2stix:
I have some professional experience that gives me some insight into choosing an attorney.
First, get a referral from your county bar association's lawyer referral service. The county bar association is a reputable organization that likely imposes standards on the attorneys who participate in the referral service. Do NOT rely on any other form of referral service without carefully vetting it to be sure it is legitimate and not simply a for-profit marketing scheme. There are plenty of those out there. When you contact the county bar association, ask what the standards are for an attorney's participation in the program.
If you cannot find your county bar association's lawyer referral service on-line, I believe there is a list somewhere on the State Bar of California's website calbar.ca.gov.
Second, before hiring any attorney, check his or her discipline history on the State Bar's website. What's posted will be limited to "public" discipline, which means any level of discipline greater than an admonition or private reproval. The State Bar cannot disclose, however, the number of consumer complaints lodged against an attorney that did not result in the imposition of public discipline. The number and nature of such complaints could, of course, be a sign of trouble. So do further due diligence by Googling the attorney to see if there is anything else out there he or she may not want you to know.
Third, avoid mills! Mills are law offices whose business model involves taking on a large volume of cases and settling them as quickly as possible. A mill is very often run by a non-lawyer "paralegal," "office manager," or "investigator," with little or no actual oversight by an attorney. The worse case scenarios involve operations run under the name of an entirely absent attorney who has essentially sold the use of his or her name, or by an elderly and cognitively impaired attorney who has no idea what's going on, or that involve outright identity theft by a non-lawyer operating in the name of a lawyer without authority. These things may sound far-fetched, but I've seen them all. Usually, however, mills operate with the full cooperation of the attorney, who is just more interested in turning a quick buck than in providing high quality professional service.
Signs to watch for: if the office manager's office is bigger than the attorney's, watch out; if the attorney is not available to speak to you in person before you sign a fee agreement, that's trouble; if the attorney is a sole practitioner who operate in more than one office location, he or she is likely spread too thin or relying too much on non-attorney staff to work without adequate supervision, at a minimum.
Fourth, you want to find a lawyer with actual and recent trial experience. Ask the attorney to identify cases he or she has recently tried and verify with the court records, which are likely available online. A PI lawyer who is only interested in settling cases but not trying them is, in my opinion, a problem. The insurance company's lawyer will know the reputation of your lawyer and will take maximum advantage of that knowledge. Also, lawyers who are not comfortable trying a case usually will find a way of getting out of the case at the last minute before trial if there is no settlement, leaving the client up a creek. You want a proven trial lawyer, not just someone who hopes for a settlement.
Fifth, read any proposed fee agreement very carefully before signing it, and ask questions. If there is any discrepancy between what's in writing and what you are told, be sure to get the fee agreement "corrected" to reflect your actual understanding. What's in writing will count, not what you've been told. And if there is any provision in the fee agreement that concerns you, ask to have it stricken and have the modification initialed by the lawyer. (As an example, when I hired a divorce attorney some years ago, there was a very standard paragraph in the agreement saying that the lawyer could farm out any legal work on the matter to another lawyer. I knew the guy had a son who had failed the Bar exam more than once, and I was concerned that the son might pass the test and that his dad could turn my case over to him. I told the lawyer exactly what my concern was and we struck out that paragraph.) Among provisions that would raise red flags with me: a statement giving the attorney authority to sign anything at all in the client's name under any circumstance; a provision allowing the lawyer to settle a claim without the client's express consent (flagrantly unethical and now pretty rare); any provision limiting the client's access to the attorney, such as a statement that communications are to be directed to non-lawyer staff.
Best of luck to you.
