Do you need to hire a car accident lawyer?
Having a car is a wonderful thing, but also a necessity. The car gives us a sense of freedom. You can drive around a lot more places and you can finish more every day. Buying various accessories and beautifying the vehicle is a pleasure for many vehicle lovers.
However, road accidents happen to many from time to time. Even if you are a great driver, you can have a car accident. Simply, the on-the-go situation gets you out of control in just a few seconds. In such situations, anything is possible. However, suppose you suffered injuries. What awaits you is extremely expensive treatment, absenteeism and possibly even lasting consequences.
The first thing that comes to mind is to make settlement with insurance company and take your money. Most ordinary people think that it will be enough to just contact their insurance company and collect the damage. If the damage caused by a car accident is small and there were no serious injuries, there will be no major problems. Things get complicated if it is not clear who caused the accident, if the material damage is severe and there are injuries.
In that case, nothing will be easy. As a rule, you should inform your insurance company that an accident has occurred. In most cases, there will be no problem with the material damage to the vehicle. It is statutory in most federal states and is not a subject of dispute. However, what is the problem is serious bodily injury.
In many cases, the insurance company tends to minimize your compensation. They are not your ally. The job of an insurance company lawyer is to interpret the terms of the contract you signed in the best possible way for the company. Their only job is to increase the profits of the insurance company. As we all know, profits can be increased in two ways: by increasing sales or by reducing the cost or paid settlements. Most insurance companies are focused on both methods.
Be sure that every insurance company have teams of top defense lawyers. Day by day, they work diligently on hundreds of similar road accidents. They are top experts in the law. What will happen most often if you try to exercise your rights yourself? They will offer you a minimum amount as compensation for your injuries. It is true that the common man has no knowledge about laws well enough.
We come to the very important fact: if you have had a serious accident with great material damage and seriously injured you have to hire a car accident attorney.
What you can do if a car accident occurs?
It all depends on the traffic accident itself. If you are seriously injured or one of the passengers is seriously injured, remain alert. Call an ambulance and highway patrol. Even if you feel well, if the crash was severe, be sure to seek medical attention. It is possible that you were injured without even knowing it. Internal injuries including internal bleeding are extremely dangerous.
If you do not seek medical help, this fact may later be taken as evidence that you were not seriously injured.
It is good practice to photograph the place of a traffic accident and to obtain information from a witness. After that, you should take a picture of the injured person as well as the damage and position of your vehicle.
When a police patrol arrives at the scene of an accident, stay alert and answer any questions honestly. Avoid statements that may later be used against you. Do not say “I have not seen” or “accidentally did something” or regret for something. Statements like this will not pass to an insurance defense lawyer and he will use your words against you.
The next important thing is the question: when to hire injury attorney? Do you have to wait until you leave the hospital and feel good? The answer is: find the best available lawyer to get you ready for all the possibilities!! Powerful insurance companies will, if you do not respond immediately, use this time to gather key information about your case and put you in a bad position. If you do not respond on time, the insurance company will usually offer you some cash settlement after a few days.
Very often, insurance company adjusters will try to hurry you up into accepting their offer. They will tell you that the settlement is only valid this week or that you will receive less money if you hire a car accident attorney. Know that this is not true and do not accept their offer. Choose a good Personal Injury Lawyer and supply it with all the information available.
How to choose the right personal injury attorney?
First, ask for the advice of a friend or relative who has already had a positive experience with plaintiffs’ lawyers. Our advice is to hire a attorney who will only agree to get paid if he / she get’s the case. After all, the rule is that personal injury attorney is not charged for the number of spent hours. We will later describe how much a personal injury lawyer usually costs.
In addition to the advice of friends, another way to choose a lawyer is through advertisements. Old, good method is to look which law firms lease the biggest billboards and spend the most money on advertising. Logically, these are also the most successful law firms, since only successful lawyers can make a lot of cash to afford advertising. However, such companies may be expensive, so you should gather as much quality information as possible. The facts you should pay attention to is whether the lawyer has graduated from a public or private university, which university he or she has graduated from, whether the law firm has a website.
A great way to collect data can be through the website Martindale-Hubbell directory. Here you will find detailed biographies of each lawyer, which will make the choice of plaintiffs’ lawyers easier. Another extremely valuable resource on the Internet is the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. To check the details of your attorney, just find the “Find a member” section and fill in the form.
How much will a car accident attorney cost?
As we have already pointed out, your personal injury lawyer will charge for his services if he gets a dispute. The service is charged as a percentage of settlement or attained judgment. This percentage is described as a “contingency fee”. The largest number of attorneys will charge the contingency fee in the amount of one third, or 33.33% of the settlement. Of course, this is not the rule, so there are also cheaper attorneys who will charge 25%, but also those who will claim 40%. Make sure you inquire about the contingency fee before deciding on your choice of agent. However, the amount you will pay to a lawyer does not end here.
When handling a case, your lawyer will incur a number of costs. They are not paid via contingency fee, but you have to pay them separately. Some of these common costs are: Expert fees (for all expanses of a hired expert), Jury fees (looser pay it usually), service fees, research service fees, exhibit preparation, mediator fees, travel costs… These costs cannot be known in advance and depend on many factors.
To summarize: If you get an attained judgment of $ 60,000, first third in the amount of $ 20,000 will be taken by a lawyer, and then will come your attorney’s fixed costs, hospital costs and you will get the rest. Many people have concerns about this, so we feel the need to bring this to our attention at all costs
When you find the right lawyer after a lot of research, you need to sign a contract. This contract is called the “Fee agreement”. The contract will detail the relationship between you and your lawyer.
Your lawyer will take over the case itself and prepare to face the defense lawyers of the insurance company.
During a car accident injury case, the issue of the various damages you may suffer may be raised. An accident attorney will easily see all options for claiming compensation, including the following damages:
– Property damage: damage to your vehicle. As we said before, this is regulated by law and there will be no problem here.
– Medical coverage – which includes coverage of all your hospital bills. This also covers all your medical expenses in the future
– Lost wages from missed work due to an accident
– Loss of future earnings ability: In case you were seriously injured, your lawyer needs to calculate the amount involved
– Emotional pain – emotional consequences can be more devastating than physical ones
If you find the right professional, he will continue to pursue litigation against insurance company lawyer. This way, you will be relieved of stress and be able to focus on healing. The amount that will ultimately be collected from your insurance depends on the severity of your injuries and the skills of your lawyer.