Why You Should Get a Car Accident Lawyer You Need a Car Accident Lawyer to Help You Assess Your Damages Car and motor vehicle accidents can have a destructive impact on a victim’s life. After an accident, a victim may miss days at work and have extensive injuries, medical bills, property damage, and pain and suffering.
When to Hire a Car Accident Lawyer
The following are only some ways an attorney can assist you:
Tips on Working with Your Lawyer
This is also known as the statutes of limitations. Generally, the statutes of limitations for personal injury cases vary from one state to another. Hence, you should check out your state’s statutes of limitations for personal injury cases so you’ll know when the lawsuit should be filed.
However, there are specific instances wherein you should work with a lawyer to get a favorable outcome for your unique situation. One of these instances is when the laws and rules concerning personal injury cases are complex.
While most cases can be settled through settlement, some lawsuits proceed to trial litigation. When this happens, you should hire a lawyer to navigate the trial correctly. Typically, facing trial litigation comes with specific paperwork and legal procedures.
Hence, they’ll not make the settlement process easy for you. Since you’ve been through a lot after the accident, they expect you to accept a lower offer than what you should recover based on the extent of your injuries.
But, no matter how careful you are in driving, accidents can still happen. Thankfully, even if you’re injured, you can get your life back by fighting for your rights against the at-fault party. You can do this by working closely with a lawyer to get the help that you need.
Collecting evidence about what happened in an accident is crucial to determining if a driver may have been negligent and who is therefore liable for the crash.
Once evidence is collected, it must be evaluated. Attorneys generally have many resources to build a case that the average person does not have. They include hiring medical experts to validate the seriousness of injuries and having accident reconstruction specialists to recreate the accident scene.
Sometimes a driver who is at fault in an accident will try to shift the blame and assert that it was not their negligence that caused the crash. A Slater & Zurz attorney will go over the evidence to determine exactly who was at fault. They will build a strong case on your behalf.
Slater & Zurz attorneys are familiar with Ohio personal injury law, Ohio insurance law and the defenses to negligence that are often presented. They know how to best mitigate these defenses and will file a lawsuit for you if necessary.
Insurance adjusters negotiate insurance settlements on a full-time basis. They fight for the best interests of the insurance company. Your Slater & Zurz attorney has considerable experience as a negotiator so you can obtain the compensation you deserve.
Many times a personal injury victim has a big fight ahead and that fight will cost a considerable amount of money. Slater & Zurz accident lawyers have the necessary resources to fight your fight for you and they will offer you a “contingency plan” for payment of your legal bills.
If the following is true of an accident, it is unlikely that the insurance company will lowball you: 1 There was only property damage, and nobody was hurt or killed. 2 You suffered minor or no physical injuries. 3 The settlement you deserve is relatively small.
You are not legally obligated to hire a lawyer after a car accident. The only reason you need a lawyer after a car accident is if you are being sued or decide to sue the other driver.
Some victims of car accidents choose to seek legal counsel and representation so that they can focus on their health and recovery while also pursuing legal action. You have the right to hire legal representation at any time throughout the process of making an insurance claim or pursuing a personal injury lawsuit.
Filing an Insurance Claim. When you experience a motor vehicle accident, the first step in seeking compensation is to file a claim with either your own insurance provider or the other driver’s insurance company. In some states, comparative negligence laws apply, ...
Keep in mind that some car accident injuries may only display symptoms days or even weeks after an accident. For example, whiplash may take several days to manifest, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).
While obtaining a lawyer does not guarantee you a specific outcome for your case, they can help investigate the crash, gather evidence to demonstrate the other driver’s negligence, and take care of negotiations with insurers on your behalf.
If the other driver’s policy cannot cover the costs of your losses, you may be able to seek them through your own policy if you carry uninsured motorist coverage. You can hire an attorney immediately after a car accident to help you assess your losses and explore the options available to you through your own insurance policy.
For example, if you're expecting a $100,000 settlement without the benefit of counsel, a lawyer would need to get you more than $150,000 to make it worth the bother. Believe it or not, most attorneys give honest opinions on whether or not it would be worth your while to hire an attorney or take any easy settlement.
It is important, however, to have a high level of confidence that something unexpected isn't going to happen. Once you sign off on an agreement, you'll likely never have the chance to seek more money ever again.
The paperwork does not look accurate ( police report, insurance communications) Details are complicated (technical, legal, medical) Insurance is not playing nice. You do, however, have to ask if paying an attorney to recovery $10,000 in damages is worth the bother if you end up handing over $5,000 to the law firm.
In a lot of instances, insurance companies do in fact do their jobs as expected. There are definitely situations where you'd want an attorney to be involved, but there are also times when obtaining counsel is simply overkill. Let's take a look at some of the cases where you may NOT need to hire an attorney after an accident.
Generally, if no people were hurt, or there was no damage ( no broken bones or potentially lingering injuries that cause you to miss more than a couple days of work), then it may not be worthwhile pursuing a personal injury claim. Just be careful making this judgment of “no injuries” yourself.
You're certainly entitled to have counsel present to protect your rights in small claims court . The law firm, however, is likely going to expect a fee for their services rather than working on contingency, since the expected recovery would be very small. It depends on the situation.