Personal injury attorneys may not have a relaxing holiday. According to the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), 40% of traffic-related deaths during Christmas and New Year’s are caused by drunk drivers. This means that your firm will likely see a lot of auto accident and wrongful death claims come through your door. Here are some ways your firm can prepare for an influx of cases:

1. Have the staff available for more cases

If all of your intake staff takes the month between Christmas and New Year’s Day off at once, you’ll have nobody available to man the phones when claimants contact your firm! If possible, try to have at least one member of your staff available to take calls, or call claimants back at the bare minimum. The faster you get ahold of a lead, the better your odds of signing a new case—waiting just 5 minutes to contact a personal injury lead could reduce your chances of ever speaking with the claimant 10 fold.

If you have absolutely nobody available to field any calls (a very real option for small firms and solo personal injury practitioners), consider hiring a local call center to answer the phones for you for a small fee. An additional charge may be worth the expense if you’re able to retain just one drunk driving case.

2. Consider hiring additional help for a busy season

If you know your firm usually takes on more cases during one time of the year, you may want to have a temp or intern work with your firm for a couple of months. If you do not want to deal with the strain of training a new employee during a busy season, or cannot afford to hire more help, you could simply invest in new software to handle a lot of the busy work for you. Case management software like eLuminate can help you organize your new cases and send emails to multiple claimants at once.

3. Plan for Changes in Income

If you take on a lot of cases between Christmas and New Year’s Day, you’ll likely have a fair amount of settlements take place at the same time later in the year. To make sure you have a steady cash flow, spend accordingly to make up for any “dry” times where you’re waiting for court dates to be scheduled and judges to rule. If you know you’ll be winning very few cases in the first couple of months after your busy streak, try cutting down on unnecessary office spending. It’s foolish to cut out all forms of marketing, but if you’re strapped for cash, you can focus on lower-cost marketing channels, which could include Search Engine Optimization and third-party lead generation.

Not getting the cases you want?

If you find that you’re not getting as many personal injury claimants walking through your door this time of year, consider supplementing your caseload with eGenerationMarketing’s personal injury legal leads. Our personal injury leads are sent to you in real time, meaning you’re connected with a claimant as soon as he or she wants to speak with an attorney. For more information on our personal injury lead pricing or availability, give us a call today at 617.800.0089.