A personal injury lawyer is someone who represents you at the court in case you sustain physical or psychological injury from a person, service or entity. As a plaintiff or defendant you can hire a personal injury lawyer to represent your case at the court.
Common injury claims covers a wide variety of accidents. You might have been in a car accident, you may have been injured at someone else’s property, or maybe bitten by a dog. As these things comes under personal injury and the severity of the injury and several other legal elements dictates how much claim amount you get.
There are several situation where you might be able to handle the claim process on your own. While at times, you might require advice and assistance of a personal injury lawyer. All this depends on your injuries and the legal factors in your case.
You can try to defend your own case in certain situations:
- When you were in a accident (with no or minor injuries)
When you are involved in a really minor accident you might just get a settlement from the insurance company with any obstacle. If you are happy with the amount of settlement there is no requirement to file a case or seek a personal injury lawyer for the matter.
- In No-fault states
As the no-fault rules prevents you to sue unless the injuries that you sustain rises to a certain condition. You can however recover damages from your injury coverage. Getting a lawyer in such case might not make any sense as well.
- You have already received the max. amount of claim
As the insurance companies will only pay to their policy claim amount. If the claim amount exceeds the policy limits then, the defendant has to pay all the remaining amount.
- If you’re Confident in your negotiation skills
If you are really confident in your negotiation skills, and you can negotiate with the insurance company and get yourself a fair amount of settlement. You can even go to the court if you feel complete with your evidences and with the legal processes.
- You are comfortable with all the hassle and research work for legal process
When you are comfortable with the research, then you can work on all the important aspect of your case. You should know about vital issues, like fault and legal liability, and state laws all that is going in your case.
You can invest time in this in order to know more about the law. If you are giving this more time, this is your clue that you should get yourself a good personal injury lawyer to represent you.
Insurance company against which you are filing your claim will have an army of attorney to defend and fight for them. An attorney is anexpert in certain fields of law. They have all the necessary knowledge and experience they need in order to represent their clients in court.
Many people don’t want to hire a personal injury lawyer for relatively small injuries. For instance, when you get in an accident or scratch your arm, you might not feel like going or consulting your attorney for this. Moreover, if the insurance company offers to pay all your bills and gives you extra dollars on top of that you might feel that it is not worth your time to find a new attorney or consult your current personal injury lawyer.
But here are several reasons why you should be consulting you lawyer even for minimal injuries.
- Minimal injuries may turn into bigger ones
Your injuries might get worse than what you have though, you might not be able to file a case against the accused as you have already accepted the amount form them. This is where consulting a personal injury lawyer might help. Your attorney will help you in deciding how much you wait until you know the extent of your injuries and would help you in determining the right offer.
- You are also entitled to psychological damage
Pain, suffering and psychological damages will be considered by the court, only if your case went to the court. Therefore any settlement without considering these factors is incomplete. This is where your personal injury attorney can explain you all the damages that you are entitled to. Your lawyer will advocate on your behalf to make sure that you get a fair amount of settlement money.
If you sustain serious injuries you should consider yourself getting an experienced personal injury lawyer.
- Your lawyer will make sure that you get all the claim.
- Your lawyer will help you with your negotiations and can help you in maximizing the recovery amount.
- The insurer and the defendant will take your lawsuit more seriously if you are represented by a lawyer.
Role of insurance company
The main reasons why people do not hire a personal injury lawyer is because they own insurance. As the insurance policy is triggered the insurance company is going to provide and pay for your lawyer. You may think that this is the best option but you have to be careful about this as well. The insurance company’s motifs might be opposite to yours.
As a plaintiff your primary goal is get the most out of claim that you can, this is for all that you went through. However, insurance company’s primary goal is to pay as little as they could to make more profit.
Another reason why people don’t want to hire a personal injury lawyer is the legal fees. However, every personal injury lawyer works on contingency agreements. This is where you only pay the lawyer a certain percentage of the claim only of the lawyer wins your lawsuit or settle it outside the courtroom.
These contingency agreements works as it allows the lawyers to get their share directly from the settlement amount. However, there are lawyers that works on hourly basis as well. You can choose from a variety of payment modes. You can draft a contingency agreement or you can pay the lawyer on hourly basis.
According to a research conducted by the Insurance Research Council, the average person get a settlement 3.5 times larger with a legal assistance. This can make a significant change in personal injury settlements.
Consider the following situations:
- The person who’s involved in an accident with you doesn’t have any insurance or his insurance company is not paying?
- The dog bite you receive gets serious and the hospital bills are really expensive? What if the owner refuses to take any responsibility?
You can see how any personal injury claim can get so complex. So, anytime you have to deal with an insurance company you should consult a lawyer. A personal injury lawyer is the best and the safest option that is out there for all your personal injury claims. For all your lawyer related queries you can visit https://www.pittsburgh-injury-lawyers.com/. They provide you with all the necessary legal assistance and consultations as well.
