Every year thousands of young adults graduate from law school with a shiny new diploma. That diploma allows them to take their State’s Bar Exam and if they pass they can practice any type of law they want! The sole exception is California. Believe it or not, in California, you don’t need to go to law school! All you need to do is pass the bar to be a lawyer. Keep in mind, California has the lowest bar passing rate of all the states. Passing without law school is virtually impossible.
The problem with the JD (Doctor of jurisprudence) degree is that, while you were taught to “think like a lawyer” and how to research legal matters, the unfortunate truth is that you know absolutely nothing about the actual practice of law and how complex every area of law can be.
For many lawyers, this overall shallow level of knowledge across many types of law leads them to be “door lawyers.” In other words, they do whatever walks through their door. Because of their surface only understanding of many areas of law they often handle relatively simple matters. When complex problems walk through their door they either take on a problem too difficult for their expertise and consequently do a poor job – or they refer the client to a specialist who can do a great job.
The truth is that the only way an attorney can do a great job is to narrow down their practice areas so they can become “great at something” instead of “incompetent at everything.”
Injury lawyers shouldn’t try out divorce cases on the side. In fact, if you’re going to be a Florida Personal Injury Lawyer, figure out what type of injury lawyer you want to be. Are you going to be, as Peter Hunt is in our office, a Maritime Injury Lawyer specialist? Do just that! Be an explosion lawyer, a car accident specialist, a tire blowout specialist, or a Nursing Home Abuse & Medical Malpractice Specialist!
There are 1000 areas of law in which an attorney can specialize – Even inside the injury world – and when you narrow the focus you can develop the deep knowledge it takes to best represent your client and maximize their injury case. Plus, by focusing on an area you learn the tricky details of how to proceed with each case. We are often called by panicked lawyers who took on a cruise case slip and fall and didn’t know to file suit within one year! When that happens those lawyers need to call their insurance carrier because they are going to get sued for malpractice. Or the unfortunate injury lawyer who thought that the statute of limitations on a medical negligence claim was the same as an auto accident. Wrong answer! Again, that case is lost before it starts and it was caused by the failure of the lawyer who took on the case to know the details about how to process that type of matter.
In our office, each lawyer concentrated in one area of law. If you are a Social Security disability lawyer, then that is what you do! If you are a Worker’s Compensation Lawyer, then you don’t handle injury cases, you only handle injury cases that happened at work. That way you know the system, you know the processes, you know the rules, and you get the job done right the first time. The same is true for nursing homes and medical malpractice and automobile accidents! Each lawyer concentrates so that what they do, they do the best.
Never settle for a lawyer who is learning an area of law on the back of your legal matter. Call our office for a free consultation. If we don’t believe we are the best at what you need, our intake department has a list of “best lawyers” in their area so that when we make a referral it goes to the right person to maximize the value of your case.
The call is free and remember, we don’t get paid until we get money for you.
