When you get injured and it was the fault of someone else or a company’s fault, there is a good chance that you can get monetary compensation. Unfortunately, you can’t just depend on the insurance company to be fair with you. Remember that an insurance company is in the business of making money, meaning they are not there to give you money. In other words, they can make huge profits by low-balling you.
Insurance adjusters are there to frustrate you, so they make sure that you feel like there is no good chance to get full compensation. At first, they can treat you like gold, then they change by not returning calls, try to show you that you have done something wrong, or even tell you that they may not cover the bills.
This is a strategic move to see if you can simply accept a low settlement or no settlement at all. This is where a personal injury attorney from Pennington, New Jersey comes in handy. They can help you to receive the fair financial settlement that you deserve for your injuries. This page explains when you need to hire a personal injury attorney.
The best time to seek the help of the personal injury attorney
The best time to hire a personal injury lawyer is something that many people are not aware of. After sustaining injuries in an accident like a bike wreck, car crash, or any other type of accident, you can wonder if or when you need to consider hiring a personal injury lawyer. Your decision should be based on various factors. After you think through each of them, then you can decide or have a good idea about the best time to retain counsel.
Unfortunately, many people after an accident are reluctant to get legal assistance. For example, after you are involved in an accident that leads to a minor fender bender and you sustained no injuries, perhaps you can handle the accident without legal assistance. You can deal with the insurance company to get your vehicle repaired.
However, if you sustain serious injuries or the insurance company for the party at-fault is disputing your claim, you need to hire an experienced attorney. They can help you to understand your legal options to ensure that you can make a well-informed decision.
Most people involved in such types of accidents are also not familiar with the claim processes while insurance adjusters can settle claims daily and are skilled negotiators. So you need to have a reliable legal advocate to represent you so that your rights are protected. You need a lawyer who has the skills and experience handling personal injury cases to offer you a perspective on the amount of settlement you deserve and prevent insurance companies from taking advantage of you.
After all, you don’t have to pay medical expenses for injuries that were caused by the carelessness or recklessness of the other person. Failure to get legal advice after an accident can cost you money and time. So the sooner you hire the best personal injury attorney to investigate your case, the earlier you can start focusing on your physical recovery. Here are some of the suggestions on when you should hire a personal injury attorney.
The seriousness of your injuries
Not all personal injuries may need the use of a personal injury attorney. If you have minor injuries and have the time to handle all the legal and insurance claims yourself, you may likely settle your claim without the assistance of an attorney. However, you must consider getting help from a lawyer if you have pain that lasts longer than a couple of days and needs medical care.
If your injury required hospitalisation, surgery, rehabilitation, physical therapy, cosmetic surgery, chiropractic work, or orthopaedics, you will likely need to have your case assessed by a personal injury attorney. Claims that involve significant past and future medical expenses can have their value substantially increased once you hire a personal injury attorney.
If you also think that your injuries were caused by someone else’s recklessness or even that the death of your loved one was due to another party’s actions, it’s crucial to consult with an attorney Davis, Saperstein & Salomon, P.C. To improve the chances of your claim succeeding, you need to consult a personal injury attorney quickly so that they can gather and preserve the important evidence.
An insurance company representative is contacting you
Adjusters and claims representatives work for insurance companies to make sure that they reduce their losses. These people make sure that they reduce the amounts that the insurance companies pay out in personal injury claims.
Therefore, if the adjuster or insurance company representative contacts you and asks for recorded statements, your story, medical records, releases, and other information, then it’s time to tell them that you are consulting a personal injury attorney.
This is because insurance adjusters will usually attempt to force you to make statements that can ultimately harm your claim, so you should avoid signing releases without a personal injury lawyer’s review.
The releases the insurance company often ask for are called blanket authorisations that can allow them to browse through your medical history. They usually do this so that they can blame you for your injuries in a pre-existing incident. As a result, your claim can significantly be reduced.
It is also necessary to note that the adjusters can contact you because the insurance company thinks that you may have a valid claim. So they desire to get the information that they want to allow them to reach their goal of either denying your payout or minimising it.
This is especially true when you’re an uninsured motorist and you’re dealing with your insurance company. Simply put, any statement you provide to the insurance adjuster can be used against you. Hence, avoid falling for these tricks by consulting a personal injury attorney before signing any documents or making any statements.
The insurance company offering low settlement or refusing to pay
Insurance companies can sometimes play dirty tactics to attempt to avoid paying injured people’s claims. These tactics can include refusing to pay a claim even though there is no dispute in liability or make unfair low offers though you have severe injuries, and delays in processing your claim.
A personal injury lawyer knows these tactics, so an insurance company that engages in bad-faith practices can be liable to you for doing this. A personal injury attorney can put an end to these bad tactics and pursue the recovery that you rightly deserve.
Therefore, if you’re handling your case, you must have a great understanding of the legal issues of your claim and the settlement process. To receive fair compensation can involve savvy negotiation skills and knowledge of case law and statutory laws. This is because some personal injury cases can be very complex.
For instance, if you got injured by defective products or by what you think was medical negligence, you can likely need the assistance of experts so that you can uncover the evidence required to prove your claim. Car accidents may need accident reconstruction, a good understanding of physics, and witness interviews. You may also be required to decipher your medical records to value your claim properly.
Therefore, if you don’t know how to do all these things, it’s a good idea to consult a personal injury attorney. A lawyer who has experience with personal injury cases can be well-equipped to value the claim. Your case’s worth can include all non-economic and economic losses.
Insurance companies quite often do not provide offers that involve money for non-economic losses like loss of consortium, pain and suffering, and others. So a personal injury attorney can negotiate the recovery of these non-economic losses as well as economic losses.
Regardless of whether the accident was the other party’s fault or not, an insurance company always tries to dispute liability. They do this to make people think that they failed to provide valid claims or that the claim is worth less than it was.
Hence, if there is a dispute in liability, it’s important to get help from an experienced personal injury attorney. An attorney can gather the necessary evidence that is needed to prove liability to enable you either to get a settlement or go to trial.
When minor injuries turn into major ones
Understandably, most people can be reluctant to hire a personal injury attorney for injuries that appear minor at first. Just imagine, getting into a vehicle accident and you only come out with a few scrapes and a bruise on your arm, you may think it’s not worthwhile to get a personal injury attorney.
If the insurance company for the driver at-fault gives you an offer to pay for a medical bill and some money on top of that, it cannot be worth the hassle of finding legal representation. However, regardless of whether you have minor or serious injuries, it’s always important to schedule a consultation with a personal injury attorney.
This is because minor injuries can soon turn into serious ones. There is a chance that your injuries can be worse than you and your healthcare provider thought. So if you have already accepted the compensation, there is nothing you can do about it because you have to give up any claim and all future claims that come out of the accident once you settle.
A good attorney can advise you to refuse the settlement offer until the full extent of the injuries is established., and can even help you to determine the best time to accept an offer.
Also, you are entitled to receive compensation for pain and suffering. When it comes to emotional distress and pain and suffering damages, the court usually considers this. Therefore, a settlement that excludes these types of damages may not be ideal. Your attorney can explain to you all damages you can be entitled to regardless of the extent of the injuries and will work on your behalf to ensure that you get a satisfactory settlement.
Potential permanent disabilities
It is important to always consult a personal injury attorney if you sustain injuries that are severe enough to lead to a lasting outcome on your ability to enjoy life and work. When you are experiencing permanent disabilities due to an accident as a result of someone else’s negligence or recklessness, any financial settlement that you get should consider all future medical care and lost earning potential.
Many insurance companies offer settlements that can address a part of your present expenses, though they may not take into account your long-term needs. Worse still, the insurance companies cannot voluntarily offer compensation for the pain and suffering as well as loss of employment that you and your family may go through. So the best way to receive this type of compensation is to hire a determined personal injury attorney working on your behalf and someone willing to pursue a personal injury lawsuit if the negotiations fail.
You should be aware that personal injuries that lead to permanent disabilities can also be caused by defective products or medical providers. Therefore, if your injuries were caused because of medical malpractice or as a result of a dangerous or defective product, you can find attorneys working for the party at fault who work aggressively to defend their clients and their actions. They may not likely admit that their client was at fault, meaning this can just leave you with so many unanswered questions.
In such cases, they may likely try to dispute the credibility of your claim and even block you from accessing information related to your case. Also, they can use legal proceedings to delay the financial settlement for months or even a couple of years after sustaining your injuries. These are the types of situations you need to have legal representation to defend your interests.
In conclusion, you need to have a personal injury attorney who can perform a thorough investigation of the accident. This is the best way they can prove how your injuries happened and who was at fault.
Unfortunately, insurance companies and police departments may not have enough time and resources to spend investigating your claim. Thankfully, a personal injury attorney can do an independent investigation and figure out how it happened.
Helen Bradfield did her degree in psychology at the University of Edinburgh. She has an ongoing interest in mental health and well-being.
