Free Consultation Maryland Personal Injury Lawyer

Our Maryland personal injury lawyers specialize in representing plaintiffs in personal injury cases and offer free consultations to potential clients.

From the injury lawyer's perspective, the purpose of the free consultation is to obtain information about the client's injury and evaluate whether they have a viable personal injury case that will lead to a compensation payout at the settlement table or in court.

A Maryland personal injury attorney needs to determine if she will likely succeed in getting compensation for the client's injuries. From the client's perspective, the initial consultation provides an opportunity to get expert legal advice and a real roadmap to the path to compensation. It also gives you an opportunity to meet and get to know the personal injury attorney and decide whether or not to retain that lawyer or find someone else.

A free consultation is a valuable tool for personal injury accident victims, even if you are considering not hiring a lawyer at all. Here are some tips to get the most out of your free personal injury consultation.

Being fully prepared for your free initial consultation with a lawyer is more important than you might think. Preparation will help both you and the personal injury lawyer get the most out of the consultation. If you end up retaining the attorney to handle your case, coming to this consultation prepared will help get your case moving faster right from the start.

The first part of the preparation for the free consultation would be preparing to give a detailed, accurate statement about the accident (or cause of your injury). Don't try to reshape the story to make things look more favorable. That will just end up causing problems down the road that could potentially derail your case altogether.

Another key part of preparation is gathering all relevant documentation relating to your claim. If you have police reports, medical records, or similar types of documents that relate to the accident or malpractice you should bring those with you to the consultation.

If your claims are based on an accident or injury that occurred a long time ago, one of the first things the lawyer will address at your consultation is whether the statute of limitations has expired. If you have a legal claim for damages, it must be brought within a certain amount of time.

The statute of limitations is the law that sets the time limit on bringing claims. Depending on what state you are in the limitation time is most likely somewhere between one and six years. Check our statute of limitations page for a list of limitation times in all states.

The question of when the statute of limitations begins to run can be complicated. There can also be notice to the defendant requirements that can be less than a year. So be prepared to discuss this.

Find out everything you can about the attorney and his or her firm before your meeting. Not all personal injury attorneys in Maryland are the same. The main difference between personal injury firms is often the specific type of cases that they specialize in handling. Some law firms focus primarily on auto accident cases. Others may be more experienced with medical malpractice cases.

But accepting a specific kind of case is just the start of the inquiry. What kind of results has this law office obtained in those cases? Are you the personal injury lawyer who will be working on my case?

You would be AMAZED at how few lawyers you see on television telling you to call them with your medical malpractice case that actually handle medical malpractice cases. They are marketing lawyers who usually pass the cases along to an actual malpractice lawyer for a portion of the fee.

Ask the hard questions. Will you be the lawyer handling my case? What is your firm track records in cases that your firm has handled in this type of case? Have you actually handled this type of case in court through a trial? These are the questions you need to ask. Is this going to be an uncomfortable conversation? Absolutely. But it is the conversation with a personal injury lawyer that you have to have.

As mentioned above, bringing documents with you to your consultation can be very helpful. Relevant documents to bring with you might include:

• Pictures related to the accident or your injuries
• Any accident investigation reports from the police or insurance companies
• Any traffic citations or tickets that you received from the accident
• Names and contact information for potential witnesses
• Medical treatment records from hospital or doctors
• Medical imaging such as X-Rays or MRIs.

Even if you do not end up retaining the attorney, your initial free consultation is still subject to the rules of attorney-client privilege and confidentiality. This means that anything you and the personal injury lawyer discuss during the initial consultation will remain confidential. The lawyer cannot be forced to reveal what you discussed or produce any documents you provided.

One helpful question to ask during your free initial consultation with the personal injury attorney is whether the lawyer has handled prior cases that are factually similar to your own. For instance, if you are pursuing a medical malpractice case against your doctor for failing to diagnose cancer (or another condition), you should ask the attorney his firm has previously handled other failure to diagnose cancer cases.

If they have not, you probably know what to do, right? If they have, ask what happened in those cases and whether they would expect a similar result in your case. For an auto accident case, you may want to ask about prior cases where the client's injuries were similar to yours. Again, you have to ask for specifics and demand real answers. Most victims ask the accident lawyer this kind of question, get an evasive answer, and then move on to the next question. Get answers to your questions!

If the lawyer indicates that he or she thinks you have a good case and they want you as a client, you will need to decide whether or not to retain him or her. Just because they gave you a free consultation that does not mean that you have any obligation to hire them. You are entitled to "shop around" and meet with other personal injury attorneys in Maryland and decide which works best for you.

Almost all personal injury lawyers handle cases on a contingency fee which means that they only get paid if they succeed in recovering money in your case. This means that you don't pay them by the hour, but instead they take an agreed percentage of the money that they get for you. The contingency fee percentage is typically between 33-40%.

The percentage may change depending on whether the case gets settled before a lawsuit is filed. For example, our contingency fee agreement is 33% if a case settles before a lawsuit and 40% for anything we recover after a lawsuit is filed. (Click on the links for information on how Miller & Zois Attorneys at Law do it. We are very transparent.)

One important thing to understand is that the personal injury law firm will recover his contingency fee and all expenses that his firm covered in connection with your case. Expenses can include court filing fees, deposition transcripts, trial exhibits, and expert witness fees.

If an injury case settles quickly these expenses will likely be minimal. If a case goes all the way to trial, however, the total expense can be very significant. This is particularly true in complex medical malpractice cases. You should ask the attorney what the anticipated expenses will be in your case.

You should also make sure that your agreement provides that you will NOT be personally responsible for any expenses in the event that your case is not successful. You should not bear any of the risk of the costs in the litigation. If you lose, you had a free personal injury lawyer. If this is not entirely clear, end the meeting and find another attorney.

If your free consultation goes well and you end up retaining the attorney, you should talk about the next steps before you leave. Ask the lawyer for a detailed "game plan" for what will happen going forward including what he needs from you and how long he anticipates things to take.

The reality is that the very best lawyers for your case might now be the ones who down the street. We are based in Baltimore, Maryland but our lawyers have handled personal injury cases in most states in this country. Why? Because the client believed our law firm was the best law firm for them, regardless of locality. So do not hesitate to set up a consultation online, by phone at 410-779-4600, or by text at 410-835-4103 to get your legal questions answered.

Many Maryland personal injury lawyers think they have a monopoly on wisdom. We don't. This is what other lawyers say about getting a free consultation.

• Michele Mirman: Five Things You Should Know About a Free Consultation with a Personal Injury Lawyer
• Kevin O'Flaherty: What to Expect from a Legal Consultation? (This is not personal injury specific but it has many of the right questions we talk about on this page.)
• Griffith Law: What Doe It Mean When a PI Lawyer Offers a Free Consultation?