff happens. Having a good lawyer on your team can be very rewarding and hopefully will lead to a better-than-expected outcome.
Leave a Good Review After the Case is Closed
If you had a good experience with your law team throughout your case, then the least you can do, besides paying them for their efforts, is to leave a good review of the law firm. Just as you will have done at the beginning of your case, many other workers will seek lawyers by looking up their reviews. If you leave a good review on their website, more people will be able to receive the help that you did.
Conclusion
Consulting a lawyer is never something that anyone thinks they will have to do in their career, but things happen, and people get hurt, so lawyers are a more common need than most people think. If you have never had to consult a lawyer before, follow this step-by-step guide in order to find legal success.