Dealing with a personal injury can be scary. Not only are you forced to endure the pain, but you also need to deal with tons of medical bills that need to be taken care of.
A personal injury claim may not solve all your problems, but it can definitely provide you with some relief and allow you to cover your medical expenses.
Hiring a personal injury lawyer may not always be necessary. Maybe the injury you’ve sustained isn’t that severe, and the insurance offered a fair settlement, so you can get away without consulting with a lawyer. However, that’s not always the case.
If you’re still unsure whether hiring a lawyer is the right thing to do, we advise you to keep on reading. Here are the six most frequent scenarios injured parties face that require professional help.
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- You’ve sustained a major injury.
You may not need a lawyer if you only have a couple of scratches left from a car accident. Most of the time, you won’t have too much trouble getting the insurance to cover minor expenses.
If you’ve, however, sustained severe, life-threatening injuries, you should definitely hire a lawyer.
First of all, those that sustain major injuries often get extended medical treatments that cost a lot of money.
In 2019, there were as many as 4,5 million medically consulted injuries in motor-vehicle crashes. Can you imagine how much that costs?
You may also not be able to work during your recovery time, which can sometimes last for months. Even worse, you may never be able to perform previously assigned work functions safely due to the injuries you’ve sustained.
For instance, if your legs or spine got injured in a car accident, you may not be able to stand for an extended period of time or lift heavy objects. That may not be important if you’re working as a secretary. But, it’s definitely important if you were a construction worker.
An experienced personal injury lawyer should be able to assess your situation and come up with a plan that allows you to get a fair settlement based on the extension of your injuries.
- You’ve noticed the insurance is acting in bad faith.
Don’t forget that the insurance company is the opposing party. They don’t care about their best interest, not yours. So, more often than not, they’ll indulge in bad faith practices and attempt to avoid meeting their obligations.
They may fail to investigate a claim, cause unnecessary delays, or provide you with misleading information. You may be told you need to bring tons of unnecessary documentation, so you would give up before you even try. The list of examples is basically endless.
If you notice the insurance company is acting unfairly and in bad faith, you could file an additional claim against the insurance company separate from the personal injury claim. However, before you do that, we advise you to consult with a lawyer that can explain your options to you.
- The insurance claims you’ve contributed to the accident.
Defense lawyers and insurance companies often try to blame the victims for the accident. For instance, if you’ve suffered a slip and fall accident in the company’s premises due to a slippery floor, the defense lawyer may claim you’ve contributed to the accident by wearing high heels or looking at your phone.
This means that the jury may find that your percentage of fault for the accident was 40 percent, thereby reducing the award to the insurance company. In this case, they would only need to pay 60 percent of it.
If you find yourself in this situation, call the lawyer immediately. Anything you state can impact the jury’s decision and convince them you were partially at fault.
- The insurance is offering much less than you deserve.
Many insurance companies will try to minimize the compensation they have to pay. The scenario is almost always identical: the insurance will contact you shortly after the accident and offer the bare minimum, thinking they could get away with that. They will rely on the fact that you haven’t hired a lawyer to advise you.
Well, don’t let them! There’s a good chance you deserve much more than the amount you’ve been offered. If you accept it, you may not be able to seek additional compensation later, even if the expenses exceed the amount you’ve been given.
So, before you make any decision, consult with a lawyer experienced in this stuff. They’ll know if you should negotiate a better offer based on your injuries and the evidence you have.
- Your case involves complex legal areas.
A pedestrian accident may not require the use of complex legal areas. But a product liability claim or a commercial vehicle accident can be tricky since they require knowledge and experience in multiple legal areas.
Suing the government also requires some additional knowledge. Special rules and laws are applied in cases like these, so it’s important to find a lawyer that knows what they’re doing. Going on your own is just a bad idea.
- The insurance denied the claim.
If the insurance company denied your claim, even though that obviously makes no sense, you’ve been subjected to yet another case of bad faith insurance practice.
For instance, they may claim that the party they cover did not cause the accident. An experienced lawyer will know what to do in case this happens. They may decide to bring in an expert witness that will determine who bears liability if multiple vehicles were at the scene of the accident. They may also look at the footage if there is one.
They may also claim that you’re manipulating the facts if they believe that you exaggerated your injuries or lied about your limitations. They’ll use anything to back it up, even the photos posted on your social media account. Of course, they’ll blow it out of proportion.
However, this doesn’t mean you should give up on your claim. Don’t let them fool you! Hire a personal injury lawyer that will appeal the denial provide new evidence that can successfully resolve the matter.
