Sunday 11 November 2012

Richmond Personal Injury Lawyer: Qualification & Qualities


In the field of legal profession especially the personal injury law, the road to success is not straight; in fact, there are many curves.

Money shouldn't be the sole aim to get into the profession of law.  Many with a heart for others choose law as an avowal of faith and belief to help people in trouble and strife, especially, grief-stricken and injured in accidents.  It is this passion and urge to make sure that innocent people get what is truly owed to them, goads them to get into law and become a personal injury lawyer.  For them personal profit and loss have never been an impediment in delivering justice; it is always put above everything else.  They are the people who enjoy their profession most and become very successful in life. 

Anyone interested to become a Richmond personal injury lawyer; he or she should be in possession of a four-year college degree before entering into the law school.  A four-year college degree is a minimum qualification to sit for the LSAT and you have to get through the test in order to be accepted into a law school.   In this regard, you need to remember that only a high score in the test can enable you to be accepted in the law school.  And in law school you need three years to complete the course.  A sum total of seven years schooling is a must for anyone interested to pursue law as a career profession. However, that is not the end of learning and training about how to practice law or tort and be successful.

Long before finally getting into the legal arena, you need to initiate your spade work which may help you learn the essential tricks and traits of an effective lawyer.  Law is one of such few professions which facilitate aspiring candidates to start gaining experience while they are still in learning stage in their law schools.  This they can do by finding jobs as clerks with a law firms during their school days, thereby they can not only gain experience but also have the advantage of networking with the professionals associated with process of these lawsuits.  It is essential especially with the cases involving Virginia personal injury law, as you have to work along with a lot of people such as doctors, medical technicians etc. to prove your point and strengthen your arguments before the judge.  In this regard, maintaining a list of a few honest and reputable doctors in Richmond would be a much beneficial exercise as you can fall back upon them as expert witness during the injury trails of your clients.  Law students join as clerks with law firms in order to support their finances, but later on, this act of necessity turns out to be blessing in disguise. 

After graduating from the law school, you have to clear the American Bar Association Examination pertaining to your state.  If you are an applicant from Richmond, as per the Virginia Board of Bar Examiners, in each year bar examinations are held on two successive days in the month of February in either the City of Richmond or Norfolk and in the month of July in the City of Roanoke.  Examination will consist of two parts with each part having a morning and an afternoon session.  The examination is intended to test the applicants’ knowledge in various topics, contracts, torts, American constitutional law, criminal law, evidence and many more.  Since these bar exams are not so easy; a candidate must subject themselves to hundreds of hours of diligent study to get through them.

But, even after passing the bar examination, you will not be able to open your own practice as a Richmond personal injury lawyer. It takes time to find enough clients to support your personal and financial expenses.  That is why, many freshers join different law firms to gain adequate experience and repay their outstanding study loans.  Once they have acquired sufficient experience and risen to popularity among the clients and colleagues in Richmond, they can consider going alone.  In this connection, you need to remember that in the field of legal profession especially the personal injury law, the road to success is not straight; in fact, it is so thick beset with thorns and briers.

Sunday 4 November 2012

Legal Aspects Of Car Accident In Virginia


You can find a lot vehicle accident reports specially accidents involving cars in Virginia. Naturally one should be aware of the legal aspects of car accident in Virginia to be prepared if ever one would go through this. A Virginia personal injury lawyer may give you ample help in this regard but it is better to have a little knowledge on the subject if you have own a car.

Assumptions
At times legal aspects in case of car accidents involve assumptions. It is safe to make such assumptions as long as it is not evidenced to be false. To that effect, one is expected to be knowledgeable enough to be aware of the applicable laws of the state in which the mishap has taken place. For instance, if your car was rammed by another car from behind, it may automatically be presumed that the following driver was negligent and so at fault. However in certain judgments it is also clear that such incidents do not ipso facto foreclose the issue of liability.

Then there have been incidents where in the insurance companies insist that the drivers have been at fault who did not restrain themselves with the help of the seat belts, in the event of meeting an accident. One of the sections in a particular state of the general laws state that failure to be properly restrained cannot be considered as negligence and failure to be properly restrained cannot be admissible as evidence in the trial of any civil action. Such laws in Virginia have been duly referred to by the relevant courts and questions on consideration of use or non-use of restraining systems have been thwarted.

Another assumption one needs to be aware of is that which indicates that a driver having met with an accident while driving someone else’s car is assumed to be carrying the registered owner’s consent to drive that vehicle unless proven otherwise.

You can find a lot of accident cases with such assumptions in Virginia. The point is that assumptions are capable of making a case strong or weak; Virginia personal injury lawyers are expected to make a note of such assumptions and utilize or ignore based on circumstances in pursuit of just compensation.

Seeking Legal Representation in Virginia
It may be advisable to seek a competent lawyer’s or attorney’s in Virginia who has expertise in discussing your case and seek legal representation. Virginia has its own laws and if you are from a state other than Virginia and your accident occurs in Virginia, it makes things tad bit difficult for you to manage on your own. The complexity of your case may compel you to seek competent legal representation by an experienced Virginia personal injury lawyer. For example an accident may cause complexities and suffering of varying levels such as inability to go to work and therefore lost wages, personal injuries, high medical bills, car repair expenses. Some lawyers advertise heavily, some delegate or outsource to other lawyers – you need to make your decisions.

Time need to be accorded utmost importance, as it is expensive and at times difficult if not impossible to assess the value of damage caused if action is delayed.

Making a Claim
 It is never easy to assess or quantify the damages caused in a car crash. Usually the compensation value and the actual costs incurred remain poles apart, because the costs do not stop at visible signs of damage. History proves that certain damages are likely to occur at a later time and the treatment can be a long drawn one.

You need to ask if you would be receiving all of the compensation awarded. Would there be any percentage going to anything else (read hidden charges)? Find out if there is any deduction or any tax involved in it? Take time to read the fine print and make an informed decision. Any Virginia personal injury lawyer you go to for help, you may seek testimonials and or recommendations of their services in Virginia Law Bar so that you can assess their abilities and success ratio. Also you are likely to find lawyers who offer no charges if the desired compensation is not won in their favor. This clearly shows who can be trusted and how much. This could mean that your lawyers would be compensated by the 3rd party’s insurance company when the negligence is proven to be theirs or an insurance taken out by your lawyers in the event of a loss.

Also while making a claim, one of the key considerations you make is about the specialty knowledge your lawyer possesses on your kind of accident and on related laws in Virginia. It requires him or her to have contested a number of cases, having won a majority of those and the knowledge of recent amendments in the applicable laws in Virginia. For instance a whiplash victim’s case is a complex one for a general car accident lawyer to deal with.