How do I choose a personal injury lawyer in California?

Verify the license first — every California attorney's status and discipline history is public in the State Bar of California's records. Then compare actual trial experience in the county where the injury happened, and read the written contingency-fee agreement that Business and Professions Code section 6147 requires before signing anything.

Three checks do most of the work. First, confirm in the State Bar of California's public records that the attorney is active and free of discipline. Second, ask concrete practice questions: how often the attorney tries injury cases in the county where yours would be filed, who will personally handle the file day to day, and how quickly the office moves on evidence preservation and on the six-month government-claim deadline when a public entity may be involved. Third, study the fee agreement. Business and Professions Code section 6147 requires contingency agreements to be in writing, signed by both sides, and to state that the fee is negotiable — so ask what percentage applies at each stage, whether it is calculated before or after case costs are deducted, who advances those costs, and what happens to them if the case does not resolve favorably. Also ask how medical liens will be negotiated at the end, since that work directly changes the net recovery.

Authority: Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 6147