What should you ask a personal injury attorney in an interview? Questions and what good answers sound like
An employer-side question bank for law firms interviewing personal injury attorneys — skills questions, behavioral questions, a practical exercise, and the questions that are risky to ask.
Screen a personal injury attorney with questions that make them show how they work: how they evaluate and price cases, when they file suit, how they handle adjusters, clients and deadlines.
Pair the question bank below with a short mock-file exercise, score every answer against the same rubric, and know which questions your jurisdiction restricts.
Strong and weak answers sound very different — this page shows both.
Before the interview
Write down what this hire must actually do at your firm — own files from intake, take depositions, first-chair smaller trials, run a paralegal — and turn that into a scorecard before the first candidate sits down.
Start from the personal injury attorney job description you posted: every question below should trace back to a duty on it.
Ask every candidate the same core set, in the same order, so the answers are comparable.
The full process, from sourcing through onboarding, is our guide to how to hire a personal injury attorney.
If you want a work sample, build it on a mock file.
Federal wage law defines "employ" to include "to suffer or permit to work" (29 U.S.C.
203(g)): a candidate doing real, usable work for the firm — drafting a brief the firm files, for instance — may be an employee owed wages.
A short exercise on a fictional file is the safer design.
If you require a test, the EEOC's position is that it must be necessary and related to the job, and must not exclude people of a protected group or people with disabilities.
And if an applicant with a disability needs an accommodation to apply — a sign language interpreter, for example — you are required to provide it so long as it does not cause significant difficulty or expense.
Two pieces of groundwork before the first interview: know where your jurisdiction lands on salary history and criminal history (the risky-questions section below covers the statutes verified for this page), and know the pay scale you are prepared to offer — in California, an applicant may request the pay scale for a position on reasonable request, whatever the firm's size.
Which skills questions reveal real personal injury attorney experience?
Walk me through how you evaluate a new personal injury case. What makes you decline one?
What to listen for: A structured answer that weighs liability, damages and collectability — insurance limits, the treatment picture, liens — rather than the injury alone.
Strong candidates name cases they turned down and why; weak candidates take everything and figure it out later.
How do you decide what a case is worth, and what goes into the timing of a demand versus filing suit?
What to listen for: Damages built from records — treatment to date, future care, lost earnings — plus policy limits and the adjuster's posture.
Look for a candidate who separates settlement value from trial value and times a demand around the evidence rather than around cash flow.
Tell me about a case you personally took deep into litigation or to verdict. What did you do, and what did your team do?
What to listen for: A specific personal role — depositions taken, experts retained, motions argued, the trial tasks they handled — stated plainly next to the team's work.
Evasion about their own part and claiming every result solo are both weak signals, in opposite directions.
An adjuster has lowballed a clear-liability case twice. What do you do?
What to listen for: Patience and leverage: completing treatment, building the damages record, using discovery, and a realistic account of what suit costs the client against a small movement in the offer.
A reflex to settle fast, or escalation with no plan, are the weak ends of the scale.
How do you set a case up in the first weeks after intake?
What to listen for: Early investigation, evidence preservation, a records and treatment plan, deadlines docketed immediately, and a client conversation about timeline and expectations.
Good candidates also delegate to a paralegal the work that does not need a lawyer.
Tell me about a client who wanted to settle for less — or hold out for more — than you advised. How did you handle it?
What to listen for: Candid advice documented in writing, a plain explanation of the trade-offs, and respect for the client's decision within the bounds of the representation.
Defensiveness, or a story where clients are always the problem, is the weak signal.
Which behavioral questions test judgment, confidentiality and deadlines?
Tell me about a deadline you nearly missed. What happened, and what did you change afterwards?
What to listen for: Ownership without blame-shifting, a specific cause, and a system fix — docketing with reminders, earlier check-ins with staff.
"Things got busy" with no fix attached is the weak answer.
How do you keep straight what is confidential — a current employer's client list, case strategy, settlement figures — when you interview elsewhere?
What to listen for: This is a test the right candidate passes by declining: strong candidates protect confidences and describe their work in generalities.
The one who offers up a competitor's client list or a number from an active file will do the same to your files.
Describe a time a client, colleague or opposing counsel pushed you toward something you thought was improper. What did you do?
What to listen for: They identified the issue, slowed the matter down, and raised it with a partner or counsel rather than improvising.
You want the reflex of checking before acting, and comfort saying "I checked first" in the interview.
Tell me about carrying several active cases with competing court dates. How did you decide what got your attention first?
What to listen for: Triage by deadline and consequence, early escalation when capacity runs short, and use of the team instead of silent overextension.
The strong answer includes asking for help before the crisis, not after it.
Tell me about a mistake that cost a case or hurt a client relationship. What did you do next?
What to listen for: Prompt disclosure to a supervisor or client, a remediation plan, and a process change so it does not recur.
Candidates who cannot name a mistake, or whose mistakes are always someone else's, have not done the reflection a file-owning role needs.
What practical exercise or test should a personal injury attorney complete?
Give the candidate a short mock fact pattern — a rear-end collision with a treatment gap and a low policy limit works — and ask them to walk you through how they would evaluate the case.
What to listen for: Structure first: liability, then damages, then collectability.
Strong candidates spot the treatment gap and the policy ceiling unprompted, say which records they would pull, and ask you clarifying questions instead of guessing.
A candidate who jumps to a number without collectability is showing you how they would price your real cases.
Follow up on the same file: what would you tell the client about the weaknesses in this case?
What to listen for: Candor.
You want the candidate who explains the treatment gap and the limit in plain language and documents the advice — because that is exactly how they will talk to your clients.
Then ask: what would you need before you made a demand, and what would change your mind about filing suit?
What to listen for: A concrete evidence list — records, scene evidence, lien amounts — and stated conditions that would move them either way.
Vague answers here usually mean the first answer was rehearsed.
If the role is writing-heavy, set a short demand letter or case-evaluation memo on the same mock file, timed, in the room or on a video call.
What to listen for: Organization under time pressure: a plain summary, the damages story, the demand logic.
Keep the sample short — you are sampling their writing, not collecting free work, which is precisely why the file stays fictional.
Which questions are illegal or risky to ask?
Keep interview questions to what is essential to deciding whether the candidate can do the job — the EEOC's position is that questions about race, sex, national origin, age and religion are irrelevant to that decision.
Federal law does not clearly forbid every question touching those traits, but the answers can be used as evidence of an intent to discriminate unless the question is justified by a business purpose, so treat them as risky rather than merely awkward.
Two areas carry actual bans in the jurisdictions verified for this page — salary history and criminal history — and federal anti-discrimination coverage itself depends on firm size: Title VII, the ADA and GINA cover private employers with 15 or more employees who worked at least 20 calendar weeks in the current or prior year, and the ADEA covers 20 or more employees under the same calendar-week test.
State and city rules can differ from the federal thresholds; confirm your firm's position with employment counsel.
- “How much are you making now?” California's Labor Code 432.3 bars seeking an applicant's salary history — benefits included, orally or in writing — at employers of any size. New York bars relying on wage or salary history and requesting it as a condition of being interviewed, considered, hired or promoted (Labor Law 194-a). Illinois bars screening applicants by salary history and requesting it as a condition of an interview or offer (820 ILCS 112). Massachusetts bars seeking it from the candidate or a current or former employer (G.L. c.149 s.105A). Connecticut bars asking about a prospective employee's wage and salary history unless the applicant volunteers it, Virginia's Code 40.1-28.7:12 bans seeking salary history, and so does Nevada's NRS 613.133. Many cities and other states have their own rules beyond the statutes verified for this page — check yours before you interview. Ask about salary expectations instead, which California's law expressly allows; if a candidate volunteers salary history unprompted, California lets you consider it, and New York lets you confirm it only after you have made an offer with compensation and the candidate cites prior pay to support a higher number.
- “Have you ever been arrested or convicted?” Before a conditional offer, this question is restricted in every jurisdiction verified for this page. California's Fair Chance Act (Gov. Code 12952) applies to employers with five or more employees and bars asking about or considering conviction history until after a conditional offer. New York City's Fair Chance Act — part of the NYC Human Rights Law since October 27, 2015 — makes pre-offer inquiry unlawful for most employers. Illinois's Job Opportunities for Qualified Applicants Act (820 ILCS 75/15) holds the question, for covered employers, until the applicant has been found qualified and selected for an interview or, when there is no interview, until after a conditional offer. Other states and cities may have fair-chance rules this research did not cover. In California, denying a job over conviction history requires an individualized assessment, written notice and at least five business days for the applicant to respond. Weigh exclusions carefully everywhere: criminal-record screens that significantly disadvantage a protected group without predicting job performance can be unlawful disparate impact under FTC/EEOC guidance.
- “How is your health? Any injuries of your own?” Employers should not ask medical questions before a conditional job offer; FTC/EEOC guidance treats certain medical and genetic information as the exception to an otherwise general rule that asking about an applicant's background is not illegal. In a personal injury hire, resist the small-talk version too — a candidate's own accident and treatment history is a medical topic, so leave it out of a pre-offer interview.
- Ordering a background report without the required steps. If you buy a report from a background-check company, the FCRA path runs: a stand-alone written disclosure (not inside the application), the candidate's written permission, and — before any adverse decision — a copy of the report plus “A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.”
- “Where are you from originally? How old are you? Who watches your kids when you are at trial? What church do you attend?” The EEOC publishes guidance on pre-employment inquiries about race, height and weight, financial information, unemployed status, religious affiliation, citizenship, and marital status or number of children, and its position is that race, sex, national origin, age and religion are irrelevant to whether a person is qualified. If the concern is availability, ask about the work — trial travel, evenings, the docket — not the household behind it.
After the interview
Score while it is fresh.
Rate each candidate against the same scorecard right after the interview, before the next one starts.
Across every question, the strong-versus-weak pattern holds: strong answers are specific — named case types, the candidate's own role, the decision, the reasoning, what they would repeat or change.
Weak answers stay generic: team credit for every result, no rationale for declined cases, no deadline system, and mistakes that are always somebody else's.
A candidate who declines to hand over confidential specifics from a current employer is passing a test, not failing one.
Expect questions from the candidate — they carry signal too.
A strong hire knows a conflict can impute firm-wide under ABA Model Rule 1.10(a) and will ask how you would screen them if their current matters overlap your clients.
Be ready with a real answer: under Model Rule 1.10(a)(2), a lateral's former-client conflict is not imputed when the lawyer is timely screened and is apportioned no part of the fee from that matter, written notice is promptly given to the affected former client, and the screened lawyer and a partner provide certifications of compliance — but states differ on non-consensual screening, so describe your process and check your state's version of Rule 1.10.
Questions about supervision (who reviews their work), file ownership, trial opportunities and pay structure come from someone picturing themselves in the role — answer concretely, and know that in California the candidate can request the position's pay scale on reasonable request.
No questions at all, or questions limited to perks, are the weaker signals: neither shows they have thought about doing the work.
Before you offer, close the loop you opened in the interview — check what you heard against references and the candidate's bar standing, and put the pay terms in writing.
This page is employer information, not legal advice. Interview and screening rules — salary history, criminal history, medical inquiries, background reports — change and vary by jurisdiction. Confirm yours with the EEOC, your state labor agency and employment counsel before you interview.
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