For people with little legal understanding and no legal training, finding a personal injury lawyer to deal with your claim can be a daunting process. Where to start? The internet seems to abound in lawyers, each offering a no win no fee deal, with promises of 100% compensation. Off line it’s almost just as bad with telephone directory listings running for pages with details of lawyers in your area.

To make it more confusing, these personal injury specialists go out of their way to get your business. Not content to just wait for you to walk in their doors, they will aggressively advertise at you with ads on the TV, radio, magazines and internet. And it will only get worse with videos and pop up ads multiplying on the net.

So, how do you find the right personal injury lawyer for you? How to choose between the multitude of professionals (and non professionals) out there whilst making sure you’re not getting scammed?

Most importantly, you have to choose a personal injury specialist who practices in your country; England, Scotland and Northern Ireland all operate their own jurisdiction, so if you’ve had an accident in Scotland, you’ll need a Scottish personal injury lawyer, not an English one. FYI, Wales comes under England’s jurisdiction and surprisingly, the Isle of Man is a self governing system with its own parliament and rules.

On top of this, if you’re in England, you need to ensure that your personal injury lawyer is accredited. In England and Wales, solicitors are accredited by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Scotland and Northern Ireland do not – as of yet – have an accreditation scheme but the Scottish Law Society monitors every solicitor practising in Scotland to ensure they are working at the highest level of expertise.

Once you’ve narrowed down your list, ask around for recommendations – listening to others who’ve also used personal injury lawyers is ultimately much more effective than taking in word for word, everything the adverts say.