Getting involved in car wrecks and injuries are not an everyday occurrence. Some people will only have an incident like that once in their whole entire life. If you aren’t a lawyer, you have no idea what to do or who to turn to. It’s completely understandable. What I want to warn people is the referrals that you may get from your friends and family. What I have found in my time as a lawyer that referrals from friends and family members are extremely powerful tools for lawyers to get new clients. I have gotten a lot of my current clients that way. My warning is, be careful about the referral. I have seen a lot of potential clients whose cases were messed badly by a lawyer who had no idea what they were doing in their injury case. If a friend or family member is referring a lawyer to you for your injury case, don’t just take their word for it. Ask them more pointed questions about why they are referring that attorney. Ask them simple questions like, why do you recommend this lawyer? Have you ever used this lawyer for this kind of case? Do you know if he does this kind of case? If you get answers such as, “oh he is my friend” or “no I have never used him as a lawyer or know of anyone that has used him,” then I would be very critical of the referral. I have come across a lot of potential clients who realized their attorney had no idea what they were doing and completely messed up the case. Unfortunately, once the damage has been done, it is too late. No amount of lawyering can fix those kinds of damages. Referrals are great at the end of the day; however, make sure you ask the proper questions to verify that the referral is legitimate and not based on personal reasons.