How Personal Injury Lawyers Differ From Criminal Lawyers
After being involved in a workplace accident, a car accident, or another similar situation, you might need to hire a personal injury lawyer. You might have never hired one of these attorneys before, and when you think about lawyers, you might think about criminal lawyers. However, if you're going to hire a personal injury lawyer, it's important for you to know the difference. These are some of the main ways that personal injury lawyers differ from criminal lawyers.
They Don't Usually Charge You Up-Front
When you hire a criminal lawyer, you typically have to pay all of your legal fees before your lawyer ever represents you. The lawyer might expect you to pay all of the legal fees at one time, or they might let you make payments until your court date. However, not only will you need to pay before your lawyer goes to court for you, but you will be expected to pay even if you lose in court.
However, this is not usually the case with a personal injury lawyer. Instead, with this type of lawyer, you will generally not have to pay anything up-front, and if you lose your case, you typically won't be expected to pay anything at all.
Their Cases Are Considered Civil Cases
The primary difference between a personal injury lawyer and a criminal lawyer is the fact that the cases that personal injury lawyers handle are considered to be civil cases. Of course, these are not the only types of civil cases. All sorts of lawsuits are considered to be civil cases. However, personal injury cases are some of the more common civil cases. Civil cases are typically held in different courtrooms than criminal cases, and they're related to money, not the possibility of going to jail or being put on probation. In some personal injury cases, there are both criminal and civil cases that are related. For example, if you have been hit by a drunk driver, then you might hire a personal injury lawyer to represent you in the civil case. However, local law enforcement might have pressed criminal charges against the driver as well.
They Might Never Go to Court
In many cases, when you hire a criminal lawyer, it's because you want to have representation when you go to court to face criminal charges. Of course, if you hire a personal injury lawyer, then your lawyer will represent you if you go to court. However, many civil cases never make it to court because they are handled in the form of a settlement, and there's a good chance this will be the case with your case too.
Contact a personal injury lawyer for more information.
