Free Consultation After an Accident in Houston

If you’re looking for a personal injury attorney, you see and hear “free consultation” on websites and in advertisements. What is a free consultation, and why should you get one? This meeting with one of our attorneys is a critical first step to finding the right path to fair compensation for injuries suffered in an accident.

You might be entitled to compensation if another party caused an accident that left you injured. That may be recovered through an insurance claim or lawsuit. The experienced Houston injury lawyers at Schechter, Shaffer & Harris, LLP help victims of vehicle crashes and other accidents obtain recoveries for their losses. Our attorneys also represent family members of loved ones killed in accidents.

What is a Free Consultation?

Accident victims contact us to set up a meeting with one of our attorneys. Your first meeting with an attorney is like seeing a doctor right after your accident. You know something’s wrong, but you don’t know what it is, and you don’t know what to do about it. Instead of helping you recover medically, our job is to help you recover financially to put the accident and your injuries behind you as best you can.

Before your consultation, we’ll ask you to fill out some forms so we’ll start to understand what’s going on. In our consultation, we want to get as many of the relevant facts as possible, including:

• What happened
• When it happened
• What you and the other party did leading up to the accident
• Whether the police got involved, and if so, whether someone was ticketed or arrested
• If you have a police report
• The diagnosis and extent of your injuries
• How long you expect them to last
• What medical treatment you’ve received so far, and what’s planned for the future
• How your injuries impact your ability to work and how they affect you physically, financially, and emotionally
• How your relationships with your spouse, partner, and family have suffered

We need to understand who’s responsible for your accident, what they did or didn’t do, and how easily we can prove their liability. We also need to know about your role, if any, in causing your accident.

Why Do You Need So Much Information?

Facts are the foundation of a personal injury claim. When they’re in place, we build the legal case that you should be compensated for your injuries. Changing one or two critical facts could be the difference between that case falling apart or holding up to the defenses that will rain down on you.

Our attorneys need to have a good grasp of the facts to determine:

• Who might be responsible
• What they did wrong
• What else we need to know
• How we’ll get that information
• What legal claims might be brought against them
• How long that might take
• The defenses the other party may raise
• The chances they’ll be successful
• The chances your claim or lawsuit will be successful
• How much your case may be worth to settle or to ask from a jury if we go to trial

It may take some time before we have the essential facts we seek before we decide to take your case or not.

If I Meet With You, Am I Obligated to Hire You?

Our consultation is a two-way street. You want to tell your story, learn about us, and feel comfortable about whether you wish to pursue legal action, and if so, retain us to help you do that. The fact we have a meeting doesn’t mean you must hire us for your case.

We want to hear your story and decide if:

• You’re the kind of client we seek
• Your legal claims are a good match for our experience and knowledge
• Your chances of success are good enough, and your potential recovery is high enough, to make your case attractive to us

Like most personal injury firms, Schechter, Shaffer & Harris, L.L.P. takes cases on a contingency basis. We will be paid a portion of your settlement or jury award. If there’s no settlement or a jury decides for the defendant, we’re not paid for our work. That’s why we need to understand how much time and effort your case may require, the chance of a positive outcome, and how much of a recovery both you and the firm will likely get when it concludes.

If what you’ll receive will be too small given the work it’ll require, or we think there’s a good chance the defendant has a strong case against you, we may decide we’re not interested in representing you.

Do I Need to Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer?

Not getting the right legal help in a timely way for your case can be a huge mistake. If someone else caused your injuries, you should contact a personal injury lawyer in Houston and get started on an injury claim.

Your injuries can significantly affect your life, ability to work, financial situation, and future well-being. Don’t take on this enormous hassle alone. Our attorneys will deal with the insurance company while you focus on your family and recovery.

Contact Schechter, Shaffer & Harris, L.L.P if you need a Houston personal injury lawyer with years of regional court system experience. As a personal injury law firm in Texas, we help people like you win settlements and judgments for their injuries. Get in touch with our legal team today to schedule your free consultation and begin the process to get the compensation you deserve.