As a lawyer who specializes in handling car accident cases, it’s important to qualify leads over the phone so that you avoid wasting your time on individuals that will never become actual clients of your law firm.

On any given day, your law firm could be receiving 15+ phone calls from individuals who were just involved in a car accident.

In most cases, these individuals are calling the first lawyers and law firms that show up when conducting a Google search.

However, you must protect your time as a car accident lawyer. Wasting minutes on the phone with individuals who will never actually become paying legal clients for your law firm is a complete waste of time.

In this blog post, we’re sharing 6 questions that you can ask to qualify your law firm’s auto accident leads over the phone.

QUESTION #1: What was the year of your car accident?

This is the first step to gathering all of the facts from potential leads that call into your law firms.

Understanding when and where the accident took place is important to deciding whether you want to take the case on or not. 

QUESTION #2: Type of vehicle involved in the accident?

Understanding what types of vehicles were involved in the accident is important to gauge the severity of it. Additionally, it will give you an understanding of 3rd party liability and if workers compensation will be involved in the case.

So, ask your potential clients what types of vehicles were involved in the accident: car, truck, motorcycle, pedestrians? 

QUESTION #3: What is the estimated vehicle damage?

We know that this sounds silly – but you must ask in order to sniff out whether these potential clients calling into your law firm have legitimate or flukey cases.

Understanding the estimated vehicle damage will help you decide whether their case is worth your time or not.

It’s important to prob deeper than the surface layer. Ask specific questions as to what part of their cars were damaged. If possible, have them send you photos or videos from the scene of the car accident.

QUESTION #4: Who was at fault for the car accident?

We both know that car accident leads who were involved in an accident due to the other partie’s negligence are of highest value. 

So, understanding who was at fault for the car accident is vitally important to not wasting your time.

QUESTION #5: Have you hired an attorney yet?

You know the unspoken code from one lawyer to the next. There are two schools of thought.

1. You never take a case or a client that is currently with another attorney.

2. If a client is being mistreated or is receiving poor customer service from the lawyer whom they are with, that client deserves better service for their case.

We aren’t here to tell you which is right. But understanding if the client is already being represented is abn important factor.