When you or a loved one is injured due to someone’s or some other entity’s negligence or intentional misconduct, you generally have two choices: Hire an experienced personal injury attorney and work with them to hold that individual or entity accountable so that you have some compensatory assistance in dealing with whatever harm you suffered as a result, or take/negotiate what an insurance company offers you to address your injuries. So what are some of the reasons that people choose to work with personal injury attorneys?
One circumstance that calls for relying on assistance from an experienced personal injury attorney is when a car accident causes severe, debilitating injuries that require medical attention. There is no question that an attorney working on your behalf to ensure that you receive enough to not only account for your current medical expenses but any future losses, including lost wages as a result of the accident, is going to be more effective in terms of getting you what you need versus you settling an insurance claim on your own.
Really, any incident that was not your fault and involves you suffering serious injuries should warrant working with a personal injury attorney, as it can be difficult to predict exactly what you will need–not only in terms of medical expenses and lost wages–but any emotional and psychological toll that the incident takes on you that could affect your future and your ability to experience a high quality of life.
Another factor that can complicate any claim is when there are multiple parties involved. Multiple parties usually mean multiple insurance companies and claims, which can become very complex, very quickly, especially if both parties are responsible for your injuries and they start pointing the finger at each other or try to claim that you were all or partially responsible for your own injuries. In these cases, you may eventually have to deal with cross-claims, which absolutely demand to work with an experienced attorney, and in addition, statistics show that when multiple insurance claims are involved, victims can sometimes end up with smaller settlements when they do not work with attorneys.
As attorneys who regularly litigate for clients who have suffered injuries, we are very familiar with insurance companies acting in bad faith to try and circumvent honoring an insurance policy by offering you nothing, or an unfairly low settlement. Oftentimes, even by a personal injury attorney just getting involved at the outset, it can send a message to these companies that they need to proceed with a claim in good faith.
