Connecticut Family Lawers

There are no rules or guidelines for when you must retain the services of a personal injury lawyer. Still, it is always a good idea to hire an attorney as soon after the injury as possible. The sooner you hire a personal injury lawyer, the more confident you can be during the process. You may even be able to engage the services of a lawyer on the contingency that you may call upon them when needed.

A Car Accident Lawyer Can Handle Insurance Details

A lawyer can handle issues with your medical bills and the damage that has been done to your property. A good personal injury firm will make sure your medical expenses, as well as the damage to your vehicle, is paid as soon as possible. Be advised that the best time to begin any personal injury claim is immediately after the investigation of the accident has been completed or you are released from the hospital.

A Personal Injury Lawyer Deals With Medical Malpractice

There is a statute of limitations on the amount of time you have to file a claim of malpractice against a hospital or doctor. If you feel that you have been a victim of malpractice that has resulted in injury, contact an attorney as soon as possible. A medical malpractice suit can take an extensive amount of time, and your lawyer will have to complete a great deal of work. Your lawyer will need as much time as you can give them to work with your case.

Be Prepared for a Battle with the Insurance Company

The insurance company will have a team of experts and legal resources ready to argue their case. Be ready for them by hiring your own legal professionals, like Tim Louis Law, as quickly as you can.

An insurance company protects itself first and foremost. This is true whether you deal with your own or another’s insurer. Their first interest is in profit. They want to make money by charging you, and when you are hurt, they will want to pay out as little as possible. Your personal injury lawyer understands insurance laws and can properly and expertly represent you in negotiations with insurance companies. Your lawyer will do all the necessary work for you. The only step in the process you want to be responsible for is the reporting of the accident.

Your Medical Team is Important

In order to receive the best outcome of your claim, you need to have the best medical team around you. A personal injury attorney knows how to choose medical experts to treat you and to act as witnesses for your case if a trial is necessary. Your medical team should not only be there to help you heal but to give insurance companies and the courts their expert opinion on your injury and the impact it will have on your life going forward. Their knowledge and expertise are integral to getting the money you deserve, whether the claim is settled or taken to court.

Law Firms Employ Supporting Staff

Many personal injury or car accident lawyers have medical staff in their own firm. They will assist in determining your injury and the type of claim you have. They understand the medical information received from your doctors. It is their business to ensure you are getting the best medical treatment for your injury and serve your case with professionalism.

Personal injury firms may also use investigative staff to assist you with your claim. Private investigators can recreate and study the accident and use the information they gather during negotiations or at trial. This team of private investigators is responsible for giving your attorney all the information needed to present your claim.

How do you know you need a personal injury lawyer?

Even a minor accident cause injury to your head, neck, or spine. Even if you believe your case will be simple, the best action is to hire a car accident lawyer. Do not try to pursue your claim on your own. Many personal injury lawyers do not charge you until they have recovered money for your injuries. In this case, there are not any risks involved in finding counsel as quickly as you are able to do so.

Do you know the best time to talk to a personal injury lawyer after being involved in a car accident? After being in a car accident, the most likely scenario is that you will begin hearing from a number of insurance companies. It’s much easier to deal with this is just to tell them to talk with your lawyer. With a personal injury lawyer on retainer, you can do that.

After retaining a personal injury lawyer, they will be the ones communicating with the insurance companies, not you. The problem is, immediately following an accident, victims are typically in a state of shock without the ability to focus or understand that retaining a lawyer is important at this time. It may be wise to turn this aspect of your accident over to a trusted friend or family member.

Following an accident, you will probably be contacted by your own insurance company’s bodily injury adjuster. It is well known that the first thing you should do immediately following a car accident is to inform your own insurance company about the incident and to report on damages and bodily injury. The insurance company will then open an accident claim, and a bodily injury adjuster will be assigned to you.

Several accident benefits forms will be sent to you. Forms like these are supplied to the general public to make it easy for them to receive compensation for their loss. You don’t need a lawyer to fill these out; you can do it for yourself. However, it is in your best interest to hire a personal injury lawyer to review them at least. That is because all the information you include on the forms, including a full description of the accident and how it happened, will forever be part of your claim. The care you take today will ensure that nothing will prejudice your claim or threaten your claim.

It is common practice for the other party’s insurance adjuster to contact you quickly after an accident. They do this to protect the interests of the other motorist or drivers, regardless of who they are or how they might be related to you. Injuries and losses that meet specific thresholds allow you to sue third parties for damages. The amounts set aside by insurance companies to pay these damages are called reserves. These are determined by the information you give to the adjusters during your initial communication with them.

If you are too optimistic about your expectations for recovery when speaking with the insurance adjusters at the beginning, the amount set aside in reserve may be less than required in the long run. This is particularly true when things turn out worse than expected. Truthfully, most people tend to paint a rosy picture because they wish that to be the outcome. It is better to let a personal injury lawyer help you with the claim forms right upfront than to lose what you are entitled to.

On the other hand, if you have not retained a lawyer and still speak with an adjuster, make sure that you do not minimize losses such as damage to property or your injuries. You want personal injury law to work in your favor.

Insurance companies continue to check on injured parties throughout the entire process of dealing with claims, but it is the accident benefits insurer that will contact you the most as they adjust ongoing claims. They take every opportunity to learn about your recovery process and the improvements you are making. Be aware; they are looking for any information that can be used to deny your claims later on as well. At some point in the process though, the third party adjuster might stop contacting you as they assume no further claims will be needed, and they might close the file.

If you did not retain a personal injury lawyer, but decide to do so later, that lawyer will be facing an uphill struggle trying to convince the insurance company to reopen a claim they already closed.

Sometimes, insurance companies reach out to claimants to propose a settlement to the claim. This is certainly a good time to hire a lawyer is you have not already done so. All it takes is a phone call to a qualified lawyer to receive either a positive response or a referral to another personal injury law firm. Of course, if you are a personal injury lawyer yourself, then you may be able to negotiate a settlement with an insurance company on your own, but that is not the case with most people.

This is not the time to consider yourself sophisticated enough to negotiate with a large insurance company on an injury claim. You are not likely to convince them to increase their settlement amount two or three times even if the initial settlement offer was negligible. Under no circumstances is an insurance company obligated to negotiate a “fair” deal with anyone. Their job is to save the company money. Even if you do feel that you have won something, it is more likely that the outcome will be less than you deserve.

When a settlement is reached, the insurance company will ask you to sign a release. Again, you should let your lawyer review it first. Never negotiate or sign a settlement without the assistance of a lawyer.

It is not unusual for victims to contact us even after they have reached a settlement with an insurance company. This happens when they realize that it was not such a good deal after all. You should know that it is very difficult to have a settlement set aside once it has been reached.

Although we do recommend that clients consult with us soon after an accident, we understand that it is not always possible. We at Thomson Rogers want you to know that we are here to help prevent you from prejudicing your rights, so call for a consultation as soon as you can.