The decision to hire an auto accident attorney is an important one for many reasons. When to hire an auto accident attorney, what to allow your auto accident attorney to handle for you, and who you choose as your auto accident attorney are all important decisions that need to be made as quickly as possible following an auto accident.
Often, this is a victim’s first time being involved in an auto accident and as a result, do not know the ins and outs of how to handle the situation. An auto accident attorney’s job is to assess the incident, evaluate all of the damages sustain both to person and property, and to recover those damages.
Why It Is A Good Idea to Speak to a Lawyer before filing an Insurance Claim
What Coverages Are Available To You
Your attorney and their staff will immediately begin investigating your claim to assess what coverages are available to you for your incident. During this investigation photos may be exchanged, recorded statements given and initial medical evaluations will be discussed. It is a good idea to have an attorney handle all of these things to ensure that all of your rights and potential recoveries for your incident are preserved.
What Damages Are You Eligible To Recover
After completing the initial stages of your incident your attorney and/or their staff should discuss with you the different avenues for recovery. Some of those areas of recovery are as follows.
Future Meds – this recovery covers any future expected medical bills given your age, severity of injuries and initial recovery. This is typically a significant portion of a claimant’s recovery and is more significant with younger patients (because of the years left to deal with the injuries) and more significant injuries (because these are typically more expensive to treat).
Past Meds – this recovery is for the medical bills already incurred at the time of settlement. These could include ER visits, initial therapy, and diagnostics among more invasive treatments for more significant injuries.
Lost Wages – this recovery included any past wages missed due to your injuries and any reasonably expected wages to be missed as a result of the same.
Pain and Suffering – this recovery is for the mental trauma you’ve had to endure as a result of the situation as a whole.
Punitive damages – this recovery is to punish a defendant when their actions in causing an accident are so egregious that the law allows for punishment. An example would be a DUI driver.
How much coverage is available – it is your attorney’s job, early on, to investigate all applicable coverages available to you for the incident.
A Lawyer Knows What Legal Avenue Fits Your Set Of Facts
File a Claim – this is the initial phase of the incident and it involves notifying all parties and their insurance carrier(s) that a claim is being made.
Send a Demand – after your injuries are discovered and all medical records have been compiled a time-sensitive demand package will be sent requesting a settlement figure.
Negotiate – if the demand figure is not offered then negations begin. You, the client, dictate to your attorney the parameters of the negotiations.
Provide Additional Documentation – many times the insurance carrier will request additional medical and/or lost wage documentation. It is your attorney’s job to decide what and when to send this documentation.
File a Lawsuit – If all negotiations fail it is time to file a lawsuit, go through the discovery process and if the case cannot settle at mediation go to Trial and get a verdict.
After seeing all of the different things involved in bringing and settling a claim it is clear to see the benefits of hiring an auto accident attorney to handle these for you. They are highly skilled in the ins and outs of making claims and settling cases and will steer the case in a direction that benefits your case specifically. If you’re not a mechanic would you try and fix your car? Let lawyers do their job and get you the best recovery possible and one that you deserve.
