When you choose a Chicago car accident lawyer to handle your car accident claim, you hope you make the right choice. However, even after doing lots of research and interviewing different attorneys, you may later regret your decision and wonder if you can switch lawyers in the middle of your case.
The good news is that you can almost always switch lawyers even in mid-case. There are rare circumstances that a judge may not approve of an attorney substitution, such as when a trial is pending and changing lawyers would delay the trial.
Why You Might Want to Switch Lawyers
There are several reasons you may wish to switch lawyers mid-case, including:
- Your Chicago personal injury attorney does not communicate well with you or does not return your phone calls and emails.
- You have lost faith in your attorney’s ability to help you recover the compensation you deserve.
- Your case is dragging on far longer than expected, and your attorney has not given you a valid reason for the delay.
- You no longer trust your attorney.
- Your attorney has missed important court deadlines in your case.
- You believe your attorney may have a conflict of interest.
- Your attorney does something that makes you question their ethics.
- You and your attorney disagree on strategy or the value of your claim.
Some of these issues can be resolved by discussing your concerns with your attorney. If you still feel uncomfortable with continuing the attorney-client relationship, you should respect your instinct and consult another attorney.
Will Changing My Lawyer Harm My Chances of Recovering Maximum Compensation?
Whether changing your lawyer mid-case harms your chances of recovering maximum compensation depends on several factors. For example, if you switch lawyers just before a trial and your new lawyer does not have time to adequately prepare and get up to speed, you could hurt your case.
Additionally, if you make a bad choice when changing lawyers, you could hurt your chances of recovering maximum compensation. To help make a better choice, consider all the things you wish you had asked your original attorney and be sure to ask them when choosing a new one. Some questions you may want to ask a potential new lawyer are:
- How many car accident claims similar to mine have you handled?
- What do you believe my claim is worth and how did you arrive at that value?
- Have you handled other cases in which the client has switched lawyers mid-case?
- What is your strategy for handling my case?
- How will you communicate with me?
- What is your trial success rate with car accident claims similar to mine?
- Do you feel comfortable handling my case?
- Do you believe you can help me recover maximum compensation for my damages?
- Do you work on a contingency fee basis and what percentage of my compensation will you be paid for your services?
Be sure you ask all questions you have and don’t hesitate to ask the attorney you are interviewing to elaborate or explain in greater detail if you do not understand something. Even after asking good questions, you sometimes need to trust your intuition about an attorney. Do they make you feel comfortable? Do they seem to be confident, experienced, and knowledgeable in handling car accident cases?
Contact a Car Accident Lawyer with Meyers & Flowers Trial Attorneys Today
At Meyers & Flowers Trial Attorneys, our car accident lawyers have helped recover billions of dollars in settlements and verdicts for our clients and we want to help you get the justice and compensation you deserve.
Our lawyers will always treat you with respect, listen to you, answer your questions, and explain your rights. We want you to be confident that you have found the right attorney for your car accident case. So, we welcome your questions and are committed to delivering the highest level of service.
Call (630) 576-0528 or visit our contact page and schedule a free consultation to discuss your car accident claim.