A Personal Injury Practice: The Importance Of A Budget

A financial forecast is a mandatory tool for a viable personal injury law firm. It will reduce expenses and prevent foolish moves by the firm. It also provides an automatic emphasis on the conservation of your start up capital, which is so critical to your survival. While a personal injury practice carries with it associated risk, following a prudent financial plan will serve to keep these dangers at a reasonable level.

Keep in mind that you must watch overhead at the start. The key costs will be the lease, payroll, and various advertising expenses. Formulate an operating budget to guarantee that you have a handle on all pertinent costs. You must maintain veto power on all expenses related to the advertising of your legal services. Even so, you should put together an advertising budget and monitor the associated costs and benefits.  Some attorneys report good advertising results from the standard phone book.  Although telephone book marketing is important, you should not exceed your budgetary limits by placing numerous extravagant blurbs in the yellow pages.  

What is the cost of a typical personal injury  lawyer case? Generally, a personal injury case is extremely costly only in the event that it proceeds to an actual courtroom litigation. In that situation, you will incur consulting fees for any and all types of professional experts, physicians, and consultants, as required. The most prohibitive expense will be the physician for the plaintiff.

As you start to win cases and establish a solid legal repuation, you may decide to expand your practice, either by opening additional locations or adding staff.  If you follow this route, make sure that you put together an updated financial projection which reflects the desired expansion. To reach the additional revenue levels, you will need to take on more cases. You must try to be proactive in recognizing the impact of new laws. In some jurisdictions, new statutes may make it difficult to reach your goals. In some cases, the new laws will create barriers to obtaining lucrative settlements for your clients.