There is a workers’ compensation law firm in Chicago that gets a high number of clients.  That’s because they advertise a ton and seemingly will take any case that comes through the door. 

They need a lot of lawyers to handle all of those cases, but when you are taking claims on that involve a contusion to the arm, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to handle them. 

What ends up happening is that this firm hires a bunch of lawyers that have two or less years of experience, including often hiring attorneys that are fresh out of law school.

This means that these lawyers are getting trained by handling cases.  They are bound to make mistakes which comes at the expense of the clients.  In other words, if you hire them, you could be paying to train these low level people.

I believe this firm does this because they don’t have to pay these younger lawyers very much.  From what I’ve seen, they don’t get the best training because many of these attorneys leave not long after they have been hired and I hear stories all of the time that they aren’t really clear on what the laws are.  One such attorney left this firm a couple of years back, started his own firm and was soon thereafter suspended from practicing law.

Now getting an experienced attorney doesn’t guarantee you a result, just as hiring a young one doesn’t mean that things won’t go well.  But I’m a big believer in predictors of success.  And the truth is that most younger attorneys won’t get you the same result that you will receive from someone who has been in the business at least ten years.

So before you hire a firm, ask who is going to be working on your case.  A lot of these firms claim that a very senior partner will supervise a young associate, but in reality that doesn’t seem to happen very often.  

Make sure that someone experienced is going to be looking out for your case and will be responsible for the day to day handling of it.  You are paying the same fee no matter who is assigned to you, you might as well have the best.

This is all part of you looking out for you.  If you don’t nobody else will.