Choosing a lawyer to represent you may be the most crucial decision you make in your construction accident case. Your best chance of recovering full compensation is to have a skilled and dedicated legal advocate by your side. Before you begin your search, it is important to know what to look for in a New York personal injury attorney or law firm.
To help you decide, ask the following questions:
What Is Their Record Like In Similar Cases?
You can tell a lot about how effective a lawyer or firm is by their track record in winning or losing cases. When an attorney has been awarded membership in the Million Dollar Advocates Forum or the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum, it means he or she has won million and multi-million-dollar settlements and verdicts for clients. If the firm has a Case Results page on its website, check for high dollar amount wins in construction site accident cases.
What Awards, Honors, and Ratings Have They Received?
Super Lawyers® is among the most respected rating sites for attorneys. The Best Lawyers® directory is a respected, peer-review publication in which it is a significant honor to be listed. U.S. News & World Report ranks law firms in different practice areas based on a rigorous evaluation process.
How Much Trial Experience Do the Attorneys Have?
Some personal injury law firms are known as “settlement mills” because they specialize in settling personal injury cases and base their practice on rapid turnover with a large volume of cases. If you have been seriously injured in a construction site accident and the insurance company fails to offer a fair settlement, you need a lawyer with extensive trial experience who is ready to go to court to fight for the compensation you deserve, if necessary. Our philosophy is to thoroughly prepare our cases for the crucible of the courtroom.
Do They Specialize In Construction Site Injuries?
Injury law is a legal specialty, and construction site injuries are a sub-specialty within that field. New York has unique labor laws in place specifically to protect construction workers. After a serious construction site accident, make sure the attorney you hire to represent you has experience in such cases. Our firm has won a number of notable, multi-million dollar settlements and verdicts in construction site accident cases.
Why Should You Be Leery of Attorneys Who Contact a Victim After an Accident?
If you are contacted by a personal injury law firm after a serious accident, the firm likely got your information from local police traffic crash reports. Usually, law firms that engage in this practice do so to get more clients when they are unable to attract them through reputation or by word-of-mouth from satisfied clients. An attorney who operates in this manner may settle for an amount that does not cover the full extent of your losses to make a quick profit.
At Wingate, Russotti, Shapiro, Moses & Halperin, LLP, we have more than 50 years of experience, and we have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for the people we represent. If you have been seriously injured in a construction site accident, contact us at (212) 986-7353 to speak with a New York personal injury attorney with breadth of experience and that has a record of success in construction injury cases.