Related Posts
an Elementary School Teacher
Anyone an EA at Citadel? Do you like it?
Where is the best street to go bar hopping?
Additional Posts in Personal Injury Lawyers
Conversation Starter
New to Fishbowl?
Download the Fishbowl app to
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
I’m mostly echoing what other have said here, but the difference- in my experience- truly is just the size of the file.
For reference I’m in west Texas, 4 years experience, have worked 6 cases over $1mm to date.
A case under $200k is normally not gonna be a big expert battle, and usually you can expect Defendants and Plaintiffs to be deposed .
If I’m preparing a $1mm+ case I’m churning up all past meds for 10yrs and taking a fine tooth comb to them.
I’m almost certainly getting a life care plan for client.
I’m anticipating several expert depos. ranging from damages to kinematics.
None of these are particularly more difficult than other cases, just significantly more time consuming.
Also, you can generally expect OC to be better, and drag their heels longer.
Again, just my (somewhat limited) experience.
Thanks for the input! How early did you jump into the higher value cases? Did your work some lower value cases to cut your teeth?
There will be more litigation involved - usually more motions, depositions, settlement negotiations/mediations, more skillful experts, etc. The main aspect to focus on is negotiating skills.
Smaller cases are harder. They involve issues that jurors don’t like, like injections that cost $15K or chiropractors. Or very little PD. In those cases, the witnesses are typically low quality. There’s not a lot of money you can spend to beef up the case too. They require a lot of creativity. Also, the defense lawyers are typically scorched earth because they think these cases are the scourge of the industry. I’ve tried dozens early on and they are as tough as they get. 6/7/8 figure cases are “easier” to try conceptually but more work if that makes sense. More work in the preparation sense because there’s usually more moving parts and more things that need to be done “right” over the course of the case. More MILs. Just more. But the flow of the trial and the results are easier to get in my opinion. Plus they seem more important so jurors are more receptive.
Rising Star
I do plaintiffs personal injury/civil sexual abuse in Chicago and I absolutely agree with this comment. The prep for trial requires a more polished presentation across the board, meaning start early and hire a law student to get help where you can - the experience for them is invaluable and putting all the binders and the trial notebook together is tedious.
For example if I have the skill to try smaller cases and do well, can I more likely than not do well with a higher damage/policy case? I feel like the biggest difference is having the money to fund the bigger cases