A personal injury lawyer’s experience can mean the difference in recovering everything you’re entitled to – or nothing at all. But hiring an attorney – the right attorney – can often be a daunting task. We interviewed Eric Block, a Florida accident lawyer whose practice concentrates on personal injury claims and trial work related to those claims, who provided answers to the following questions about how an attorney can help in a personal injury case:

When should somebody contact an attorney in a personal injury matter?

Absolutely as soon as possible – mainly for medical management reasons. You want to make sure that you’re seeing the right kind of doctors who are looking for the right types of injuries. For instance, Florida has a PIP (Personal Injury Protection) law. What that means is the first $10,000 of your medical bills will be paid by PIP. Many people go to a chiropractor first because they don’t think they’re seriously injured or they don’t know how seriously they’re injured after an accident. Unfortunately, the chiropractor’s bill may eat up the entire $10,000 of PIP.

However, that person may need further treatment. If a neurologist needs to do an MRI, that $10,000 is already gone. So, it’s very, very important to consult with a lawyer as soon as possible after an injury.

What questions should someone ask a personal injury attorney before hiring him?

I would ask the following questions:

• How many cases have you tried in the last five years?
• What is your trial record?
• What percentage of your practice is spent on personal injury cases?
• How long have you specialized in personal injury cases?
• What are the results that you’ve obtained for your clients in the past?

How are personal injury lawyers compensated in Florida?

We are compensated by a percentage of what we’re able to obtain for our clients. The Florida Supreme Court realized long ago that if the regular working guy, say the father of four, gets hurt in a car accident, he simply does not have the money to pay hundreds of dollars an hour to an attorney to represent him. So, the Florida Supreme Court approved percentages. Typically, those are 33.3 percent up to the time the case is settled and before the lawsuit gets filed.

Once a lawsuit gets filed, there’s much more work involved. That percentage would then increase to 40 percent. If a case is won or lost and goes into the appellate courts (which is fairly unusual), then the amount increases an additional 5 percent.

Are there any costs that clients will incur up front?

The Florida Bar says that lawyers don’t have to advance money for costs such as medical records, depositions, photographs, investigative fees and expert witness fees to clients. However, any personal injury lawyer worth his salt will. Our firm fronts those costs because it can add up to tens of thousands of dollars. Those costs are taken at the end of the case if it’s successfully completed.

The lawyer is actually entitled to be reimbursed whether the case is successful or not. However, I can tell you that in 16 years of doing this, we’ve never asked our clients to reimburse us for costs. We don’t lose many cases, but for the few that we have, we’ve simply written them off as the cost of doing business. There is absolutely no risk for a client to contact us – except that they may unintentionally damage what might be a very valuable case to them if they don’t.

If you’ve been injured due to the negligence of another, contact a Florida injury attorney to discuss your situation. The consultation is free, without obligation and strictly confidential.