Knowing what to do after sustaining injuries from an accident can be quite difficult. One way to save yourself from such stress is to hire a personal injury lawyer. Most people are on the fence regarding this because they do not want to pay the extra fee charged by a lawyer or for reasons best known to them.
Here’s the thing. Insurance companies will reach out to you after an accident and you will be dealing with loads of paperwork. You will have to make statements, provide medical records, and sign forms as part of the investigation processes of the insurance companies. We don’t suggest you go through all of this alone.
Why Should You Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer?
Several things will place demands on you to show up after an accident. You can save yourself by reaching out to a personal injury lawyer to handle the processes on your behalf. Here are five important reasons why you need a personal injury lawyer:
Insurance companies are not your friends
When insurance companies approach you, they come across as having your best interests at heart. In reality, they don’t. Several laws guide the operation of insurance companies. While these laws are pretty strong, they are not strong enough to watch out for motives.
Whether you like it or not, every insurance company that reaches out to you is looking for their “best interests” not yours. They are not ready to part with as much money as you need for compensation. Because of this, they have an array of attorneys that work very hard to find the best ways to cut costs.
Without experience on your side, you’d end up losing a lot of money to these companies. If as big and experienced as an insurance company is they still have several attorneys, shouldn’t you hire yours?
Compliance with rules in filing a personal injury claim
After you get caught in an accident, you need to follow certain designated procedures leading to the investigation of your claim. As such, you need to complete paperwork and schedule damage inspections. Let’s not forget the part where you go through diagnosis and treatment procedures depending on your injuries.
Do you know how challenging it will be to add all of these to your daily routine and the pains from the accident? Exactly! Filling out your injury claim may become a huge chore at the end of the day. Doing it wrongly translates to you jeopardizing your chances of getting compensation.
Working with an experienced personal injury lawyer relieves you from stress. It also ensures that you have someone handle all the paperwork on your behalf. More than anything else, you can rest assured that there will be no mistakes in the process.
Dealing with complications
Let’s face it, personal injury law is very complicated and unique. Even experts in this field may struggle with the complications at times. If they do, how would you that has no experience in this field fare?
Different States in the United States have different prescriptions for this law. As such, both parties may be apportioned some fault even with the clearest cut accidents. In such cases, the amount you can recover reduces based on how much fault is apportioned to you.
The easiest way to handle such fine points of negligence is to hire an experienced personal injury lawyer. Such lawyers understand the terrain and the prescriptions sufficiently. With this, they can advocate your case properly and you can enjoy the best possible compensation.
More extensive damage
When a person suffers an accident, it is easy to make claims based on the physical injuries sustained. While this may seem logical, most times, they end up suffering more extensive damage than what they claimed initially. However, they cannot seek further compensation since they have already submitted an initial claim.
Your claim should go beyond what you spend on immediate medical expenses. If your accident is a result of someone else’s negligence, the State allows you to receive compensation for other damages.
This compensation is called “compensation for intangible damages.” Some of these damages include the pain you suffer from the injuries, loss of consortium, time spent away from work, and learning a new skill should you become disabled.
The best person to assess such damages is an experienced personal injury attorney. They have worked in this field for so long so they know the worth of each of these damages.
Statute of limitations
The statute of limitation is the maximum duration between when the accident occurs and when you begin to process your claim. It is a deadline that you shouldn’t miss, else, you may not recover anything regardless of how much damage you suffer. Experienced attorneys know these deadlines so they help to prevent you from missing the window.
Questions to Ask a Personal Injury Lawyer
Now that you know why you need a personal injury attorney, let’s discuss some questions you should ask them. You need to ask these questions to ensure that you are choosing the right lawyer.
1: What is your area of specialization?
2: Have you handled a case similar to mine? If yes, how did it turn out?
3: Will you be working on the case directly or another attorney will represent you?
4: How long do you think resolving this case will take?
5: Can you do anything to improve my chances of winning this case?
6: How frequently do you go to trial?
7: Do you work on a contingency basis?
8: Have you ever been disciplined or censured by any ethics or legal committees before now?
Conclusion
Personal injury law is pretty complicated and requires a lot of experience for you to win cases. You don’t have to handle the process by yourself. We suggest you hire a competent personal injury lawyer to work with you on your case for the best results. Feel free to drop your questions in the comments section if you have any.
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