DC Metro Accident Attorney - How Do You Chose?
Choosing the Right Attorney
The recent DC Metro Red Line crash has been on everybody’s mind lately, and for good reason. It isn’t often that a disaster of such magnitude hits the D.C. area. The last real catastrophic event that occurred in our area was when the plane hit the Pentagon on 9/11.
Although the train crash where nine were killed and so many were injured was certainly a terrible event, we can at least take some solace in the fact that nine years between major disasters is an admirable span of time for any major metropolitan area, particularly one as politically charged as ours.
In the aftermath of any accident, victims and their loved ones are usually worried about basic things. They worry about their medical treatment, if and when they will get better, and if and when they will be able to get back to work. The idea of lawsuits and legal representation falls quite far down the list of immediate priorities, and we think that is entirely right and proper.
The decision to file a lawsuit should rest entirely on the victims, and they should not be pressured or connived into filing suit in any way. An attorney who contacts an injury victim in the immediate aftermath of an accident is, ethically speaking, just as bad as an insurance adjuster who visits an injury victim in the hospital and attempts to get him to sign away his rights. But behavior of this sort on the part of attorneys is not only ethically wrong; it is also against the law.
The Rail Passenger Disaster Family Assistance Act of 2008 specifically prohibits attorneys of any sort from the unsolicited contact of victims of a rail disaster until 45 days after the accident. While there is nothing wrong with victims seeking out legal help on their own, direct contact from attorneys to the victims goes expressly against the regulations laid out in this act.
One of the important reasons that these regulations exist is that if a victim is pressured to file a lawsuit from a third party in the aftermath of a major rail accident, the lawsuit is often filed before the investigation and causes of the crash are fully explained. The attorney in question might file a suit for the wrong reasons entirely, or file a suit against the wrong person or company or train transit system, and this could seriously harm the victims’ chances for compensation that would have otherwise been completely justified.
It is important to note here that the Rail Passenger Disaster Family Assistance Act of 2008 also protects victims from being contacted by attorneys on the other side. Defense attorneys hired by transit train agencies or rail companies are also not allowed to contact you and get you to settle, or try to convince you that you aren’t really injured, or try to poke holes in your testimony before you even give it until that 45 days is up.
As much as we would like to say that every attorney in the D.C. Metro area (or even in the nation) is upright, ethical and conscientious, we know from personal experience that this is not always the case. We would urge any victim of the Red Line DC Metro train crash to avoid any attorneys that approach you in an unsolicited manner. If these lawyers obviously care so little about following the regulations set forth by our government for very good reasons, it stands to reason that they will most likely care very little about the quality of the legal counsel that they provide for their clients.
Furthermore, you should also avoid lawyers who make any form of guarantee of a successful verdict. Any attorney who takes ethics seriously will tell you that there is no guarantee of success whatsoever in a court of law, no matter the circumstances.
The decision to file a lawsuit is a serious one, and it deserves every consideration that you can give. You certainly shouldn’t choose the first attorney that shows up unannounced at your bedside, nor should you choose the first attorney that is listed in the phone book. The attorney that you choose should be an injury attorney who has experience in rail or DC Metro transit accidents, and should also have a high rating in legal ability and ethical standards as their professional reputation. Andrew Bederman of Greenberg & Bederman has been rated an AV lawyer by Martindale Hubbel, the highest achievable rating. When choosing your accident lawyer, consider and understand the difference between a poor settlement that occurs quickly and a fair and reasonable settlement that can be achieved over time. The vast majority of injury cases are marathons, not sprints, and in order to get the compensation that you deserve, it is crucial that you have an attorney who understands that.
If you or a loved one has been injured in an accident, contact Greenberg and Bederman for a free legal consultation today.
To learn more about personal injury law, read our personal injury page, or watch our personal injury videos on UTUBE, or read about our personal injury lawyers, Andrew E. Bederman, Roger E. Greenberg, or Jason W. Fernandez.
![BlogSearch.com](<A HREF="http://www.blog-search.com"> <IMG SRC="http://www.blog-search.com/images/smallbutton.gif" WIDTH=80 HEIGHT=15 BORDER=0 ALT="Blog Search: The Source for Blogs"></A>...){kind=link}