I’m not saying all attorneys in the phone book are high volume lawyers—NOT AT ALL. Almost every business or profession in America has a “Yellow Page” listing. It is a totally legitimate means of an attorney offering his or her services to the public. In fact, our law firm has an ad in the yellow pages. What I am saying, though, is to look for signs of the “Volume Lawyers” and to avoid selecting an attorney solely based on catchy taglines or who has the slickest looking advertisement. It’s fine to use the yellow pages as a starting place—just don’t let it be the only criteria you use in picking your attorney. Instead, use the guidelines below to help you make sure the Tennessee Workers Compensation attorney you select is the right one for you!

Picking an Attorney: Guidelines For Selecting The Right Tennessee Workers Compensation Attorney

Finding a good, legitimate experienced Workers Compensation attorney can be a challenge, so here are some guidelines you can use:

1. Choose an attorney who is Board Certified in Civil Trials.

Just as you probably would not allow just any family practitioner doctor to perform back surgery on you, you do not want to depend on just any attorney to handle your Workers Compensation claim. For your surgery you would want to be sure the doctor specialized in performing surgery, so you would look for a Board Certified surgeon. You should make these same considerations when choosing an attorney. For your workers compensation case, you would want to be sure the attorney is specialized in trying cases before a judge Circuit Judges or Chancellor, so you would look for an attorney who is Board Certified in Civil Trials. I believe this to be a very important factor to consider when selecting an attorney to handle your Tennessee Workers Compensation claim.

2. Select an attorney whose practice is limited to accident, injury and Workers Compensation cases.

In deciding between one of these Certified Civil Trial Specialists, you should choose one that limits his or her practice to accident, injury and workers compensation cases. Certified Civil Trial Specialists practice in a variety of different areas of the law, from property disputes, to contract disputes, to consumer rights, to civil rights actions. None of those areas involve the issues central to your Workers Compensation claim. You should choose an attorney that devotes one hundred percent (100%) of their time to representing clients in accident, injury and Workers Compensation cases. The field of Workers Compensation law is much too complicated and requires a tremendous amount of time for the “general practitioner” or “part-time” lawyer to master.

(2) For example, I know and I am personally familiar with the law firm Hill-Boren (which has offices in Memphis and Jackson, Tennessee) and consider its founding partners my personal friends. This firm does do television advertising. However, I consider Hill-Boren to be a top quality workers compensation firm with an excellent reputation for representing their injured clients, including taking cases to trial when necessary. I would not hesitate to refer cases to this law firm, and I would feel proud to have them represent me or a member of my family.

Continued in How do you choose the right Attorney for your Tennessee Workers' Compenstion Case? (Part 2)