About Becoming a Personal Injury Lawyer

There are many young people who aspire to be an attorney and also are considering their options for practice areas. This article is written to give aspiring attorneys a practical perspective on personal injury law.

 

Obviously, to become a personal injury lawyer, you need to graduate from law school and obtain a degree. Also, you will need to take the bar exam for your individual state.

 

 

Getting a Bachelor’s Degree

 

Law schools generally accept any undergraduate degree from an accredited university and do not necessarily give preference to any one specific undergraduate study area or degree. Some of the more common undergraduate degrees are in areas such as political science, English, and communications and some colleges offer degrees in pre-law. If a pre-law degree is offered by your university, that would be a preferable undergraduate degree to obtain.

 

Subjects such as writing, English, and speech are all very helpful in giving you a basic foundation for your legal studies ahead.

 

Getting a Law Degree

 

Law school is a three-year program after your bachelor’s degree. Like college, the first year generally consists of core legal subjects such as torts, property law, criminal law, and constitutional law. For those seriously considering the personal injury arena, the core course in torts will give a pretty good overview of the basis for legal personal injury claims.

 

Students should endeavor to enroll in law schools that are accredited by the American Bar Association.

 

While in law school, participation in trial coursework is advisable. Personal injury attorneys need to be skilled trial lawyers. The more practice you have in moot court and trial practice in law school, the better prepared you will be for real-world practice.

 

It is very helpful for law students to clerk for law firms while attending law school. This gives students a chance to experience the legal profession outside of the classroom. For students who are unsure of which area of law they want to practice, it may be a good idea to clerk at different law firms and get to see different areas of practice.

 

Taking the Bar Exam

 

After graduation from law school, the bar exam is required by individual states in order to practice within that state. The exam will cover state-specific issues and general legal areas in addition to a multi-state bar exam multiple choice test.

 

 

 

Practicing as a Personal Injury Attorney

 

Obtaining hands-on practice with a reputable law firm after graduation from law school and passing the bar examination is always advisable. Many personal injury attorneys are former defense attorneys who cut their teeth on trying cases for insurance companies. Insurance defense attorneys, particularly those starting out in the practice of law, can obtain trial experience relatively quickly.

Look at the training offered by law firms that you’re considering as your initial employment. Training is probably the most important component of securing a successful future as a personal injury attorney and should be a primary consideration for your first job.

 

Always Learn

 

A personal injury attorney must also strive to continue to improve in every category on a daily basis. Representing injured people whose lives have often been shattered requires compassion, understanding, the ability to listen, and also people skills.

Additionally, personal injury attorneys must also be selective in the cases they accept because most of their work is based on a contingency fee arrangement. In other words, if they do not win the case they do not get paid for their time and effort.

 

Changing Legal Environment

 

Trial lawyers and particularly personal injury lawyers, have been under attack in many states across the country recently. Calls for “tort reform” are, in effect, a mechanism to change the personal injury practice in individual states and on a federal level. There are some organizations funded by insurance interests that seek to limit both damages of victims and access to the courthouse.

 

In some states, personal injury practice is more attractive financially than in others. The latest trend has been to limit the rights of innocent victims by capping damages and reducing attorney’s fees. By making personal injury litigation less financially attractive, lawyers move to other areas of practice, and often victims find that they cannot find an attorney to help them in some practice areas in some states.

In the state of Texas, tort reform includes capping damages in medical malpractice cases and also placing expensive legal hurdles on those types of cases. The net effect has been that victims of medical malpractice in the state of Texas are largely unable to find representation for their cases.

 

Aspiring attorneys looking at personal injury should research the legal environment within the state they plan to practice to analyze the feasibility of a career in personal injury law.

Personal injury law can be very rewarding both economically and mentally. If you like to help people and are entrepreneurially inclined. Consider personal injury law.