When Should I Hire A Personal Injury Lawyer?

When you get into an accident, it is suggested to contact a personal injury lawyer as soon as you can, even if it is just for consultancy. You need to present your situation to them; they will help you understand it better and represent you throughout, with insurance companies and in court. 

Insurance provider is holding up the settlement of your claim. 

The insurance companies you will have to deal with following the accident are professionals who know how to play their expertise strings very well. It can be difficult to get through everything they will put you through to claim the amount needed for your injuries successfully.

More often than not, your defendant’s insurance company hesitates the claim of a personal injury victim. There is a chance of taking advantage of your vulnerability. They can propose an amount that is much lesser than the amount you deserve. 

One of the most common strategies of such companies is holding up the case to elongate the process to cross the statute of limitations of taking it to court. The statute of limitation for personal injuries is 2 years and 3 years in case of property damage. If the insurance company manages to cross the deadline, you can’t claim the compensation anymore or take it to court. You might miss your chance to cure the situation by utilizing your judicial right. 

In most cases, there is a high chance that you will fall into their traps because of your inexperience. It is the responsibility of your personal injury lawyer to communicate with the insurance company or defendant directly. An experienced lawyer will examine the case; based on this, they will demand the deserving compensation, negotiate to settle for a fair offer, and do all the paperwork. 

When you are charged with comparative negligence. 

Comparative negligence is the act of distribution of the fault of the accident. Fault can be anyone’s, even the person who suffered more injuries. Therefore, you need a professional to determine the cause of the accident, which is to blame, and how much blame they carry. Based on this, the pure comparative fault of plaintiff will apply. 

It is your personal injury attorney who has the expertise for comparative negligence. Even if the insurance company volunteers to do so, you must hire an attorney to ensure you are not being mistreated here. Insurance companies can hold this against you by wrongfully determining your fault in the accident and charging you with comparison negligence. It can lead to you receiving less compensation and paying more to the other parties.

You will be reassured that the situation is being handled fairly with the guidance of an attorney, no matter the share of fault.

When you are permanently disabled by the accident 

Suppose a personal injury victim is permanently disabled in an accident. In that case, the compensation requires an extension in a permanent form, and the victim needs continuous rehabilitation and special care based on their injuries. It can result in a whole lot of medical expenses. 

Insurance companies ask for concrete proof of the accident and the degree of the injury. This includes visual proof, like a picture of the scene of the accident. They also require medical proof of the injury and disability caused. Insurance companies also hold an independent examination where one of their associated medical professionals examines you to prove that you are permanently disabled by accident. 

A personal injury law firm helps you gather the evidence, understand the policies and undergo all the paperwork and documents. In most permanent disability cases, the accident directly affects your work wages. If you are in a condition where you are physically unable to undergo the work that is paying you for a living, insurance is also required to cover those lost wages.

You are unaware of the value of your claim.

The value of the amount for compensation depends on the accident and how faulty you and the other party are. 

A personal injury lawyer’s job is to understand, collect, and review your case and take you through the entire legal procedure to ensure you are getting what you are legally eligible for while preventing and avoiding delays or abuse of the situation. An experienced lawyer will help maintain your legal rights of recovering a certain amount of money your accidental injury can claim for your pain, suffering, and loss. 

Now, there are ranges of insurance policies dependent on the accident’s severity and based on the distribution of faults. For example, let’s say a car runs through a red light, and it’s a pedestrian crossing the road on a crosswalk. Here, the pedestrian has no fault, and the entire fault is in the hands of the driver. So they will need to cover the entire medical expense of the pedestrian from their insurance. 

In another case, let’s say a pedestrian is crossing from the middle of the road with no crosswalk, and a car crossing the speed limit hits the pedestrian. Here the fault is shared as the pedestrian should not be crossing on the side of the road with no crosswalk, and the driver shouldn’t have been speeding. Based on this, the fault and the insurance coverage are divided. 

Your personal injury lawyer determines how much you should claim by gathering evidence of the accident. 

You may be partly responsible for the accident. 

In an accident case where you are injured but also partly responsible for the accident, the matters of insurance should come from both ways. 

For example, you turn left but forget to turn on the blinker, and suddenly another car speeding from your side trying to overtake you by stepping in the opposite lane collides with you. Both of you are injured, and both cars are severely damaged. 

A professional assesses the situation and divides faults: an insurance company or a personal injury attorney. Let’s say they conclude that you are at 40% fault for forgetting to turn on the blinker and the other party is 60% for speeding and overtaking in the wrong lane. Your insurance should cover 40% of your medical expense and property damage compensation. At the same time, they should cover 60% of yours. 

Your injury attorney’s job is to calculate where you stand and how to negotiate an amount you deserve in the situation and ask for it with concrete evidence from the insurance companies.

Multiple parties were involved in your accident.

When more than one party is involved in the accident, the fault distribution and insurance policies are more complicated than when only one party is at fault. As per comparative negligence, the faults of all the involved parties are divided in percentage, and the amount they owe is calculated accordingly. 

Picture this, you are driving car A slightly over the speed limit, and suddenly a pedestrian appears in front of you. When you try to swerve the car, another driver in car B overtakes you at a much higher speed than you and the speed limit, and an accident occurs. All three of you are injured. But the level of fault varies. 

Let’s say you are at 30% fault for speeding, the pedestrian is at 20% fault for crossing the road without a crosswalk, and the driver of car B speeding and overtaking is at 50% fault. 

Therefore, the amount of insurance from all three of your insurance company will be divided accordingly. You should receive 20 percent insurance from the pedestrian and 50% from the driver of car B. Similarly, the pedestrian should receive 30 percent insurance from you and 50% from the driver of car B

Your injury lawyer will walk you through the process with their experience in dividing such faults. They will recheck and review how the insurance company has divided it and assure you that the case is being handled correctly.