Finding the Best Lawyer in New York Part II

In part one we discussed some search terms that may help you find the best accident lawyer in New York for you and your case. Some of the terms included best attorney New York, best lawyer New York, best accident attorney New York, best accident lawyer New York, etc. One thing to be aware of is that accident lawyers and personal injury law firms can pay search engines for “pay-per-click” words. Some of the most expensive “pay-per-click” search terms include “personal injury lawyer”, “personal injury attorney”, “accident lawyer”, “accident attorney” etc. When someone enters these search terms the top results will most likely be “sponsored”. Sponsored means that the lawyer or law firm paid the search engine to be on the first page when a person types in one of the key words, search terms or phrases. In practice this means that the lawyer who comes up on the top of the first page paid for that position. They pay for that position because the person performing the search sees that webpage first and the hope is that they will “click” on the page (hence the term pay per click). Once they are on the page the hope is that they will read about the firm and retain the firm.

Some web search results are “organic”. The term “organic” refers to a website or webpage that is listed on a search engine based on the content matching the search term (as opposed to paying to attract web surfers who use certain search terms a/k/a pay-per-click).

There are no guarantees that pay-per-click or organic search results will yield the best lawyer for your case. The simple truth is you need to investigate beyond the results provided by the search engine. You need to evaluate and consider the factors that differentiate one lawyer from another and one law firm from another. There simply is no substitute for research and investigation.

You should ask questions. Ask to talk with prior clients. Read about the attorney(s). Read about their results. Find out if they try their own cases and handle their own appeals. Pay attention to how long they have been in practice. Do they handle cases referred to them by other attorneys?

The bottom line is that you want the best attorney. Usually hiring someone who is the best in their field means that you will pay a premium. Nowhere is this more evident than in professional sports. The best athletes are the highest paid players. When it comes to retaining a personal injury lawyer in New York, they all charge the same amount!!!! They all use the same contingent fee retainer with an amount set by law. That means the worst personal injury lawyer in New York charges the exact same amount as the best personal injury attorney in New York!!!!! If you could get a Mercedes for the same price as a Hyundai which one would you buy?

The long story short is that you should not take the search results on face value. You owe it to yourself to go beyond TV advertising. Find the Mercedes of lawyers.