Reasons To Hire An Injury Lawyer After A Car Accident

If you or a loved one have been in a car accident, you’d know the impact it leaves on your mind and body. If you’ve been lucky enough to leave the scene unscathed, seek medical attention immediately. And before you call your insurance company, take a moment and talk to a lawyer or a law firm first. If the car collision was due to the negligence of the other party, you are entitled to compensation for your pain, suffering, and trauma. Not to forget the medical expenses that keep piling up.

As a victim of a car crash, you’re entitled to damages, but the problem is that insurance companies don’t always want to pay up to protect their profits. In such a case, you have two choices, A) file for compensation yourself; B) hire a Boise, idahocar accident attorney to take over your case to ensure you get the maximum amount in settlement. In this guide, we’re going to discuss why option B is far better!

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1 Reasons to hire a personal injury lawyer after a car crash

Reasons to hire a personal injury lawyer after a car crash

Complete understanding of the law

Every car crash is different and happens under unique circumstances. Unless you have a formal legal education, you’d likely have no clue about the laws that are applicable to your specific situation. A personal injury lawyer with years of experience not only has a deep understanding of the laws in your state but can help you identify potential legal issues that might turn up later. Your odds of getting full compensation become much higher when you work with a lawyer.

Knows how to handle insurance companies

One of the most common mistakes that accident victims make is that they immediately notify their insurance company about the accident and then proceed to file claims. It might be hard to believe at first, but insurance companies are not always fair with their dealings. The insurance adjuster is mainly concerned with keeping their company profitable rather than giving you the deserved compensation amount for your injuries and damages.

You can get compensation from your insurance carrier, but it will likely be unfair and of a very low amount. An experienced lawyer, on the other hand, knows the usual tricks played by these claims adjusters and would negotiate accordingly. Your attorney will carefully assess the full extent of the damages you suffered and interpret the provisions of the policy terms that apply to your coverage. This will dramatically improve your chance of recovering the maximum amount in settlement.

Full knowledge of potential damages

You might be equipped to handle the aftermath of a car collision, but that’s not enough if you want to be fully compensated. If you plan to file an insurance claim or a personal injury lawsuit, you’d also need to know the full extent of your damages and what would be fair compensation. So, unless you’ve been trained to assess that, there’s no way you can do it yourself.

However, a qualified lawyer can give you a fair estimate by factoring in the cost of medical treatment, property damage, lost wages, etc. If you’ve been severely injured, leading to disfigurement or disability, that’s a different ball game altogether. An experienced personal injury attorney understands how much your pain and suffering are worth and can fight to get you the due compensation.

Can prove liability

The success of your settlement claim or lawsuit would depend on whether your lawyer can prove the other party was at fault and is thus liable to pay damages. However, proving liability is not a simple task, even if you have witnesses and police statements that speak in your favor. An injury attorney will look to prove these four elements of fault in court:

You were owed a duty of care by the party at-fault
The party breached their duty
Your injuries are because of their breach of duty
The injuries caused you to suffer losses

In cases where liability cannot be determined due to a lack of proof regarding who was at fault, your lawyer will fight to prove you as the party with lesser negligence. All of this is next to impossible to do alone because only an experienced injury lawyer can offer references to cases and citations in your support.

Can provide evidence

Unless you know how to conduct a thorough investigation of your accident, it’s best left to the professionals. After all, a personal injury claim is as strong as the evidence present to support it. If you’re working with a professional lawyer, they’ll carry out an investigation and collect evidence material for your case. This evidence will be used to prove your injuries and damages to the insurer or in a trial, if needed. Evidence in a case like this might include:

Photos from the scene of the accident, taken either by you or other witnesses
Raw video footage from cameras from the intersection or nearby businesses
Statements given by witnesses
Reports from the police
A complete history of medical records, scans, and tests

Some cases can even be complicated enough to warrant an accident reconstruction expert, who will determine how it occurred and who’s primarily at fault. Having a lawyer taking care of these issues will ease the burden on your mind tremendously.

File a case in court

Your attorney will do everything to settle out of court as long as you’re offered fair compensation. However, if things don’t go as planned, they will file a case in court to get you justice. This is no doubt a time-consuming and expensive affair, but with a seasoned attorney, you at least stand a chance to get what you’re owed, including expenses related to the trial.

You can be sure that the defense team and their insurance carrier will bring in their best lawyers, so you must be prepared too. There’s nothing an experienced personal injury lawyer won’t do to get you justice, and that’s reason enough to hire one after a car accident.