The Importance of Hiring a Trial Attorney

The Importance of Hiring a Trial Attorney (Transcript)

Paul R. Cavonis, Injury Law and Board Certified Civil Trial Attorney

Paul: If I were looking for a lawyer, the very first question I would ask is, "Do you try your own cases?" Understand that there are many lawyers who are big advertisers who do not try cases, and the big problem with that from the client's perspective is that the insurance companies know which lawyers try cases and which lawyers don't try cases, and it doesn't take a sophisticated person to figure out which lawyer will get better results from the insurance companies, because there's really only one thing that an insurance company fears, and that is an adverse jury verdict. They fear a jury ruling against them, and if the attorney handling the case won't go to trial, and there are lots of lawyers who simply won't go to trial, there is no incentive for that insurance company to pay a fair value on that claim, because the thing that they would otherwise fear most, an adverse jury verdict, has just been removed. It's been eliminated.

If you have a lawyer who has never gone through that process, taken a case from the very beginning, taken it from the foundation to the very end, the lawyer may not know how important certain details are and how they interlock in the case. And I tell clients all the time, "The more we prepare a case for trial, the harder we prepare a case for trial, the less likely that case is ever to get to trial." Why? Because you're negotiating from a position of strength, and you're demonstrating to your opponent, these insurance companies, that you're willing to try the case. If a case is not prepared properly, if the attorney is unwilling to try the case, the odds of that case going to trial increase substantially, and what of course happens in a lot of those cases is that the attorneys get cold feet at the very end and they settle short, and the clients do not get what they deserve. They do not get a fair settlement.