At some stage in life, you or your loved one may be involved in an accident, perhaps resulting in injuries. If you are like most people, you may be tempted to go through the process of seeking compensation for the sustained injuries alone. This is a wrong approach because in most cases when you negotiate with insurance companies without any representation, you will end up with less than what you really deserve.
Additionally, if you are an auto accident victim, the last thing you’d wish to do is to spend your precious time fighting with the at-fault driver’s attorney or insurance companies. The only thing you need during such situations is to concentrate on your recovery process.
Hiring a personal injury lawyer is your best bet. Even better is the fact that most personal injury attorneys offer free evaluations and taking advantage of such offers comes with a lot of perks and worth your time in several ways.
- Advantage of Experience
Most insurance companies have their own secrets of handling auto accident claims. While sometimes they may be more lenient, most of the time, you will find them in strict modes and will be hesitant to settle any case. Even worse are insurance companies that only write minimum liability policies. You need an experienced attorney to represent you when dealing with such companies because there are cases when your claim may be worth more than the minimum limits set by the company or the insured liability limits.
Put simply, an experienced attorney will help you get the right compensation for your injury case. He will also know the right time for settlement and whether or not you should take your case to court. Remember that even if you manage to get a settlement without an attorney, the settlement amount will be much less than when you were to enlist the services of an attorney.
- An Attorney Can Take Your Case To Trial
A bigger percentage of the accident and personal injury cases are settled easily. However, in certain cases, things may not work as expected for either party. In such cases, it is advisable to take the case to a trial. If you hadn’t already spoken to the right PI lawyer, you will lose valuable time that you could have used to develop your case.
- Faster Legal Processing
When you hire a lawyer, he or she will take over the bulk of the legal work or processes. This will give you an opportunity to concentrate on your recovery. Some of the legal processes that an attorney will help you handle include filling out forms and submitting legal documents. An attorney will also help you avoid many case-related phone calls, legal paperwork, and the negotiation process.
- Helping you Negotiate
One of the advantages that personal injury lawyers have is that they can help you file suit causing the adverse insurance company to spend money and time to defend it. An average person isn’t capable of putting this amount of pressure on an insurance carrier. This implies that as a claimant, you will have less negotiating power with the concerned insurance company. Most importantly, an attorney may sue an insurance company on first-party claims in case they don’t handle your claim fairly.
- Minimizing Downside Financial Consequences
There is a wide range of financial consequences that you are likely to face if you don’t prevail in a lawsuit. For instance, if you lose a personal injury case, the other side may try to get litigation costs and their attorney’s fee from you. An attorney will advise you on all the potential risks of litigation you are likely to face as well as do everything in their power to reduce your exposure to such risks.
Bottom-line
Hiring an experienced personal injury attorney to help you handle your case not only ensures that you are rightly compensated but also relieves you from the unnecessary burden of dealing with insurance carriers and creditors.