Choosing a personal injury lawyer for an automobile accident case has become somewhat easier with the use of the internet. You can now click on various firms’ web sites using Google or other methods. Obviously, I hope that you choose to let me and my firm represent you after a car wreck with injuries. I hope to attract your interest in hiring me through this blog and our law firm’s web site at www.hsinjurylaw.com. However, I also hope that you do not lose sight of another internet resource in picking a personal injury lawyer. Virginia attorneys are required to be licensed through the Virginia State Bar. The Virginia State Bar’s web site at www.vsb.org has a way to check whether any attorney has been found guilty of ethical violations since 1991. I suggest that before you hire a personal injury attorney you go and make sure that that attorney does not have a record of ethics violations. The internet makes doing this background check very easy.
Remember one main source of complaints against attorneys, including those handling personal injury and wrongful death cases, is failure to communicate. Attorneys not returning phone calls in a timely fashion and not keeping their personal injury clients informed of the progress of their case is the most likely reason that ethics complaints will be made to the Virginia State Bar. Even if an attorney has not been found guilty of an ethics violation, they may still be less than responsive to their clients. If possible, you should try to determine if the lawyer you are hiring will treat you as an individual and communicate enough with you about your injury case. How do you do this? I would suggest by calling the attorney and seeing how you are treated in your initial phone call. Do you get to speak to an attorney or are you only talking to a staff member or paralegal? Does the personal injury lawyer sound like they are interested in hearing what happened to you? Does it sound like the lawyer will take the time to give you individual service to help you and your family through this difficult period after suffering injury in a car wreck? Do the attorneys sound like they know what they are talking about? Are they willing to give you good, free initial advice to help point you in the right direction about your injuries, medical treatment and property damage? Do you know anyone else who has used this attorney or their law firm? Was that person treated fairly in the handling of their personal injury case and were they satisfied with the level of responsiveness of the lawyer and the law firm? These are the kinds of questions that you want to ask before you make the important decision as to which personal injury attorney to hire, if you or a loved one is involved in an automobile accident with injuries.
Rick Shapiro has practiced personal injury law for over 30 years in Virginia, North Carolina, and throughout the Southeastern United States. He is a Board-Certified Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy (ABA Accredited) and has litigated injury cases throughout the eastern United States, including wrongful death, trucking, faulty products, railroad, and medical negligence claims. During his three-decade career, Shapiro has won client appeals before the VA Supreme Court, VA Court of Appeals, NC Supreme Court, SC Supreme Court, WV Supreme Court, TN Supreme Court, and three times before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, underscoring Shapiro’s trial achievements. In addition, he and his law firm have won settlements/verdicts in excess of $100 million. His success in and out of the courtroom is a big reason why he was named 2019 “Lawyer of the Year” in railroad law in U.S. News & World Report's Best Lawyers publication (Norfolk, VA area), and he has been named a “Best Lawyer” and “Super Lawyer” by those peer-reviewed organizations for multiple years. Rick was also named a “Leader in the Law, Class of 2022” by Virginia Lawyers Weekly (total of 33 statewide honorees consisting of lawyers and judges across Virginia). And in September 2023, Rick was selected as a recipient of the National Board of Trial Advocacy (NBTA) 2023 President’s Award. Although many nominations were submitted from across the country, Rick was just one of eight attorneys chosen by the prestigious National Board which certifies civil trial attorneys across the U.S. Rick was also recently named to Virginia Lawyers Weekly 2024 Virginia’s Go To Lawyers Medical Malpractice. The attorneys awarded this honor are nominated by their colleagues and chosen by a panel from the publication.
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