Your First Meeting With a Medical Malpractice Lawyer

If you think you have a medical malpractice case, the first order of business is usually finding a lawyer who will represent you and make sure you get the best possible outcome.

Most medical malpractice lawyers will be happy to meet with you to discuss your situation and your potential case (free of charge), but it's important to make sure you're well prepared for this initial consultation. In this article, we'll explain what to expect when meeting with a medical malpractice lawyer for the first time.

The Medical Malpractice Lawyer Needs Details of What Happened

Be prepared to do a lot of talking at your initial consultation. The lawyer needs to know everything about your potential medical malpractice case, and will want a lot of details.

Any legal case must be based on the facts, and medical malpractice lawsuits are no exception. It's best to prepare beforehand so that you can give the lawyer all necessary facts. That means:

• make a list of all of health care providers you've treated with for the condition underlying your claim
• summarize your relevant medical treatment in writing (in not more than a couple of pages)
• gather relevant correspondence and documents to bring to the lawyer’s office
• decide what you are ultimately looking for in a medical malpractice lawyer.

Let’s look at a few of these things in a little more detail.

Make a List of All Your Health Care Providers

Medical malpractice plaintiffs generally have seen a lot of different health care providers, from doctors to hospitals to different kinds of therapists to diagnostic test centers. A medical malpractice lawyer will ultimately need to request medical records from every single health care provider you saw for the condition. The best way to help the lawyer with this task is to make comprehensive a list of who you've seen.

Summarize Your Relevant Medical Treatment in Writing

You don’t need to write a twenty page essay on this, but you should be able to summarize the main points of your treatment in a couple of pages.

You want to focus on when your condition first arose, who you saw for the condition, what happened, what you think the health care provider did wrong in treating you, and who you saw to try to correct the problem. Preparing a short crib sheet will help you keep your treatment straight when answering the lawyer’s questions about what happened.

Gather Relevant Correspondence and Documents

Relevant documents in any malpractice case include the following:

• any medical records and letters from doctors that you might happen to have in your possession
• medical bills
• photographs of your condition, if relevant
• the name, contact information, and policy number for your health insurer
• any correspondence that you may have had with any insurers involved in your claim (including the health care provider's liability or professional malpractice insurer), and
• proof of your lost income, such as tax records or pay stubs.

Bring these documents to your meeting if you have them. Your lawyer can certainly get all of this information through investigation, but there's no need to reinvent the wheel.

Make a List of Questions to Ask a Medical Malpractice Lawyer

There will undoubtedly be things you want to ask the lawyer. Write your questions down beforehand so you don't forget anything. A prospective medical malpractice client might want to touch on:

• how many medical malpractice cases the lawyer has handled
• whether the lawyer specializes in medical malpractice
• how long the lawyer has been handling medical malpractice cases
• how many medical malpractice lawsuits the lawyer has tried
• how many medical malpractice trials the lawyer has won
• the chances of settling the case
• how long it might be until the lawyer is prepared to make a settlement demand
• whether the lawyer will be prepared to file a medical malpractice lawsuit if no reasonable settlement offer comes from the other side, and
• how the lawyer will get paid.

Tips for the Initial Consultation With a Medical Malpractice Lawyer

It's important to prepare for your meeting with a potential medical malpractice lawyer, but it's also crucial to make the most of your face-to-face time. Here are some tips for the first meeting.

Take Notes on What You and the Lawyer Talk About

You'll probably cover a lot of ground in your first conversation, so you'll want to write down the highlights. This will especially come in handy if you end up sitting down with more than one lawyer, and you want to compare what each of them said before making your hiring decision.

Make Sure You Understand What You're Signing

The lawyer might ask you to sign an agreement or acknowledgement that pertains only to the initial consultation (something along the lines of "I'm not your lawyer at this stage, and I'm not providing you with legal advice"). Just make sure you understand what you're signing, and any implications it might have. Don't be afraid to ask the lawyer to explain any document that's put in front of you.

Money Matters

If you decide to hire the lawyer, now is definitely the time to make sure you understand the details of any attorney-client agreement and fee arrangement you're asked to sign. Your medical malpractice lawyer will almost certainly work under a contingency fee agreement, which means they'll only get paid for their legal services if you receive a settlement or court award. Learn more about how medical malpractice lawyers get paid.

Decide What You're Looking For In a Lawyer

Do you think you’re going to need a lawyer who will tell you what 's going on with your case at every turn? Or do you just want to turn everything over to the lawyer and have them call you when there's a fair settlement offer?

All lawyers are different. Some great lawyers don't have the best social skills. They might be brusque with their clients in private, but fantastic with adversaries or in front of a jury. Other lawyers might be great hand-holders, but only average at the actual practice of law. You have to decide what's important to you. Get tips on finding the right lawyer for your medical malpractice case.