When to Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer

Many people often wonder when it is right for them to hire a personal injury lawyer. This is often after they’ve been involved in an incident, such as car collision, bike or motorcycle wreck, slip and fall, or any other form of mishap.

The answers you provide to the questions below should inform your decision. After going through each of them,  you'll have a clearer idea of whether you should retain an attorney or not.

How serious is the injury?

Not all injuries require you to hire a lawyer. You can settle your own claim if your injury is minor, and you have the time to work on your own legal and insurance claims.

However, it's important that you consider seeking assistance from an attorney for any injury with a pain that lasts longer than a few days and requires medical attention. If your injury required physical therapy, orthopaedics or cosmetic surgery, surgery, chiropractic work or hospitalization, you probably need a personal injury lawyer to assess your case.

When claims involve significant past and future medical expenses, you may get even better value with excellent legal representation.

Do you believe that your injury was caused by someone else?

If you are sure that your injury was a result of someone’s negligence, or that your loved one's death occurred from the actions of someone, it is very vital that you hire reliable lawyers like Shreveport Personal Injury Attorneys .

To prove legal fault, you’ll need to apply certain standards to the evidence. It is important to consult a lawyer as soon as possible in order to reinforce your claim so that the important evidence can be collected and preserved.

Is an insurance company representative contacting you?

Insurance companies employ adjusters and claims officials to try to minimise how much they’ll need to pay out for claims.

If an insurance company rep contacts you and requests for your story, recorded statements, medical records, releases and other information, you should tell them you need to speak with your attorney first. Insurance adjusters will often try to unwittingly counter your own claims; so you let your attorney do a review before you sign a release. 

The frequently requested releases of insurance companies are blanket authorisations that allow them to dig through your entire medical history. The reason they want to do that is so they can blame your injury on a pre-existing incident. That can result in a substantial reduction in the value of your claim.

It's also important for you to understand that the reason you're contacted by adjusters is that their company believes you probably have a valid claim. They try to get the details they need to help them with their mission to either reduce the reward or dispute it all together.

This holds true even when you’re dealing with your own insurance company in a case involving a motorist who is uninsured. Don't fall for their tricks but consult a personal injury attorney instead.

Is the company refusing to pay or offering an unreasonably low amount?

Often insurance providers may employ dishonest tricks to attempt to stop settling claims for injured people. These techniques may include excessive delays in the review of the lawsuits, failing to pay you even though the fault is not in question or offering unreasonably small deals given your substantial injuries.

A personal injury lawyer knows such tricks. Insurance companies may be liable to you if they’re constantly engaging in deceptive negotiations. A personal injury lawyer can put an end to such tactics and seek the recovery you should rightly receive.

Are you comfortable with the law and the claims process?

When you are familiar with your own lawsuit, you would need to get a clear grasp of both the factual grounds behind your claim and the settlement process.

Receiving a reasonable sum in the settlement may require professional negotiation skills along with experience of both the applicable laws and the case law. Several forms of injuries are incredibly complicated.

For example, if you've been injured by a defective product or by what you think has been medical negligence, you might need expert help to uncover the evidence you need to access your claim. Auto accidents can include reconstruction of the crash, interviews with witnesses and a sound understanding of physics.

You will also need to be able to understand your own medical records well, so you can value your claim appropriately. If you don't feel comfortable doing these things, it's in order to consult with a personal injury lawyer.

An attorney who has experience with cases of personal injury may be better equipped to evaluate your claim. All of your economic and noneconomic losses will be included in your case.

Insurance companies often do not provide on their own voluntary offers that include money for non-monetary losses, such as loss of consortium, pain and suffering, and others. An attorney can negotiate the recovery both for your economic losses and for your more intangible ones.

Is the insurance company contesting the claim?

Even if an accident is clearly the other party's fault, an insurance company may attempt to contest the liability. Often, a company will do this to try to make people believe they have no valid claims or that their claim is far less valuable than it is.

If you there’s a contest on liability, it is important that you get help from a personal injury lawyer. An attorney may gather evidence that you need to prove liability so you can either settle or go to trial.