I have to hire a wrongful death attorney. What advice do y'all have?
Here are some questions I'll ask when interviewing them. I'll make a spreadsheet with their answers.
a. Name of Firm
b. Name of assigned attorney
c. What is the contingency fee
d. Is the contingency fee different if they we don’t settle but go to court? What if the other party doesn’t show?
e. Where is their physical office is located
f. Track record (similar cases they have handled)
g. Their opinion of the insurance claim, civil claim against x, civil claim against y
h. How often will we be in contact with our attorney?
What other questions would you suggest? Do you have any other advice or considerations I should keep in mind?
I'm sorry for your loss.
There are probably actual attorneys on this forum that can do a better job of answering this question. However, I don't see any responses yet, so I will be the first.
The firm is most profitable when it gets an average settlement in a short amount of time. Time is money. It's not worth it to them to spend another 20% of time on a case to try to get an increase of 10% in the settlement. It's kind of like hiring a real estate agent to sell your house. If you are selling a house for 300K and get offered 280K in the first week, most real estate agents would tell you to take the money, even statistically speaking, you are more likely to get 290K if you keep it on the market for another 30 days.
To serve yourself best, it's typically best to drag it out a little longer than your agent wants, so you can get top dollar.
