There should never be a question about whether you need to hire a car accident attorney for your case. Your financial compensation depends on the showing you make for yourself during the legal process. Simply stated, you can make the strongest case for yourself when you have an experienced fighter on your side. Otherwise, the insurance company will steamroll you at every turn, costing you a chance at receiving a full settlement agreement for your car accident injuries.
After your medical team, your car accident attorney can be your best ally after a crash. When you hire a lawyer for your case, they can take care of the details and the day-to-day battles you need to fight with the insurance company to get the compensation you deserve.
You have no time to waste in getting legal help for your accident. If you do not already have a car accident lawyer representing you, now is the time to make the call to get help. Hiring a car accident lawyer does not cost you anything from your pocket. You do not need to pay a retainer, nor are you sent any hourly bills when your case is pending.
Here is what a Sebastian car accident lawyer can do to put you in a better position to receive compensation for your injuries. When you see all that a car accident attorney can do to benefit you, it will be clear why you should never attempt to do these tasks on your own.
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Advise You of Your Legal Rights
After you have suffered an injury in a crash, you may not know the law or anything about the legal process. You may have a vague idea that you deserve compensation but do not know how to get there. In any legal process, you need a guide who can explain what will happen.
When you speak with a car accident attorney during your free initial consultation, they will listen to you and learn more about your story. They may give you some initial legal advice and explain what you may face during the legal process.
Your car accident lawyer should be available to answer your questions when you have them. An attorney should be responsive to your questions and concerns. They should explain what is happening in your case and outline key developments as they occur. Having an experienced attorney to speak with when needed can increase your peace of mind.
Investigate Your Accident and Compile Evidence
You cannot receive compensation unless you prove that someone else is legally obligated to pay you. Following a crash, another party has this obligation if they engaged in negligence that caused the car accident. You might believe their negligence was obvious; however, a car accident claim requires sufficient evidence to prove their negligence. If you do not have this evidence, you cannot win your case.
An experienced car accident lawyer will build the proof you need to win your case. This evidence can prove:
- Testimony from people who saw the accident and the surrounding events
- Pictures from the scene of the accident
- Dashcam or traffic camera footage
- The police report from the accident
- Testimony from an accident reconstruction expert
Nobody will give you this evidence and make it easy to build your case. An experienced car accident attorney has the resources to conduct a thorough investigation to gather all possible evidence of the other driver's liability. The end product can be a strong case that you qualify for financial compensation.
Estimate the Value of Your Damages
You may not have any idea how much you deserve in a car accident claim. The operative legal principle is that the driver who caused the accident may pay for all the harm they caused you. There are numerous components of your damages that you may not know about. You likely have no idea how much you are due, which leaves you at risk of taking far less than that amount from the insurance company.
Understand that the insurance company knows everything about your claim right after you file it. They will quickly learn the value, plugging everything into their sophisticated technology and institutional knowledge and reaching a number your case is worth. However, this will likely not be the initial offer the insurance company puts on the table. Instead, they want to see if you will accept a lower offer to save the company money.
A car accident lawyer also knows how to value your case, and you must have this knowledge to ensure a fair result. Your car accident attorney will estimate the value of your case, knowing that you are entitled to be paid for the following elements of your damages:
- Medical bills
- Property damage
- Lost income
- Pain and suffering
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Emotional distress
- Scarring and disfigurement
Prepare and File a Claim or Lawsuit
Once you know how much you deserve in compensation, your car accident lawyer will be ready to take legal action to affirmatively seek compensation. You can either file a claim with the insurance company or a lawsuit in court. Either way, you must go through the insurance company that represents the other driver involved in the crash.
Your claim must be persuasive and put your best legal foot forward. Your car accident attorney can either present your claim through an informal process, dealing directly with the insurance company, or they can send a more formal demand letter. A claim should include all the evidence your lawyer gathered of the other driver's liability. Your car accident attorney will also include evidence to support your damages claim since the insurance company will not compensate you for unsubstantiated losses.
If your car accident lawyer thinks it is best, you can file a lawsuit in civil court, although this is not as common. If you take this path, your attorney will draft the complaint that begins the legal process, file it with the court, and serve it on the other party to begin the lawsuit process. They will then follow all complex litigation procedures.
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Negotiate a Settlement Agreement
Most car accident cases will never see the inside of the courtroom. Only a handful of cases will ever make their way to trial. Many more cases will be settled informally before a lawsuit is even filed. Both you and the insurance company have a lot on the line and might not want to risk going in front of a jury.
However, negotiating a settlement agreement is far from easy. The insurance company uses tough negotiation tactics to try to settle the claim for as little as possible. They might get away with these hardball tactics, but for your car accident lawyer, whose job is to protect your legal rights.
The first settlement offers you get will likely not be reasons to celebrate. Instead, they may demonstrate how much work you must do before reaching a settlement agreement. The insurance company is known for making low settlement offers, forcing you to reject the offer and counter with a figure of your own. Car accident settlement negotiations can take many months, as the insurance company likes to chew up the clock, thereby increasing your sense of desperation. Only a car accident lawyer has the credibility and capacity to put legal pressure on the insurance company to get them to raise their offer. Even then, the insurance company will only increase the offer incrementally. Eventually, you may reach an agreement on your compensation.
Build Your Case and Present it in Court
There may be times when you cannot reach an agreement with the insurance company. They might dig into their position if they denied your claim in the first place. The insurance company may not be offering you a full settlement because they might wrongfully blame you for the car accident. Alternatively, you and the insurance company may be nowhere near on the same page regarding compensation, as the insurer might challenge the severity of your injuries and losses.
If you need to file a lawsuit, you may eventually get your day in court after a lengthy legal process that precedes it. Before your case reaches that point, either party may file motions, and you can build your case through the discovery process. If you have filed a lawsuit, you can expect to have your deposition taken by the insurance company’s attorney. This part of your case can be difficult, but your car accident lawyer is there to protect and defend you.
Even if you file a lawsuit in court, the odds are overwhelming that your case will not go to trial. The insurance company may continue negotiating a possible settlement with you up to the minute of your trial. You may even elect to attend mediation sessions to get assistance in negotiating a possible settlement. There are times when the insurance company must learn and realize the risks that it is taking by going to trial, and they may elect to become more reasonable.
When to Hire a Car Accident Lawyer
The legal process for car accidents can be lengthy and filled with potential pitfalls. You can make mistakes that can cripple your claim if you do not reach out immediately to a car accident attorney. It is challenging to handle your own legal case under any circumstances, especially when you are dealing with physical injuries.
Every day that goes by without a car accident attorney can make your case even tougher. Evidence that you need to win your case may disappear, while the insurance company may be plotting to undermine your claim in any way they can.
Even if you are in a hospital bed, you may still need to take immediate steps to begin the legal process. It can take some time for your lawyer to actually file a claim, but they should begin building your claim as soon as possible after the car accident. This ensures they have access to the strongest possible evidence and prevents missing any key evidence.
All it takes is a phone call to a car accident attorney to schedule a free initial consultation. You can hire a car accident attorney by signing a representation agreement, and they can begin work on your case immediately.
You might expect the insurance company to cooperate due to your serious injuries and struggles. However, these companies prioritize profits over your well-being and might even take advantage of your vulnerable situation.
Adjusters may begin a pressure campaign to either get you to talk on the record or to push you to accept a low settlement. When you hire a car accident lawyer, you might have already damaged your case if you gave a recorded statement or trusted the insurance company. However, do not assume your claim is jeopardized beyond repair. Hiring a car accident attorney to address and reverse the damage is critical in such cases.
How Much Does a Car Accident Attorney Cost Me?
Given everything a car accident lawyer does for your case, you may think that securing their services will cost you a lot of money. Thankfully, this fear could not be further from the reality of how a car accident attorney works for you. The only thing you need to give to hire a car accident lawyer is a promise to pay them a part of your settlement or jury award if and when you win your case. You never have to pay any money out of your pocket to a car accident lawyer at any point during the case. The car accident attorney does not send you any bills, even if you do not win your case.
Accordingly, paying a lawyer should be the one thing you do not have to worry about when seeking legal help. You already have enough things on your mind without stressing about where you will come up with the money to pay a personal injury lawyer.
Consult a Sebastian personal injury attorney near you today. You will not regret allowing them to handle your claim and protect your rights while you focus on your physical healing.