Lawyers may concentrate their practice to specific areas of law, including personal injury law. Some lawyers may further specialize to a specific area of personal injury, such as
medical malpractice law. By limiting the range of cases they handle, personal injury lawyers are able to acquire specialized knowledge and experience.
Client relations Before accepting a new case, a personal injury lawyer typically interviews a prospective client and evaluates the client's case to determine the basic facts and potential legal claims that might be made, identifies possible defendants, and evaluates the strength of the case. A lawyer may decline to accept a case if the lawyer believes that the legal claims will not succeed in court or if the cost of litigation is expected to exceed the amount that can reasonably be recovered from the defendants as compensation for the client's injury.
Compensation Lawyer fees may be charged in a number of ways, including
contingency fees, hourly rates, and flat fees. In many countries, personal injury lawyers work primarily on a contingency fee basis, sometimes called an
if-come fee, through which the lawyer receives a percentage of a client's recovery as a fee, but does not recover a fee if the claim is not successful. For example, a retainer agreement might provide that a lawyer will receive a 33 and 1/3% contingency fee if a case settles before a lawsuit is filed, a 40% contingency fee if the case settles after the lawsuit is filed, or up to 45% if the lawsuit goes to trial. Due to the high cost of
litigation, personal injury lawyers are rarely retained to work based on an hourly fee. However, defense attorneys who are hired to contest personal injury claims are often paid on an hourly basis.
Ethics An attorney should provide diligent representation to clients, and the ultimate professional responsibility of a personal injury lawyer is to help plaintiffs obtain just compensation for their losses. As with all lawyers, the attorney-client relationship is governed by
rules of ethics. In the United States, lawyers are regulated by codes of conduct established by state bar associations, which have the power to take disciplinary action against lawyers who violate professional or ethical regulations. States normally require all contingency agreements between lawyers and their clients to be in writing, and may limit the amount that may be charged as a contingency fee to a specific maximum percentage of the recovery.
Marketing The market for personal injury firms is highly competitive in the U.S., and some firms maintain large marketing budgets to attract potential clients. Marketing efforts include advertising on television, radio, the Internet and social media, billboards, and in print publications. In some jurisdictions, lawyer marketing has moved away from the historic expectation of decorum in lawyer advertising. An industry has arisen for law firms that do little legal practice, instead focusing on client generation and referral of cases to other law firms. ==Organizations==