After someone rear-ends or sideswipes your car, one of the first questions that you might have is, “Do I need a lawyer?” While you might think that you can handle everything on your own, many people find themselves quickly overwhelmed by everything that a personal injury case entails. By this point, they may have made mistakes or caused irreparable harm to their case.
Here is everything that you need to know about this critical legal issue.
What Do Car Accident Lawyers Do?
To determine whether you need a car accident attorney, it’s important to understand everything that they do. Consider whether you’re really up for taking on all of these extra responsibilities, especially while you’re suffering from serious injuries.
Investigating the Accident
After an accident, a law enforcement officer might – or might not – respond to the accident scene to complete a cursory investigation. They may reach the simplest conclusion or not even determine who is at fault.
Insurance companies are part of a multi-billion-dollar industry that rakes in more profits than it pays in claims, so you can’t trust that their interests will align with yours. Instead, their interests are diametrically opposed to yours. While you want to recover as much money as possible to fairly compensate for your losses, they want to minimize the value of your claim.
All this is said to demonstrate why it is crucial to conduct an independent investigation. A car accident lawyer can help identify, gather, and preserve critical evidence, interview witnesses, and seek any available video footage of the accident to help support your version of events. They can gather police reports and witness statements that help support your claim and present it in a compelling manner to the insurance company. They can also photograph the accident scene, including relevant traffic signs, skid marks, and road conditions, to give a clearer picture of the factors involved in the accident.
Handling the Insurance Company
Insurance adjusters are trained to deny and minimize the value of personal injury claims as much as possible.
Filing Your Legal Claims
Your personal injury lawyer can file your legal claims, which might involve multiple insurance claims. For example, you might be able to file a claim with your Personal Injury Protection (PIP) insurance, up to your policy limits, as well as seek compensation for your economic losses by filing a claim with the at-fault driver’s insurance company. If you were injured by an uninsured driver, you may have uninsured motorist coverage that can help pay for your losses.
An experienced car accident attorney can review the applicable insurance policies and file your claims. They represent your interests throughout the claim process by funneling information to the insurance company and preventing you from talking directly to insurance adjusters who might try to trip you up.
Negotiating for Fair Compensation
Many people drastically underestimate the value of their insurance claim. They might think that if they get their medical bills paid and a little bit of money for their lost wages, they did a good job. However, car accidents can cause substantial damage, and you have the right to seek full and fair compensation for all of them, including:
- Immediate medical treatment, emergency room treatment, hospital visits, and emergency transportation
- Ongoing medical care costs
- Physical therapy and rehabilitation
- Costs for prescription medicine
- Future medical expenses
- Costs for your vehicle repairs
- The diminished value of your vehicle
- Costs for household assistance to complete tasks you can’t do because of your injuries, such as cleaning or childcare
- Lost income
- Reduced earning potential
- Physical pain and suffering
- Mental anguish
- Emotional distress
- Lost enjoyment of life
Personal injury attorneys can gather the evidence necessary to prove the value of your economic losses, such as medical bills, repair estimates, and pay stubs. They can also help account for your non-economic damages, including pain and suffering.
This attention to detail can help with settlement negotiations. With an accurate damage evaluation, you can prevent leaving money on the table.
Working with Expert Witnesses
In some car accident cases, you may need the support of expert witnesses. Expert opinions could come from:
- Accident reconstruction experts who explain how the accident occurred
- Medical experts who can testify about your various medical diagnoses and future care needs
- Economic experts who can opine about how your injuries affect your long-term earning capacity
Litigating Your Case
If your case doesn’t settle with an insurance claim, your lawyer may have to file a personal injury lawsuit on your behalf to seek compensation for your damages. Taking your case all the way to trial can involve many more complex steps, including:
- Preparing and filing your lawsuit in the appropriate court
- Serving the at-fault driver
- Filing pre-trial motions
- Assisting throughout the discovery phase of your case
- Continuing to negotiate for a fair settlement offer
Your lawyer must file your case in accordance with the statute of limitations, which refers to court deadlines for taking certain legal action.
Dangers of Not Hiring a Car Accident Lawyer
If you choose to handle your car accident case on your own rather than hiring an experienced personal injury lawyer, you risk the following:
Providing a Recorded Statement
Many insurance companies try to get claimants to give recorded statements, saying that they need these statements to “process their claim” or expedite the process. However, these recorded statements are generally only used to help the insurance company minimize insurance payouts by using strategies such as:
- Getting the claimant to say they are “fine” to argue that they were not injured
- Locking the claimant into statements that the facts later dispute, causing factfinders to question their credibility
- Trying to get the accident victim to admit they did something wrong to blame them for part or all of the accident
- Getting them to say that their injuries are not severe when they don’t know their full extent
A personal injury attorney can handle your communications with a lawyer so that you are not subject to these tactics.
Handing Over Private Medical Information
Insurance companies might also ask you to sign medical release forms, pretending that they are being nice by not having you request or pay for these records yourself. However, these medical authorizations are often broad, going back several years. This is so the insurance company can look for other possible injuries or accidents to blame your current condition on.
Having Your Insurance Claim Denied
Insurance companies sometimes deny claims for no reason. They figure that most people won’t fight back, so they have nothing to lose by denying the claim. An experienced attorney can review your denial letter to determine if the grounds are just a farce and if you can appeal the decision.
Being Blamed for the Accident
Perhaps worse, the insurance company may try to blame you for the accident. This could put your personal assets in jeopardy if you don’t have enough insurance to cover the other party’s damages.
Even if it’s not reasonable to blame you entirely for the accident, they might try to say you are just as responsible for the accident as their insured. This is because under Pennsylvania’s comparative negligence law,
Getting Less Money
Insurance companies know how to take advantage of car accident victims who do not have legal counsel. They may drag their feet to get claimants to get frustrated and accept whatever paltry settlement offer they make. They may also try to settle cases quickly before
When Should I Hire a Car Accident Lawyer?
Another common question that people involved in a car accident ask is, “When should I hire a lawyer?” While you can hire a lawyer at any point in the process, it is usually best to hire a car accident lawyer as early as possible for the following reasons:
- Statutes of limitations: You have a legal deadline that you must comply with. If you wait too long to contact an attorney, they might not be able to file a personal injury lawsuit in time to meet this deadline.
- Understanding your legal rights: By contacting an attorney early in the process, you can understand your legal rights and whether you have a viable claim. Additionally, your lawyer can give you advice on your next steps so that you protect your legal claim.
- Preservation of evidence: Evidence may be lost or destroyed shortly after an accident, such as digital evidence or video footage. By contacting an attorney early in the process, the more time that they will have to interview witnesses, gather crucial evidence, and effectively advocate on your behalf.
- Insurance company handling: It is often better to have your lawyer deal with the insurance company instead of you dealing with it. It’s not uncommon for insurance companies to reach out to accident victims quickly after an accident, even if they are still in the hospital and on pain medications. It is better for a legal professional to protect your legal rights than to try to deal with deceptive tactics.
- Settlement negotiations: By hiring a personal injury lawyer early in the process, you can help ensure that the full value of your claim is identified, supported, and negotiated for.
When You Might Not Need a Lawyer
In some situations, it may be preferable to handle the case pro se than to hire a lawyer. For example, in a minor car accident that did not cause any injuries, you might need an attorney. You may be able to resolve your claim for the cost of your vehicle damage without adding the expense of hiring a lawyer. It might not make financial sense to hire a lawyer.
If you were in a minor accident that did not exceed the cost of your Personal Injury Protection (PIP) coverage, you again might be able to handle your case on your own. You go through your own insurance company, so you might feel more comfortable with this process than having to go through someone else’s insurance company.
If you were at fault for the accident, you might not need to hire a lawyer. The claim may go through your insurance company. If you are sued, the insurance company might hire a lawyer on your behalf.
Signs You Need a Car Accident Lawyer
In other situations, there are clear signs that you need the help of an experienced lawyer, such as:
- You suffered serious injuries or long-term disabilities.
- You have delayed symptoms.
- Liability is disputed.
- The accident involved multiple drivers.
- The insurance company has made a lowball offer.
- You feel that the insurance company is treating you unfairly.
- The at-fault driver was uninsured or underinsured.
- The crash was a hit-and-run.
- The accident involves a commercial truck, rideshare vehicle, or government employee.
- The accident involved the wrongful death of a loved one.
- The statute of limitations is approaching.
How Much Does a Car Accident Lawyer Cost?
Some car accident victims are afraid to hire a lawyer because they think that they can’t afford one. After they are already facing unexpected medical bills and losing valuable income from work, they might be hesitant to hire a professional to handle their claim. However, contingency-fee arrangements allow accident victims to retain legal services when they need them without having to pay for them up front.
Under contingency-fee arrangements, lawyers accept a case and begin working on it immediately. However, their payment is deferred until they recover compensation for their client. If the lawyer is unable to secure compensation, the client does not owe for the attorney’s services.
Contact a Lawyer for Help After a Car Accident
If you were injured in a car accident that wasn’t your fault, you should reach out to an experienced lawyer for help. The personal injury attorneys at Cousin Benny Personal Injury have over 25 years of combined experience that we leverage to fight for maximum compensation for our clients. Contact us today to take advantage of a free, no-obligation consultation.