Accidents can happen anytime – often when you least expect them. But when they do, they can have a very bad effect on the victims’ lives. In fact, they can alter your life in many ways. The experience of getting personal injuries due to a car or truck accident can be extremely distressing. The situation puts you under a financial burden which sends your life off track.
That is exactly when you need the expert legal help of a personal injury lawyer. The attorney will help you deal with the hardships suffered due to an accident and fight for your rights and full compensation.
Usually, people misunderstand what it means to use the services of a personal injury lawyer. If you have never hired an attorney in such cases, you too may have misconceptions in regard to the same. It should be clearly understood that hiring a personal injury attorney doesn’t mean fighting the case in the court. In fact, most of these injury cases are resolved without the involvement of the court. There is typically no need to file a lawsuit to resolve a claim, because most claims can be settled without going to court. In this article, we are going to discuss what personal injury lawyers do, and how they can help you to get compensated for the financial loss and the distress caused due to an accident.
Do You Need to Hire a Lawyer after a Car Accident?
It is not mandatory to hire the services of a law firm or a lawyer. But hiring one can bring you big benefits. Getting into an accident and sustaining personal injuries is a serious issue. After a car accident, seeking expert insights and legal opinion from a personal injury lawyer will prepare you for the battle that lies ahead with the at-fault driver’s insurance company and sometimes with your own insurance company (e.g. when an underinsured claim is denied).
Are you aware of your personal injury rights as an accident victim? Do you know how the California state laws apply in such cases? Since the laws change it’s best to talk to an expert personal injury lawyer.
Consulting with a personal injury lawyer will not just keep you well-informed, but it will help you collect evidence to strengthen your case. Dealing with insurance companies is another challenge, but your lawyer will make this easy too, because once you retain a lawyer the insurance companies will communicate with your lawyer. In fact, your lawyer will take care of every step and represent you in an effective manner. The research and expertise of your lawyer will make sure you get full compensation which you justly deserve.
Sometimes people chose to represent themselves and after the insurance companies ignore them for a few months they end up calling a lawyer; however, by that time, it could be too late. You could have already said or done something to lower the value of your claim. It’s best to call a personal injury attorney right after your accident.
If you choose to deal with it all by yourself, imagine the challenges you’ll face. Unless you have at least some experience in this area, you can be sure that the results will not be what you want. You’ll need to negotiate with the insurance companies, looking for the witnesses and filing the right type of claim. This means you’ll have a very slim chance of obtaining the best settlement possible, simply because you don’t know how to navigate this area or how an insurance company values your claim. Worse, you may actuall believe that the insurance adjuster wants to help you, when in fact they only want to pay you as little as possible or nothing at all. So, while you may hope to get compensated in the best way, this is not likely to actually happen if you do not have a lawyer. You won’t be able to recover the financial losses and non-economic losses that you deserve and your distress will continue.
Who Should You Call Following a Car Accident?
First Phone Call: Whenever you get injured in an accident, the very first call you need to make is 911. Immediately after an accident, you should call for emergency assistance and let them know what happened. This is extremely important so that the injured persons can be rushed to the hospital if anyone is badly injured. One of the more important things that will result from the 911 call is that the police will come to the accident site and will investigate the accident and who was at fault.
Second Phone Call: The second call you should make is to a personal injury attorney. The sooner you call them, the better.
If you don’t know a personal injury attorney you can turn for assistance, put the phone number for The Accident Injury Law Center in your phone right away, so that you can have an attorney to call immediately after an accident.
You may not know what to do immediately after a car or truck accident. Your personal injury lawyer will help guide you. You need to gather statements from people present at the accident scene. Medical professionals will examine you to find out if there are injuries. These are crucial steps of the process that will follow. This is where you need to collect all the key evidence so that your personal injury case can hold weight and ensure you the best compensation.
What Do Lawyers Do after a Car Accident?
The personal injury attorney from whom you seek help needs to know the specific details of your case first. During the initial consultation, the attorney will listen to what happened and then explain how they are going to help you. Also, you can remove your doubts and concerns by asking the attorney multiple questions that you may have in mind in regard to your injury claim.
The next step involves the collection of as much evidence as possible, such as: witness statements and official accident and medical treatment reports.
In addition to these, photographs of the car accident scene should be taken to show the condition of the road, damage to the vehicles, and other points to strengthen your personal injury case. While all this evidence is being gathered, your attorney will focus on establishing the accountability of the person who was at fault.
The main task of the personal injury lawyer is to prepare a demand for settlement in an effective manner. Once the medical professionals discharge you, the attorney will begin to gather all the medical-related documents including physician reports and medical bills. Your attorney may also collect other documents such as the employment records to document the amount of lost wages you incurred. Getting the best possible compensation depends on how well the losses are documented.
Dealing with insurance companies in a personal injury case is the next important step. So, your attorney will now negotiate with the insurance company for the at-fault party regarding your injury claim and settlement. Insurance companies respond to a lawyer’s calls more often than they do a non-represented claimant.
Above all, a personal injury lawyer will be able to negotiate a reasonable settlement offer because that is a key part of their job.
Is Hiring a Personal Injury Lawyer Truly Worth It?
By now, you can see how much it can help for you to hire a personal injury attorney to represent you for your personal injury claim.
Handling all this on your own means your case may take years to complete and you may receive little or nothing as compensation for your injuries. Imagine the kind of pain you’ll experience in these situations. Since the accident has already put you under so much pressure, you are in no position to handle any more stress or grief. So, the best recommendation is to hire an experienced attorney who’ll take care of your case from beginning-to-end effectively. Also, you might not file a lawsuit prior to the 2 year statute of limitations and you may lose your opportunity to pursue a claim.
A personal injury attorney has the expertise to consider and document all the losses caused due to the accident. An untrained person will not be able to record many losses that are not evident initially.
The car accident victim’s losses may include:
- Medical bills
- Loss of income
- Loss of future income
- PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder)
- Past and future suffering
A skilled personal injury can properly document all the present as well as future losses to put together a demand for settlement. It is the attorney who you need to turn to and who has the solution to your problems. The attorney will be your pillar of strength till the costs have been recovered.
Do You Have More Questions?
If you are the victim of a car wreck and the accident has ruined your personal life, you should get in touch with a personal injury lawyer right away. Feel free to call our law office in Orange County, California. We have helped many car accident victims obtain full compensation. Let us help you resolve your case too so that you can cover the losses and rebuild your life.