Success as a car accident lawyer arises from a combination of expertise, practical skills, and personal attributes. Following is a list of some of the qualities you will need:
- Understand the law. This doesn’t mean starting out with car accident law and working your way back to the basics. It means starting out with the basics and working your way forward to progressively more specialized topics until you reach personal injury law and, finally, car accident law. If you’re paying attention, your first year of law school will take care of the foundations. After that, it’s up to you.
- Earn additional certification in personal injury law to the extent that it is available. Texas, California, Florida, New Jersey, and Minnesota all offer advanced certifications in personal injury law. The National Board of Trial Advocacy (NBTA) offers certifications in civil trial law, which includes personal injury law. Some of these programs merely recognize pre-existing competence, while others offer specialized training.
- Stay current on the latest methods of accident reconstruction. Working with expert witnesses (whether they are testifying or consulting witnesses) can help you a lot in this regard. The more of the technical details you learn, the more you will set yourself apart from other lawyers,
- Learn how to digest large amounts of information quickly and accurately. This skill is useful for many different intellectual tasks, not only law. Consequently, there are many sources of instruction available. Doing this is becoming increasingly important as the total amount of available knowledge far exceeds the load capacity of any human brain. It’s not always whether you know a fact or not, but whether you can find it.
- Learn how to negotiate. This is the arguably single most important specific skill you can learn as a car accident lawyer, and you will certainly use it frequently.
- Become competent in a broad spectrum of communication skills. This is a tall order, but almost everything you do, including even arguing with your spouse, offers an opportunity to practice.
- Build a professional network. Not just other lawyers, but other professionals with whom you will need to work, such as accident reconstruction specialists and other expert witnesses.
- Develop superior organizational skills, even if you’re a sole practitioner. As a car accident lawyer, you might need to juggle dozens of open cases simultaneously. Neglecting even one of them could result in a legal malpractice lawsuit and damage to your reputation.
- Guard your reputation with your life. The two most important aspects of your reputation to protect are your competence and your ethics. It’s also a good idea to cultivate a reputation as somebody who is easy to work with.
- Learn how to market your practice. Law, at least in private practice, is a business. Many lawyers know the law but don’t understand marketing. Their practices suffer for this lack of knowledge.
- Keep up with changes in the profession as they are happening. Artificial intelligence, for example, is a development that you simply cannot afford to ignore. Additionally, don’t ignore innovations such as simulation software, dash cam footage, and other digital evidence collection tools.
- Keep up with changes in the law, especially personal injury law. Failing your client because you don’t know the current state of the law is inexcusable.
- Work with other lawyers to the extent that you can, even if you’re a sole practitioner. Two heads are usually better than one.
- Gain trial experience. No matter how skilled you are at negotiating, opposing parties might not respect you unless you have a record of winning at trial. After all, if you haven’t proven the ability to win at trial, where is your negotiating leverage? Consider working with a trial law firm during your first few years out of law school.
As a general principle, embrace lifelong learning on a variety of subjects. “The law touches everything” is not just a cliche–it is a timeless truth. You never know when learning something you thought was completely unrelated to your practice can turn you into a better lawyer.