Why Should You Hire a Charleston Injury Lawyer?

When you’re looking for a personal injury lawyer, the options can be overwhelming. Everywhere you look, there’s an ad, a website link, a business profile, a YouTube video. Some of those promotions come from large national firms that boast about working with thousands of clients each year. That may sound tempting. That’s a lot of experience with cases like yours. But there are downsides to working with a huge firm managing thousands of cases from an office halfway across the country.

Here’s why an experienced local personal injury lawyer is usually a better choice.

Reasons to Hire a Local Injury Lawyer

1. Working with thousands of clients isn’t necessarily the benefit it sounds like. After a while, those clients start to blur together. A local Charleston injury lawyer likely won’t be juggling so many cases that you’re identified by a file number. Attorney Frank Hartman purposely keeps his caseload reasonable, so he can take the time to get to know and understand his clients and their needs. The proof is in what his past clients have to say.
2. An attorney based in or near Charleston has a better opportunity to gather evidence and get the “big picture” of the case. For example, your local lawyer can visit the accident scene if that would be helpful, or meet with witnesses in person. A local lawyer will also be familiar with the standard processes for obtaining medical information from large local providers, obtaining police reports, and working with local first responders when necessary.
3. An attorney with extensive experience in the local Charleston courts and those of surrounding counties will have a solid knowledge of local procedures, judges’ preferences, the typical timeline for a case like yours, how local juries have treated similar cases, and other court-specific aspects of your case.
4. A local Charleston injury lawyer will typically know the players, particularly the lawyers who routinely represent insurance carriers in the area. That means they may already have working relationships that can expedite the case, and also that they are more likely to be familiar with the tactics employed by those lawyers and any particular pitfalls involved in working with them.
5. That also means the insurance company lawyers will likely be familiar with your lawyer–that they’ll know your attorney’s local reputation. If they know your attorney is willing and able to fight for you in court if they don’t make a fair settlement offer, that can impact how quickly a case settles and whether they make a reasonable offer.
6. It’s easier and less expensive for a local attorney to take your case to trial, since they won’t need to travel, pay to bring in expert witnesses, and otherwise incur the expenses and inconvenience associated with working far from home.
7. Many large, national firms are known as “settlement mills.” That means they crank through a huge number of cases as quickly as they can, accepting the best settlement offer they can get but rarely if ever going to trial. If an insurance company knows that, they have little incentive to increase their offer.

Talk to a Local Charleston Injury Lawyer Today

If you’ve been injured in a Charleston-area car accident, slip and fall, or other accident that was someone else’s fault, schedule a free consultation with Frank Hartman today. See for yourself the peace of mind that comes from hiring an experienced local attorney who is part of your community, cares about your future, and has extensive knowledge of the local court systems and other participants and procedures.

Call 843-300-7600 right now, or fill out our contact form.