Hiring An Excellent Lawyer - Background Part #2

Now that I work in Chris’ office I often speak to injured people who are looking for a lawyer but have no idea how to find and choose a good one. And, sadly, I often hear from people who have already hired a lawyer, are unsatisfied with their work, and are calling our office hoping that Chris will take their case so they can change lawyers.

But let me back up for a moment. You need to know more about my husband, Chris. Chris is a personal injury attorney in Seattle, WA. His practice focuses on car accidents, motorcycle accidents, wrongful death cases, and other types of injury cases. Before I met my husband I’d had very little exposure to personal injury lawyers. I, like many people, subscribed to the typical, ambulance chasing stereotype of lawyers. Thanks in part to the cheesy TV ads of some shady lawyers (most are as bad as used car ads), personal injury attorneys have developed a bad reputation because it seems that many of them care more about making money than about helping people. That is the way I used to feel about lawyers too.

When I agreed to go out on a first date with Chris I knew he was a lawyer. But I didn’t know he was a personal injury lawyer. On that date I teased him about being an “ambulance chaser.” He was a little annoyed and didn’t hesitate to set me straight.

He told me about how most people cannot afford quality legal representation when they are in an accident and end up having to fight an insurance company on their own in order to receive fair compensation for their injuries*. Wealthy and powerful insurance companies have what would seem like endless resources with which to fight an insurance claim. Even their own customer’s claims. He told me about his personal crusade to fight for the underdog and level the paying field between accident victims and insurance companies. I could tell that his passion for his work came from a real sense of right and wrong. I was impressed.

Obviously I was very impressed. A year later we were married. And six years after that I decided to leave my high technology career (which included a stint at Microsoft) to help manage his law office.

So through all of these diverse experiences I have developed a good idea, from both the inside out and the outside in, of what people are looking for when they seek legal representation in an injury case and the difference between a merely good lawyer and a great, exceptional attorney.