Driving is a necessity in our daily lives, and cars are ubiquitous. We hope never to get involved in a severe vehicle collision; however, the chances are that we will experience at least one vehicle collision during our lifetime and may need a car accident lawyer to assist. If you or someone you love were injured (or become injured) in a vehicle collision, the three reasons you may need a personal injury attorney are as follows:
Common Injuries from Auto Accidents
Automobile accidents are unpredictable by nature and may cause any number of injuries. The injuries you could endure in a car accident depends on different factors, including the size of the cars involved, the speed of the impact, your being with or without seatbelt, your location in the vehicle relative to the impact point, and more. Regardless of the nature of the accident, the following are some common injuries that car crash victims suffer.
- Tears and sprains
- Lacerations
- Open wounds
- Whiplash and other soft-tissue injuries
- Bruising, hematomas, and internal bleeding
- Fractures and broken bones
- Traumatic brain injuries
- Seatbelt injuries
- Injuries resulting from airbags
Claims Investigation Stage
After your immediate needs have been taken care of after an accident, you need to file a recovery claim with the insurance company. If the insurance company accepts your claim, it will assign a claims adjuster to your case who will be investigating the overall situation over the next few days or weeks to determine how much money they should offer you for a settlement. The bitter truth is that an insurance company, like any other business, work for their own profits. It does not exist to grant you the bucks you are entitled to. The primary focus of any insurer is to minimize the amount of money it has to issue against a claim. This means that the claims adjuster is not working for you; rather, he will collect every bit of information that could be used to limit the amount that goes into your pocket.
During the time the adjuster is doing their work, you can benefit significantly from conducting your own investigation of the case through a lawyer. Your attorney will take almost the same steps as the adjuster but with a view to maximize the amount of settlement. The lawyer will make calculations of the damages you deserve as per their own understanding. Upon conclusion of this claims investigation stage, you will be shocked to see the discrepancy between the amount calculated by your attorney and the amount offered by the insurance company.
Settlement Negotiations
Insurance companies will present their initial offer saying it is “the best they can do”. They will hope that mounting stress caused by lost wages and medical expenses will compel the victim to accept their offer to alleviate their financial suffering. But you won’t fall to this trap when you know the worth of your case and when you have someone at your back who is both knowledgeable and willing to fight for you.
So, when the insurer makes you an offer, your lawyer will immediately submit a counteroffer based on the evidence they have gathered during their own investigation, carried out in collaboration with you. The talks will ensue and continue until both parties have reached a resolution or you are convinced that you need more drastic steps to make the insurance company give you what you rightly deserve.
