If you suffered property damage and physical injuries during a car accident, here are some reasons why hiring a lawyer can help you in receiving a satisfactory claim.
If you’ve been in a car accident and have suffered injuries and property damage, you can either deal with the insurance company and settle the claim yourself or you can hire an attorney to do it for you. It all depends on how complicated your case is and if you think it’ll be difficult to handle it on your own. Here’s how lawyers can help you.
● Establish rapport with Insurance Adjuster
If you have encountered grave, personal injury, your car accident lawyer will start off by communicating with the other driver’s insurer and/or an insurance adjuster. Usually, adjusters are from a third-party insurance company that remains unbiased toward both parties. It is necessary to keep a regular connection and a good relationship with the adjuster since they carry the pocketbook.
● Gathering Liability Evidence
Even if you have collected pictures of the scene from the car accident, your lawyer may want to take a look physically by visiting the scene. Good Lawyers are known to pay attention to details; they might notice something that you or someone else probably couldn’t see.
Your lawyer may also take notes and collect reports regarding the accident and interrogate police officers and witnesses who were present during the scene.
● Gathering Evidence of Damage
This is an essential part where lawyers can come in handy. If you have suffered significant injuries during the car accident that left you with a PTSD anxiety, a good lawyer will gather all the necessary paperwork regarding it from your healthcare provider.
However, medical institutions do not put the release of documents to their patients and lawyers as their first priority, even if it is your right to obtain them. The reason is that typically, small clinics or doctors’ chambers may not have adequate staff members and the time to respond to medical record requests. As for the big hospitals, they usually have a certain process that needs to be followed for you to receive your medical documents, which most of the time isn’t clear and concise, and they may simply end up not responding to requests.
And when the hospitals do respond to your requests, some information may not be written accurately regarding your accident. Therefore, it is the attorney’s job to keep drilling the hospital staff to provide more information regarding your injury. Doctors may also miss out on writing the cause of the injury. If that’s the case, then your lawyer can send out a letter requesting the doctor to mention if the injury caused was due to the accident or not. Any form of disability or hindrance caused due to the car accident will be provided as evidence, and that it is due to the other drivers’ negligence that the accident happened.
Dealing with Medical care providers is not straightforward as they are usually very reluctant to hand out documents. It’s not because they do not want to; it’s because it is a tedious job to respond to medical record requests, and they simply want to avoid the hassle. Your lawyer, if they are good with creating a rapport, can continue to grill the staff for information which otherwise you wouldn’t have been able to do.
This part also includes doctors providing testimony, either physically or on a letter, which is regarded to be the top evidence regarding your case.
● Negotiate with Lien Holders
If you receive health, disability, or workers’ compensation benefits from an insurer, that insurer will have a lien (hence becoming a lien holder) on your claim. Lien holders can be banks, financial institutions, or any private party that has a legal claim on your property.
Therefore, it is necessary to discuss and negotiate with the lien holder to reduce its lien. This way, even if you are able to save a dollar, it goes to your pocket.
● Arrange a Settlement
This is the important part where your lawyer’s negotiation skills will be tested. He/she will sit down with the insurer and negotiate your settlement. A good lawyer will leave no stones unturned and provide relevant evidence of your personal and property damages and liabilities that you have suffered. They will try their best for you to receive top dollar from the insurer and thus help you reach a settlement.
Settling the claim by yourself
You may think that you can do all this by yourself and not have to pay 1/3rd of your money to the lawyer! If your case is small and not complicated, you can, by all means, go ahead and negotiate the settlement yourself.
However, if it’s a bigger and more complicated case and your medical bills top $3k for which you had to take out a personal loan and were even unable to work for more than a week, hiring a lawyer would be your best option.
Car accident and personal injury lawyers are typically good at what they do. Handling all the paperwork yourself is tiring, not to mention the post-traumatic stress disorder that you’re probably going through may not help you much on the legal issue front. This is where the lawyers can play their part in providing you with the best settlement they can.
Competent Lawyers are naturally a persistent bunch when it comes to collecting information or evidence regarding your accident claim. Therefore, investing your money in a lawyer, and a good one too, will get you the compensation you deserve that may make up for the damages and liabilities you suffered, including mental trauma. They will go to great lengths to collect all necessary documents to ensure you get the best out of your claim.
