Do I Have to Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer?
Many injured victims find themselves facing an uncertain future after a serious accident. When this happens, an experienced personal injury attorney can help you through this difficult time and protect your rights to compensation along the way. But when do you need to hire a personal injury lawyer? While there is no specific guideline or deadline as to when you must hire a personal injury lawyer, especially after a car accident injury, it is very important to engage the services of an attorney shortly after the accident. You do not want to go without counsel during any part of the process, and you can usually hire a lawyer on a contingency basis.
Certain circumstances require a greater need for representation than others. These may include:
You are Being Partially Blamed for the Accident
If you’ve been in an accident, the other driver’s insurance company may agree to compensate you for your injury. There is the possibility that they will say that you were partly to blame. For example, the other driver’s insurance company can say that the car accident happened because you were speeding going. If a judge decides that you are to partly to blame for the accident, you only get a percentage of the compensation. A claim of “contributory negligence” is often used by insurance companies to minimize the cost they have to pay to settle a claim. An experienced personal injury lawyer knows how to defend you against these false accusations.
Multiple Parties are Involved
When more than one person is involved in your accident, hiring a personal injury attorney can help. Medical negligence claims and other types of claims from construction site accidents, multiple vehicle accidents, as well as product liability are all examples of cases that usually involve multiple parties. Personal injury lawyers are experienced in dealing with the extra problems that come up when there is more than one defendant.
You are Permanently Disabled or Suffered a Traumatic Injury
Cases that involve traumatic injuries as well as permanent disabilities have problems that aren’t present in other types of personal injury cases. For instance, if your accident gives you a condition that makes you unable to work, you may need continuous medical care. There’s a possibility that you may never be able to work again. This means you’ll be susceptible to future damages because of your disability or impairment. Depending on your age, your disability, and some other variables, future damages can potentially amount to millions of dollars throughout your lifetime.
A personal injury attorney can hire medical, economic, and financial experts to help figure out how much your future damages will be worth. To avoid losing money, insurance companies fight hard to lower the cost of these claims. Getting the compensation you’re looking for after an injury is more likely if you have an experienced personal injury lawyer who knows how to document damages and get you the most money.
The Insurance Company is Acting in Bad Faith
In many cases, insurance companies operate in bad faith. For instance, the insurance company may try to drag out the claim so that the deadline for filing your personal injury lawsuit expires. The Insurance Information Institute provides consumers insurance company rankings based on data-driven insight. The following are some other ways an insurance company can act in bad faith:
- Failing to investigate a claim
- Making you fill out too many unnecessary forms to process a claim
- Making up lies about how the insurance policy works
- Not paying a valid claim
- Bringing up false claims of being partly to blame
Personal injury lawyers understand how insurance companies work and how the law works when it comes to injury claims. An accident victim with a lawyer is less likely to be treated unfairly by the insurance company. Just the threat of a lawsuit can sometimes convince the insurance company and others involved in your claim to settle.
A Government Entity is Involved in The Claim
Bringing a personal injury claim against the government is more difficult than bringing a claim against an individual. Governments often have immunity from liability, but there are a few exceptions. When compared to other claims, you have less time to file a claim against the government.
Are you in need of a personal injury lawyer? Parker Law Firm’s experienced personal injury lawyers are standing by to help you. Contact us for a free, no-obligation case evaluation to review your options.
