After a serious injury, it’s normal to have questions. When and how do you go back to work regardless of your injuries? What do you need to do next?
“Do I need a personal injury attorney?” But is among the most important questions many people will ask following an crash. The answer, almost consistently, is yes. The sooner you hire one, the simpler and more effectively your own personal injury attorney can solve your case. The answers to these questions can help you understand why.
Just how Much Are Your illness?
Perhaps you slipped and fell in a neighborhood store, sustaining minor bruises or scrapes, or found yourself in a minor fender-bender causing little more than cosmetic automobile damage. Ordinary instances such as these happen frequently, and most people are equipped to manage them on our own.
On the other hand, a slip-and-fall on a hard surface can break bones or cause concussions; a”minor” rear-end accident may lead to serious harms to the delicate tissues of the neck and backbone.
If you suffered serious injuries in your injury, you should contact an attorney when the injury as possible. Acute injuries frequently leave the victims of these injuries with significant medical bills, extended medical treatments, and in several cases, no or reduced income to help cover those invoices.
Who Caused Your Accident?
A personal injury claim requires you to establish that another party caused your injuries. If you believe that happened, or that external factors led to the crash, you probably need an attorney to collect evidence and pursue your personal injury claim.
In most accidents, multiple parties may share liability. An attorney can determine all those parties and help you seek compensation from every one.
For example, in a medical malpractice case, you might have grounds to file a claim against the hospital in which the malpractice took place and the doctor who committed malpractice, depending on what happened.
Have You Spoken With the Insurance Provider or Liable Party?
Many accident victims do not consider speaking with an attorney until they have already connected with the insurance company–but you don’t have to wait to talk with the liable party or the insurance company that covers the accountable party prior to contacting a personal injury lawyer. Actually, you’re almost always better off letting your own personal injury law firm manage those communications.
If you already spoke with an insurance company representative, your initial conversation with the insurance company might have triggered your consciousness of the need to contact an attorney on your claim.
For example, if:
- The insurance company denies your claim.
Hearing that the insurance company denied your claim could lead to devastation and fear from many injury victims. Not only do you need to navigate your injuries and your recovery, you may worry that you’ll finally need to determine how to pay your medical bills on your own.
If the insurance provider that covers the liable party denies your claim, an attorney can help dispute that denial and attain a more satisfactory resolution. The insurance carrier may deny the claim for one of many reasons.
The insurance company believes that the celebration they cover didn’t cause the accident. The insurance carrier may attempt to claim that you caused the crash, or may try to prove that another party bears liability for the accident.
An attorney can help investigate the accident and decide who bears liability. In an auto crash, for example, that might involve not only searching for movie of the collision or consulting witnesses at the scene, but earning an expert witness who will help ascertain precisely how the accident occurred and who or what triggered it.
Not only that, an attorney can often get access to information that you may have a harder time accessing. In the case of an accident with a commercial truck driver, as an example, an attorney might get access to this trucker’s logbook, which will show how long the truck driver spent on the wheel prior to the accident.
An attorney might also investigate public records regarding past accidents at an intersection, or take a look at repair reports on an automobile to determine whether the vehicle received maintenance on a reasonable program (or missed desired maintenance that might have prevented the injury ).
For most accident victims, that investigation does not only turn up evidence concerning who caused the accident. It may also turn up critical information that determines whether further parties led to the crash. This knowledge can assist the sufferer pursue a personal injury claim against each accountable party.
An insurer covering a personal injury claim may ask to see substantial evidence of the limitations caused by your injuries. The health care bills and medical records, which establish the amount of your injuries, are just the start. The insurance carrier will often need to find out more about how those injuries affect your lifetime, both immediately after the collision and in conditions of your long term prognosis.
The insurance carrier may also investigate you personally. If the business considers that you exaggerated your injuries or fretting about your limitations, it may deny your claim. Often, it will assess your interpersonal media accounts to see if you engage in activities that you state your injury prevents you from doingand it may well take your interpersonal networking posts far from context to deny your claim.
An experienced personal injury attorney can provide you a better idea of what information the insurance company might want to approve your claim. More to the point, your attorney will help set you in the perfect negotiating place to maximize the odds of a positive settlement. If the insurance company does refuse your claim, then an experienced personal injury attorney is able to appeal the refusal and provide proof to boost your probability of a successful resolution.
- The insurance company delays responding to your claim or delays payment on your claim.
Some time has passed since your injury, but you have received no response from the insurance provider that covers the liable party or from the liable party right. Conversely, maybe you obtained a fast preliminary communication from the insurance company, but then contact tapered off. Nowadays you don’t have any idea about what to expect next, or when you should expect to receive payment for your claim.
Maybe you even approved a settlement offer from the insurance company, but the anticipated payment failed to arrive.
Insurance firms may use many tactics to postpone payment in your personal injury case. Often, they do not want to flip that money over before they have to, though you want those funds to pay for your medical bills and handle your other expenses.
A personal injury attorney can help get the response you want from the insurance company. Often, simply keeping an attorney will let the insurance company know how badly you plan to pursue compensation. An attorney can also provide you with information about the penalties the insurance company may face for ignoring your own claim.
- The insurance company issues a reduced settlement offer.
Rather than considering the needs of the victim and sticking to the letter of the policies, many insurance companies will try to minimize the compensation they pay an crash victim. Often, this starts shortly after the accident. The insurance carrier may contact you within days of the injury to provide a settlement offer. This deal may reflect the minimal that the insurance carrier believes it can get away with paying you.
If you accept that offer, there is a great chance it’s insufficient to deal with the complete extent of your injuries (both today and later on ). More importantly, accepting the first offer generally prevents you from pursuing additional compensation at a later date, even if your actual expenses wind up greatly exceeding the amount of the initial settlement.
Before accepting a settlement offer from the insurance company or the liable party in your accident, contact a personal injury attorney. Many will offer a free consultation that can provide you a clearer idea of how much compensation you need to expect, and how you should respond to the terms offered in a specific settlement. An attorney can provide you with valuable advice concerning how to proceed with your claim to prevent you from missing out on the money that you deserve after a severe injury.
- The insurance carrier won’t negotiate.
You might have chosen not to speak to a personal injury attorney immediately after receiving a settlement deal. After all, 1 look at it advised you that the deal did not reflect the funds you actually deserved, especially thinking about the seriousness of your injury. You rejected the offer, and came back with a counteroffer of your own.
Unfortunately, the insurance carrier continues to respond with extremely low costs that fail to reflect the real expense of your injuries.
If your claim needs to go to court, an attorney can represent you. Through the negotiation process, the attorney will keep your needs in mind, not the needs of the insurance provider. Insurance businesses know it’s easier to take advantage of an unrepresented claimant.
Just how Much Time Has Passed As Your Accident?
Every state determines its own statute of limitations, or the time period in which an injured person can file a personal injury claim. This is the reason it’s vital to speak to an attorney as soon as possible–if this time interval lapse, you’re likely barred from presenting a claim.
If time has passed since your accident, especially if you haven’t communicated with the insurance company or liable party at all, immediately consult a personal injury attorney to ensure your claim remains valid.
Do You Have Questions Regarding Your Rights?
Many people know little about their faith after a serious accident, whether due to an automobile crash, nursing home abuse or neglect, or a slip and fall. You may not know just how much compensation you deserve, how much time it will take to repay your own claim, or even who bears liability for a specific type of accident.