Most first consultations run 30 minutes. A surprising share of that gets spent on questions you could have answered at home — dates, employer details, insurer names, who else was there. Every minute spent retrieving those is a minute not spent on whether you actually have a claim.
This is the same information a firm's intake coordinator would collect, laid out so you can fill it in at your own pace with your records in front of you. Bring it printed, or fill it in and email it ahead — most firms will thank you.
What is inside
- Your details, contact preferences and languages spoken
- What happened: date, location, sequence of events, witnesses
- Everyone involved, including insurers and their claim numbers
- Treatment history and providers, with a running bill tally
- Time missed from work and how it was recorded
- Documents you already hold, with a checklist of what to request
- A page for questions you want to ask the attorney
How to use it
Fill it in before you call anyone
Doing this first often clarifies whether you have a claim at all, and it is much easier while events are fresh.
Leave gaps rather than guessing
An honest blank is more useful to an attorney than a confident wrong date.
Take two copies
One for you, one to hand over. Do not give away your only copy of anything.