When it comes to personal injury cases, time is of the essence when it comes to hiring a personal injury lawyer since it is critical to maximizing the value of your case. Much of your case hinges on the type of treatment you received and when it was given, as well as your ability to identify witnesses to the accident. You give your attorney the best chance to get the best potential compensation for your personal injury claim if you hire a personal injury attorney as soon as possible following your accident.
In the event of a minor car accident, what should I do?
It’s critical to document everything about the vehicle collision while the details are still fresh in your mind. Additionally, even if you do not feel or notice an immediate injury, you should consult a doctor as soon as possible. Because your adrenaline levels spike during an accident, you may not feel pain until the adrenaline has subsided.
A doctor will be able to carefully analyze any injuries and provide a professional assessment, which will be important if you decide to take legal action against the at-fault individual. You should file a claim with your insurance provider as soon as you are physically and emotionally capable, as this is a contractual requirement for receiving coverage under your policy.
How Can I Get the Most Money From My Car Accident Settlement?
You can increase the value of your personal injury claim by:
- Locating eyewitnesses
- Keeping meticulous records of your injuries
- Keeping copies of all papers (medical records, insurance information, police reports, witness information, etc.)
Keeping track of the restrictions your injury places on your daily life.
It’s also critical that you stick to your medical provider’s treatment plan and never miss scheduled appointments, as doing so lowers the authenticity of your claim in the eyes of the adjuster assessing it.
What Are the Benefits of Hiring a Car Accident Attorney?
Car accidents wreak havoc on Floridians’ lives. According to official figures, around 400,000 crashes occur on Florida highways each year. Drivers and passengers were fortunate enough to escape major injury in some of the incidents, but many accident victims were left in excruciating physical, mental, and financial suffering.
If this happened to you, you may need the assistance of an attorney to help you seek compensation to cover the costs of your injuries recovery. Because every automobile accident is different, accident victims’ advocates usually begin by looking into three crucial questions:
- How did the mishap occur? What series of events, whether obvious or not, culminated in a collision that resulted in a client’s injuries?
- Who is legally liable for the accident? What do the facts of the accident reveal about who had a legal duty not to act in a way that would endanger others, disobeyed that duty, and caused the accident?
- How much has the client’s life been affected by the injury? What is the right amount of money for a victim to get in order to recompense them for all of the ways the damage has harmed them?
The answers to these questions serve as a sort of road map for the attorney and client in determining a strategy for obtaining maximum compensation. With this information, the lawyer can advise you on who to pursue for payment and how much you might reasonably expect to receive. The data can also assist them in deciding whether to proceed with settlement negotiations right away or wait for more information before making a decision.
Negotiating from a position of strength is possible for an attorney.
Negotiating with the parties who have legal obligation for the crash (which usually includes those parties’ insurance providers) is always an option for car accident victims and their lawyers seeking accountability and recompense. Collision lawyers frequently consider how to approach these talks in order to give their clients the best opportunity of recovering the most money feasible.
The lawyer’s appraisal of when the client’s case has achieved peak strength is perhaps the most important aspect in this regard, because that is usually the best time to press the opposing side for maximum payment.
Insurance companies’ shady tactics can be defeated with the help of an attorney.
It is not always possible for car accident lawyers and their clients to dictate the conditions of a settlement. Insurance firms, for example, use a variety of strategies to reduce the amount of money they have to spend in order to avoid culpability for an accident. One such strategy is to try to negotiate with a victim immediately before the victim has had the opportunity to hire a car accident lawyer.
Insurance firms are taking a calculated risk by doing so. They try to capture accident victims when they are most vulnerable and persuade them to accept a lowball settlement offer. Such shady tactics demonstrate why we believe it is critical for accident victims to retain expert automobile accident injury attorney as soon as possible.
When all you have to say to a pushy insurance adjuster is “speak to my lawyer,” dealing with them becomes a lot easier. Allowing a collision attorney to handle your insurance company negotiations levels the playing field and provides you the opportunity to decide when your case is strong enough to pursue.
It’s possible that you’ll require skilled trial advocacy.
Another option available to vehicle accident victims and their attorneys is to file a lawsuit against the people responsible for the accident. Depending on the facts and circumstances of the accident, the lawyer and client may choose to file a lawsuit straight once or wait for discussions to conclude before filing a lawsuit. They might also need to gather more evidence before making a decision.
The skill, experience, and reputation of the lawyer the victim employs to prepare the case might frequently wind up being the most essential aspect in pursuing legal action. Not every lawyer who advertises for vehicle accident cases is capable of taking a case to trial and winning it.
The majority of vehicle accident claims are settled before they even reach a courtroom. However, unless the other party understands that the victim’s lawyer can take a case to trial and win, they will try to compensate you to avoid going to court. A lawyer’s image as a fearsome trial lawyer can help them obtain a higher-value settlement for their clients.
Of course, some cases do not end in a satisfactory resolution. In those situations, having an attorney who wasn’t kidding when warning the other side they’d “see them in court” is always beneficial to the victim. No lawyer can predict how a trial or settlement negotiations will turn out.
You will lose money if you do not hire a car accident lawyer.
We’d be negligent if we didn’t include one more factor to consider when considering when to contact an attorney after an automobile accident: waiting costs money – possibly a lot of money. When an attorney takes on a case, the evidence is less fresh, and the inquiry into how, who, and how much is more difficult.
First responders go on, witnesses’ recollections fade, and accident scenes are cleaned up. The top-end of the amount of money an accident victim might hope to receive slowly diminishes with the passage of time.
Then there’s the statute of limitations, which is a state law that establishes a deadline for an accident victim to file a lawsuit. If you miss this date, you will lose all legal rights to reimbursement. Most vehicle accident claims in Florida must be filed within four years of the accident, or within two years if the person died in the crash.
In other words, if you wait too long after a car accident to hire a skilled auto accident attorney, your claim will be worthless. A lawyer can make sure you don’t miss any deadlines and is well aware of how important time is in a vehicle accident case. Placing your case in the hands of a lawyer as soon as feasible has the added benefit of giving your legal team the extra time they need to stay on top of things.