As any good lawyer would say, it depends! There are a couple of ways to think about this question. It is sort of the same analysis that goes into deciding whether to do your own taxes, change your own oil, or cut your own grass.
Can you do it yourself?
Probably.
Do you want to spend the time and effort and are you sure you can do it properly?
That’s something only you can decide.
What we usually tell folks who call us is if you have to go to the doctor 3 times, you probably should have a lawyer watching out for you. If all you have is a visit or 2 and you feel better, a lawyer may not be able to add enough value to justify paying the fee. But with 3 or more visits, the odds of complications arising increase, and therefore benefiting from a lawyer’s experience also becomes more likely.
You also may decide that even though financially it makes sense to handle it yourself, you just don’t want to. If that’s the case, we are happy to help you, we just like to make sure you understand that we are limited in our ability to add value. Still, that doesn’t mean there isn’t some value to you in just simply getting it off your plate. Especially when it comes to dealing with insurance.
How a Car Accident Lawyer Can Help You Deal With Insurance
Some insurance companies will come at you with early settlements, like “$2,000 in cash and up to $10,000 in related medical expenses.”
DO NOT FALL INTO THAT TRAP!
First of all, you should never settle a case until your body feels back to normal so an early offer like this is risky unless you literally feel 100% fine.
The other risk is the carrier gets to decide what is related, and they will often arbitrarily decide they don’t want to pay for this or that in your medical billing. Once you’ve signed that release, you lose the right to argue about what they will or won’t pay for and could end up owing medical bills, even if your bills were less than the $10k they promised to pay.
The best thing to do is call us. We will tell you directly if we think you need a lawyer and if we think we can add value. The call is free and it will give you the peace of mind of having talked to someone who evaluates these types of cases day in and day out.
When To Call a Lawyer After a Car Accident?
The sooner, the better.
Usually, the best time to give us a call is after the initial dust settles. Get the police called, get the medical treatment you need, get home, get some rest, then give us a call.
At that point, we may all ultimately decide you don’t need a lawyer, but you will have made contact with someone who can answer your preliminary questions and be with you through the beginning of the process. That way you don’t make any missteps early in the case, like giving a recorded statement, etc.
If you are going to be in the hospital overnight or for several days, you will most certainly need a lawyer. Call while you are still at the hospital and one of us will come out to see you if you’re up for that. That way, from the very beginning you have someone helping you navigate the process.
What If It’s Been a While Since My Accident?
Generally, they say the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, the second best time is today. If you have been in a crash and didn’t call us early on, that’s okay, call us today. Odds are good there is still something we can do to help.
Please note there are time limitations on submitting your claim and you DO NOT want to wait until that time to get a lawyer involved. You need to try and get a lawyer involved well before that time runs out. If you have questions about that, give us a call and we will help you through it.
What Does a Car Accident Lawyer Do?
Obviously, I can’t speak for all lawyers, but I can tell you what we do.
1. We Answer Questions
The most frustrating part of any process is not knowing what to expect or how it works. Having a team of people that deals with these cases day in and day out takes the guesswork out of what comes next. We are happy to answer your questions and give you a road map of what to expect.
2. We Gather All the Evidence
We gather any and all evidence that we can use to prove the severity of your claim to the insurance company. This typically includes:
- Bills
- Records
- Lost wage information
- Photographs
- Expert opinion letters
- Police statements
- And more!
Our job is to gather, synthesize, and present it all in a tidy package to make it easier for the insurance company to review it. And hopefully, it leads to more timely–and better–offers.
Getting medical records can be really difficult, but having us do it for you saves you time and effort. Letting the insurance company do it is somewhat risky because they may get their hands on something irrelevant to the case that you don’t want them to have. We review it all before sending it so we know exactly what they are getting.
3. We Deal with Insurance Companies for You
Third, we take dealing with the adjuster off your plate. They will not call you anymore once we are involved so you won’t have to give them treatment updates, provide them with any information, or negotiate with them.
You may have to do a recorded statement, but if you do, we will prepare you and be by your side when you do it. Generally, though, once we are involved you have no more dealings with the adjusters regarding your injuries.
4. We Provide Legal Advice and Support
Our personal injury lawyers have been at this a really long time. They have reviewed thousands of cases between all of them. As such, we know when an offer is in line with a typical settlement, or whether it’s an offer that we think needs to be turned down in favor of litigation.
Or, rarely, an offer we need to take and run.
No two cases are the same and every case needs to be individually evaluated, but the more cases your lawyer has evaluated, the more confident you can be in their advice on whether to settle or sue.
5. We Make Litigation an Option
We have a whole team dedicated to filing lawsuits and pursuing cases in court and insurance companies know that. It gives us good leverage in negotiations because they know that we can drag them to court at the drop of a hat.
You can, too, but they know it’s less likely for a person to represent themselves in a lawsuit, so they tend to take our threats of litigation a bit more seriously.
6. We Help You Understand Your Options
Lastly, we make sure you understand all of your options when it comes to disbursing your settlement.
- Who do you have to pay?
- Who has liens?
- Can you get a reduction on any of those liens?
- Does my health insurance company get paid back?
- Will medical providers take reductions?
The insurance company doesn’t care about any of this. Once you sign a release, they do not care about maximizing what you ultimately get out of the settlement. A lawyer who is looking out for you will absolutely be sure you know all of your options concerning who gets their hands on that settlement money.
In all of those paragraphs, what I hope you hear is a car accident lawyer gives you peace of mind. When it comes to practicing law it’s really hard to beat preparation and experience and we pride ourselves on both and that’s what we do.
How To Choose a Car Accident Lawyer
Well, that’s super easy. Just call me. I kid, I kid.
The most important thing when choosing a law firm, in my opinion, is to feel comfortable with the people you’re talking with. The next few months are going to involve a lot of advising–it’s best if you are talking to people you connect with. If the connection is solid, then the next important questions are:
- Does this firm focus its practice on personal injury?
- Am I able to schedule a phone conference directly with my attorney if I have questions?
- Does this firm handle litigation in-house or refer it out?
- Has the attorney assigned to my file been practicing for more than 5 years?
- Does the managing partner actively handle files?
- Am I able to speak to the managing partner directly?
How Much Does a Car Accident Lawyer Cost
The vast majority of car accident lawyers work on what’s called a contingency fee. That means we get paid a percentage of the settlement. The reason we do that is because unlike a divorce or drafting a will, nobody plans for a crash to happen, so not many people have money set aside to offset legal fees.
This system is set up to make sure you don’t have to pay any money upfront and instead, the car accident lawyer will collect the fee after the case is resolved and you have some money to pay them with.
Typically, a lawyer who is experienced in personal injury charges 1/3 of the settlement as the fee. If you see a lawyer charging less, you may want to ask them about their personal injury experience and whether they handle other types of cases.
Most importantly, because we don’t charge by the hour, that means giving us a call to talk about your case is free. If you have questions, it costs $0 to call us.
Contact a Car Accident Lawyer and Find Out How We Can Help You
In conclusion, if you’re wondering if you need a lawyer after a car accident, the short answer is: contact us to find out!
We won’t know for sure until we find out more about your case. If we can provide value for your case, we’ll do everything in our power to help you get a recovery. And if we cannot help with your case, we can still help you understand your options.
So what are you waiting for? It’s a free conversation, and you have a lot to gain from it. Contact Lewis & Keller today.
