The Quagmire of Choosing a Personal Injury Attorney: Should I choose a soft bed, a hard bed, or one that feels just right?
Las Vegas has plenty of attorneys and plenty of personal injury attorneys some of who have practiced for decades. The problem is those lawyers are so beaten down and tired that they only get excited if a “big case” comes through the door. The other issue with those decade old attorneys is the lack of energy— like an old car it just doesn’t perform anymore. The flip side to that, are all the personal injury lawyers emerging that are so young trying to get into the game and lack the necessary experience. I’m not sure what is worse. I’d hate to be a client with an attorney who is so green, walk into court and realize that he has no idea what he’s doing. Likely he’d make a mistake before you got to court. That may just mean game over. Just the same, a jury can pick up on a senior citizen attorney who constantly repeats himself because he forgot he told them that fact already—signs of dementia. These kind don’t understand the notion of retirement. Like airline pilots, they should have mandatory retirement at age 60. Truly, there is a balance between too old and too young. That balance is the personal injury law firm of Benson and Bingham. With a combined 18 years of exclusive personal injury experience, Joe Benson and Ben Bingham are aggressive middle-aged attorneys with experience and the “know-how” to get results.
If you care to hire an accident attorney who has no idea what is going on—then you probably don’t care about your case or your insurance claim. The personal injury lawyers you see on television usually are more concerned with making commercials than practicing personal injury law. A true personal injury lawyer has the skills and required knowledge acquired through experience to handle a personal injury matter. The lawyers at Benson and Bingham are those men. Don’t forget we are in tough times—those itsy bitsy law firms just might encourage their clients to settle a case when they shouldn’t (called a conflict of interest) causing a breach of the duty owed to the injured victim. “Scared to press the case, and scared to invest in the case.” It may be a good idea to make sure the law firm chosen is not only financially sound, but been around long enough to be financially stable for your case. Again choosing these personal injury lawyers to represent you requires some due diligence on your behalf. Investigate the following:
- Experience. How many years have they practiced? Have they represented a victim that has your same facts.
- Trial work. How many trials have they performed? When was the last trial performed?
- Interview. Consult with more than one personal injury attorney regarding your matter and decide who feels just right.
- Bar number. (Nevada bar numbers range from 100 to 12,000) Benson and Bingham’s are 7276 and 7278 respectively. Many of the bar numbers in the 100-500 range are deceased! From 9000 and up are still green!
I believe it a gross over-generalization to state that Bar# has anything to do with competence or capability to handle a client’s case. I know many 1-500 attorneys that do exceptional work for their clients. I also know a number of hard working 9000+ attorneys that end up with better results for their clients because they are hungrier than older/lazier attorneys.
Take a look at the bar sanctions…seems like 5000-8000 are the bulk of the offenders.
Want a good attorney? Talk to a handful, get to know their competence and how they make you feel. Are you a number? Another file? a paycheck? then your rights and concerns are likely not to be taken care of.
my 2 cents.