When you or a loved one falls ill or needs surgery, you rely on the doctors, nurses and the hospital to treat you with care and do everything they can to return you to health. But it doesn’t always work out that way. Sometimes mistakes or negligence happen to you – or to someone you love – that result in serious injury or even death. When this happens, you need an experienced and reputable medical malpractice attorney – close to you in Everett – to get you the best settlement for what was done to you.
But how do you know who’s the best malpractice attorney for you? When it comes to something this important, you can’t trust your settlement in the hands of just anyone. Filing a claim against a doctor or hospital for negligent or irresponsible treatment is a complex undertaking and only an attorney with expertise and experience will be able to win you the settlement you deserve.
Here are six tips you should consider when looking for the best medical malpractice attorney:
- Experience – You don’t want someone fresh out of law school or even someone in their first few years of practice that hasn’t fully learned the ropes yet. Instead, you want an attorney with years of experience dealing with malpractice cases. Better yet – you want one with specific experience in a case similar to yours.
- Expertise – You don’t want a jack of all trades. A family law attorney knows custody, adoption and divorce – a tax attorney knows how to negotiate with the IRS. But when it comes to medical malpractice cases, you need a personal injury attorney that deals with medical malpractice cases frequently and successfully.
- Track Record – You don’t want someone who can’t talk numbers with you. You want an attorney with a stellar track record of successful claims and winning significant settlements from insurance companies in medical cases. You want someone who knows what your case is worth and how to work to get the settlement you deserve.
- Determined – You don’t want a lawyer who will back down if the going gets tough. While many claims end in out of court settlement, but some require a trial and a fight in court. You need an attorney who has trial experience and isn’t afraid to go head to head with insurance company lawyers. Some attorneys go their entire career without setting foot in a courtroom – that’s not the kind of representation you want or that will best serve you.
- Respected – You don’t want an attorney that no one takes seriously. Instead, you want a lawyer with a reputation that insurance companies and their lawyers know and respect. Having a powerful attorney fighting for you – that is esteemed by colleagues and judges alike – will speed your settlement to a satisfactory conclusion so that you get the compensation you deserve.
- Local – You don’t want a large firm where you’ll be just another name on a file folder. A TV ad for a mega-practice may sound good, but the impersonal service can make the process stressful. Instead, by working with a local Everett area attorney, you’ll get personal attention, regular updates on your case and will be able to reach your lawyer by phone or email whenever you need information or reassurance.
If you have been injured as a result of medical negligence, errors or any other type of malpractice, Everett area attorney Rob Kornfeld is here to help you. Contact him now to discuss your malpractice case and rights to a settlement if you were injured or lost a loved one to an error by a hospital, nursing home, doctor, nurse or other person involved in your healthcare or treatment.