Car accidents usually involve minor and major physical injuries that may lead to temporary or permanent stoppage from work or lost wages, as well as pain and suffering. When accidents happen due to negligence, such as reckless driving, a car accident lawyer will help you seek maximum compensation for damages.
Damages may include payment for your hospitalization, medical treatment, and rehabilitative procedures toward your full recovery, as well as car repairs, emotional trauma, and loss of consortium. Learn how an auto accident lawyer can help you after an accident by reading below.
Safeguard Your Health and Well-Being
Car accident lawyers or auto accident lawyers are highly-knowledgeable about personal injury law or tort. Drunk driving or driving while intoxicated may result in a car collision or road accidents causing physical injuries, from minor bruises and wounds to life-threatening spinal cord injury, paralysis, and brain trauma.
A trusted, dependable, and experienced auto accident lawyer, like Earl & Earl car accident lawyers who care about your health, will ensure that you obtain the right compensation from your insurance company and at-fault parties involved such as for proper medical attention.
Here are some instances that you need to hire a car accident lawyer after an accident:
- Your insurance company seems to deprive you of getting the maximum medical treatment by referring you to selected hospitals or doctors chosen by them. In short, you’re not given the freedom to choose the healthcare facility or doctor to handle your medical care.
- You’re offered a compensation amount that is way below your perceived expenses, or you can’t reach a fair settlement amount with the insurance company.
- The hospital or doctor, or police are not providing the necessary documentation to support your claim. Small clinics usually have poor staffing and big hospitals follow strict guidelines when providing medical records.
Keep in mind that you need to hire an auto accident lawyer before the settlement of a claim, preferably as soon as possible to ensure your medical bills are paid, or within one to two weeks after the accident.
Help Negotiate the Settlement
It’s crucial to hire a car accident lawyer who has excellent negotiation skills with an in-depth understanding of how to settle a car accident case. A good lawyer can tell you how much your case is worth and is willing to conduct negotiations, as well as knows how to work your personal injury case with your best interests in mind.
Here are some examples of questions you can ask when interviewing a car accident lawyer:
- How many car accident cases do you usually handle every year?
- Do you devote a huge percentage of your legal practice in handling personal injury cases, specifically car accident cases?
- What do you think is the settlement range of my case?
- How do you want your legal services to get paid?
Help Gather Evidence and Investigation
While you can gather evidence and negotiate to get a settlement from your insurance company, you need to hire a car accident lawyer if your medical expense reaches $3,000 or you were not able to work for more than a week. More so if you sustained severe physical injuries, and suffered so much from the accident.
An auto accident lawyer will help you obtain all documentation needed to prove your injuries and support your claim. While your medical records belong to you, it is not always easy to get those bills and records from healthcare providers. The paralegal or lawyer’s secretary will follow up endlessly so clinics and hospitals can provide complete documentation related to your injuries.
Here are the other forms of evidence that you need to help with your personal injury case:
- Police Report: Your car accident lawyer will help you get all the details of the police report, request a cope, and speak with the police officers who responded to the accident.
- Pictures of the Accident: Contacting a lawyer as soon as possible after an accident will help remind you to take photos of the car crash at all angles possible to support your claim. Bystanders or witnesses probably have taken pictures that can serve as good evidence.
- Witnesses: Your car accident lawyer will ensure that all possible witnesses are interviewed with all contact details obtained.
- Third-party expert recommendations and case analysis (like doctors and other health professionals)
Conclusion
A car accident can be traumatic, most especially if it’s your first time and you have passengers, like your loved ones, with you. That’s why you need someone—like a personal injury lawyer, specifically a car accident lawyer—who can best represent you and make sure that your health, well-being, finances, and your future are safeguarded.