How Free Consultations Work and Their Value in Personal Injury Cases

Have you recently experienced an accident due to someone else’s carelessness and are considering legal action or seeking guidance on your rights? Or have you suffered injuries though no fault of your own and are exploring your legal options? Consider booking a free legal consultation with a personal injury law firm. Read more to understand how consultations at personal injury law firms work.

What Is a Free Consultation?

As you would expect, a free consultation is an initial meeting with a law firm representative to discuss your case at no cost to you. You can expect to speak with a knowledgeable professional who will get your case’s details and provide expert guidance about how to proceed. And the best thing is, there are no strings attached. You are not obligated to hire an attorney after a consultation and there is no risk involved for reaching out because the consultation is free. Personal injury law firms are the only type of law firms that offer free consultations.

Here at Huffman & Huffman Brothers-in-Law, for instance,

How Do Personal Injury Firms Get Paid?

Are there really no costs or obligations associated with a free consultation? When a personal injury law firm like Huffman & Huffman Brothers-in-Law takes on a client, the firm takes a calculated risk. They evaluate the incident where you were injured and then determine if the firm would be able to add value to your claim. The hours they spend building your claim, obtaining needed evidence, and negotiating with the insurance companies for the compensation you deserve are paid for with a contingency fee. A contingency fee is a percentage of the financial damages paid to a client by the insurance company. If no compensation is recovered on the client’s behalf, the law firm doesn’t charge anything. This is why many personal injury law firms will say there is no charge until they win the case.

What Are the Potential Outcomes or Next Steps After the Initial Consultation?

If, after your initial consultation, you are satisfied that our firm is the best fit for your case, the following steps include meeting with an investigator who will meet you where it’s convenient for you, in-person or virtually, and collecting any other needed information. You will also be asked to sign paperwork so our firm can get started on your case. After that, your case will be assigned to an attorney and a pre-litigation paralegal. While you are still being treated for your injuries, your legal team will be working to build your case. Once you are done treating, the pre-litigation paralegal and your attorney will put together a demand package which then goes to the insurance company.

Why Book a Free Consultation?

• Know your rights BEFORE you talk to the insurance company.
• Understanding your rights through a free consultation for your personal injury is highly recommended before you reach out to the at fault party’s insurance company. The insurance company will do everything in their power to protect their own bottom line and minimize the amount of compensation they will pay on your claim. The insurance companies have legal teams protecting their profits, and it’s in your best interest to at the very least consult with an experienced personal injury attorney.
• With Huffman & Huffman, your free consultation is with an experienced att
  One of the benefits of free legal consultations for a personal injury through Huffman & Huffman Brothers-in-Law is that you will meet with an experienced attorney from the beginning. Many personal injury law firms assign intake staff to initial consultations, which saves the firm’s attorneys time but denies the potential client the benefit of the legal expertise they would receive from a practicing personal injury lawyer. At Huffman & Huffman Brothers-in-Law, you speak to an attorney at the very beginning while at other law firms, you don’t talk to an attorney until the end of your claim or case. Our firm is proud to provide advice and guidance from one of our experienced personal injury lawyers from the start at no cost to you.
• Time is of the essence.

You should also know that time is a factor in personal injury cases. In Virginia, for example, there is a limited timeframe of two years following an accident to submit a claim or initiate legal proceedings before the statute of limitations kicks in. That means if you wait two years and one day, it will be too late to pursue compensation related to the accident. This is important because losing time in healing or grieving is easy.

• Contributory Negligence could hurt your personal injury claim.

A final potential issue in Virginia is the valid contributory negligence rule. This rule assumes that it is the responsibility of every person to avoid harm, and if a plaintiff has, in any way, placed themselves in harm’s way, the legal framework of contributory negligence aims to prevent them from receiving compensation if they have contributed in any manner to the occurrence of an accident. So, in other words, if you are found to be partially at fault, even just 1%, you may not be able to seek financial compensation. Insurance companies love Virginia’s contributory negligence rule for this reason. Determining if and how the rule applies to your situation can be challenging, so your best bet is to sit down with a trained legal professional for advice on personal injury claims. 

The outcome of an accident can be confusing and painful. The last thing you want to do is try to become a legal expert when you should be focusing on healing and getting your life back. Schedule a free consultation today with a Huffman & Huffman Brothers-in-Law lawyer. Let us handle the legal aspects of your case so you can get back to what is important: living your life. Let our family help your family.