Questions to ask a medical malpractice lawyer before you hire

Before you hire a medical malpractice lawyer, ask questions that tell you whether they’re licensed and in good standing, whether they’ve handled problems like yours, who will actually do the work, how they’ll keep you informed, and how they work with medical experts. You can check the license and discipline questions yourself before the first meeting. The rest are for the conversation, and the answers help you compare one lawyer with another.

Rules differ from state to state, so an attorney licensed in your state is the right person to explain what applies to you. This guide uses Florida and Arizona as examples.

Before the meeting: check the license and discipline record

Look up the lawyer in the official directory run by the bar or court system in your state. It takes a few minutes and answers questions you shouldn’t have to ask in person.

Florida example

The Florida Bar’s Find a Lawyer directory shows whether a lawyer is eligible to practice law in Florida, their Bar number and admission date, and a 10-year discipline history. The Bar notes that lawyers can add their own professional details, such as practice areas, and that it doesn’t review that added information for accuracy. So treat a listed practice area as the lawyer’s own description, not a credential.

The Bar’s Lawyer Complaints and Discipline page explains how its discipline process works and how to view discipline records. Florida also has a board certification program, established by the Florida Supreme Court in 1982, and the Bar’s board certification page links to a search for board certified lawyers. If a Florida lawyer mentions certification, you can confirm it there.

Arizona example

The State Bar of Arizona’s Find an Attorney directory shows a lawyer’s membership status and discipline information, along with a field for professional liability insurance. The State Bar advises consumers to use its official search tools and not to rely on credentials offered by someone who contacts them out of the blue.

Arizona’s ethics rules also require lawyers in private practice to tell a client in writing, at or before the start of the representation, if they don’t carry professional liability insurance (Ariz. ER 1.4(d)).

Questions to ask

• Are you licensed in the state where my care happened?
• Is there anything in your discipline history I should know about?
• Do you carry professional liability insurance?

Questions about experience with your kind of medical issue

Medical malpractice covers very different problems: a missed diagnosis, a surgical injury, a medication error, a birth injury, care in a nursing facility. A lawyer who has worked on your kind of problem is more likely to know which records matter and what kind of medical expert would review them. Ask about experience in concrete terms rather than asking for labels or rankings.

• Have you handled matters involving this kind of care, for example a delayed cancer diagnosis or a surgical complication?
• Do you mainly represent patients and families, or do you also represent doctors, hospitals or insurers?
• Have you or your firm ever represented the doctor, hospital or clinic involved in my care?

Be cautious with any answer that sounds like a promise about how things will turn out. Nobody can know that at a first meeting. Florida’s lawyer advertising rules, for example, treat statements that a prospective client can reasonably read as a prediction of success as deceptive or misleading (R. Regulating Fla. Bar 4-7.13(b)(1)).

Who will handle your matter day to day

The lawyer you meet first isn’t always the person you’ll hear from most. Work on a matter may be shared among lawyers, paralegals and other staff. That can be fine, but you should know the arrangement before you sign anything.

• Who will be my main contact, and who makes the key decisions?
• Will other lawyers or staff work on it? What will each of them do?
• Will any part of the work be handed to another firm? If so, which firm, and will I meet them?
• If my main contact leaves the firm or is unavailable, who takes over?

How they will keep you informed

Lawyers have a professional duty to communicate with clients. In Florida and Arizona, the ethics rules require a lawyer to keep the client reasonably informed about the status of the matter, to promptly comply with reasonable requests for information, and to explain things well enough for the client to make informed decisions (R. Regulating Fla. Bar 4-1.4; Ariz. ER 1.4).

Florida’s medical negligence statute adds a specific step. When the provider’s side responds to a claim before a lawsuit is filed, the patient’s attorney must tell the client in writing, within 30 days, what the response was and what accepting or rejecting it would mean (Fla. Stat. § 766.106(3)(d)).

What “reasonably informed” means in practice is worth settling at the start:

• How often will I hear from you, even when nothing new has happened?
• How should I reach you: phone, email, a client portal?
• How quickly do you usually reply?
• Will I get copies of the important letters and filings?
• Which decisions will you check with me before making?

What they will need from you

Ask what the lawyer needs to get started, and in what form. Common requests include your medical records, a written timeline, the names of every provider involved, and a signed authorization so records can be requested on your behalf. If you haven’t requested records yet, see how to get copies of your medical records and what to do if you think a doctor made a mistake.

Some requests may seem broader than you expect. In Florida, the notice that starts the presuit process must include, if available, a list of the providers who treated you for the injury afterward and the providers who treated or evaluated you in the two years before, along with an executed authorization form (Fla. Stat. § 766.106(2)(c)). So a lawyer may ask about care that seems unrelated.

What you tell a lawyer while deciding whether to hire them is protected. Florida’s and Arizona’s rules say that even if no lawyer-client relationship follows, a lawyer who learned information from a prospective client may not use or reveal it, except as the rules otherwise allow (R. Regulating Fla. Bar 4-1.18(b); Ariz. ER 1.18(b)).

• What documents should I gather, and should I send originals or copies?
• Is there anything I should stop doing, such as posting about my care online?
• What should I do if the provider or an insurer contacts me?

How they work with medical experts

Medical malpractice claims turn on what a careful provider in the same field would have done, which is a medical judgment. Florida and Arizona, for example, both set rules for when an expert must be involved and who qualifies.

In Florida, before the notice of intent is sent, the patient’s side must investigate and provide a verified written opinion from a qualified medical expert that supports the claim (Fla. Stat. § 766.203(2)). An expert who testifies about the standard of care must hold an active license, review the pertinent records, and generally work in the same field as the provider whose care is questioned (Fla. Stat. § 766.102(5)).

In Arizona, when expert testimony is needed, the patient must serve a preliminary expert opinion affidavit with the early disclosures in the lawsuit, describing the expert’s qualifications and how the care fell short and caused harm (A.R.S. § 12-2603(B)). Arizona also sets qualifications for experts, including time spent in the same health profession in the year before the events (A.R.S. § 12-2604).

• When would a medical expert review my records?
• What kind of doctor, nurse or other professional would you ask?
• What happens if the expert doesn’t support the claim?
• Will you share what the expert concludes with me?

What to ask about timing

These matters take time, and the early steps depend on your state. In Florida, for example, a lawsuit can’t be filed for 90 days after the notice of intent is delivered, while the provider’s side investigates (Fla. Stat. § 766.106(3)(a)). A lawyer can’t tell you exactly how long everything will take, but they should be able to walk you through the stages.

• Which deadline applies to me, and when do you think it started to run?
• What has to happen before a lawsuit can be filed in this state?
• What will happen in the first few months if I hire you?
• When will I next hear from you after today?

For how deadlines work in one state, see Florida medical malpractice deadlines.

If the lawyer declines

A lawyer may decide not to take your matter, at the first meeting or after reviewing records. That’s one firm’s view, not a ruling on what happened to you, and it doesn’t pause any deadline. Before you leave, ask:

• Is the main issue the facts, the extent of the harm, or the timing?
• Is there a deadline I should know about?
• Can I have back any documents I gave you?

For more on why this happens and what to do next, see why won’t a lawyer take my medical malpractice case? To learn how our service connects people with independent participating attorneys, see how it works.

Sources and corrections

We wrote this guide from the primary sources below and checked it against them on September 25, 2026.

• The Florida Bar, Find a Lawyer directory: eligibility status, discipline history, lawyer-added information
• The Florida Bar, Lawyer Complaints and Discipline: discipline process and records
• The Florida Bar, Board Certification: history of the program and certified-lawyer search
• Rules Regulating The Florida Bar: Rules 4-1.4 (communication), 4-1.18 (prospective clients), 4-7.13 (misleading advertising)
• State Bar of Arizona, Find an Attorney: member status, discipline, insurance field
• Arizona Rules of Professional Conduct: ER 1.4 (communication and insurance disclosure), ER 1.18 (prospective clients)
• Fla. Stat. § 766.106: notice of intent, 90-day presuit period, attorney’s written report to the client
• Fla. Stat. § 766.203: presuit investigation and expert opinion
• Fla. Stat. § 766.102: expert witness qualifications
• A.R.S. § 12-2603: preliminary expert opinion affidavit
• A.R.S. § 12-2604: expert witness qualifications

We are not attorneys, and this guide is not legal advice. Laws change and differ from state to state. If anything here is out of date or wrong, email support@malpracticeattorneys.com with the page name, and we’ll review it and update the page.