Why Should I Get An Attorney After a Car Accident? – The 15 Reasons
Are you wondering “Should I get an attorney after a car accident?” If you need a short answer, it is “Yes”. You should get an attorney after a car accident immediately. A professional auto accident lawyer makes your life very easy by dealing with the car accident claim and lawsuit professionally. The main reason why you should hire an attorney is that he/she has the necessary experience of handling multiple auto accident cases in the past.
The experience of professional auto accident lawyers helps them assess the situation of the lawsuit correctly. It also helps them navigate through complicated legal scenarios efficiently. If you are looking for reasons to hire a professional auto accident lawyer after a car accident, here are the top 15 reasons that make the case in their favor.
Should I Get an Attorney After a Car Accident – Reasons
1. Handle the Conversation with the Insurance Company
The insurance company of the person at fault will most likely have endless financial resources to hire the best team of lawyers for the case. They will hire the best lawyers who can lobby you into believing that you are getting a fair settlement amount. You might think that the initial offer presented by the insurance company is fair. However, it rarely is.
The best lawyers will help you assess the offer presented by the defense correctly and handle all the conversations with the insurance company. Ideally, you should have your professional auto accident lawyer in the room every time you have a conversation with the company. You should speak with discretion and choose your words very carefully around professional lawyers.
A car accident lawyer knows all the tips and tricks that the defense might try to use against you to force you to settle at a lower settlement amount.
2. Prove the Necessary Liability for Your Physical Injuries
You must prove the liability of your physical injuries in front of the judge and the jury to get the necessary settlement amount. Without proving the liability correctly, you will most likely receive a negligible amount or in the worst-case scenario, lose the case at trial. Proving the liability of your physical injuries is not only showing your wounds to the jury. Instead, you need to have the required medical proof for the damage.
A reliable auto accident lawyer will get in touch with the best hospitals for you to get a complete health check-up. The lawyer will also help you collect and file the necessary medical reports in the system so that they are counted as admissible proofs during the trial.
Proving the liability of your injuries strengthens your case and eventually helps you get a better settlement amount. With the right accident lawyer, proving the liability becomes a much simpler process.
3. Get the Required Medical Knowledge
Most professional auto accident lawyers have the experience of fighting multiple auto accident cases. This experience helps them assess your medical conditions with a fair amount of accuracy. During their long career, they have seen multiple cases of injuries and different types of wounds. They have most likely dealt with clients that had a major injury like disc herniation as well as clients who had relatively minor injuries like scratches and bumps.
Therefore, these lawyers are in a good position to give you the necessary counseling on what kind of injury you may have. They can also help you connect with the best surgeons, physicians, and psychiatrists for the full mental as well as a physical check-up.
Note: You can get counseling on the medical injuries from the lawyer. However, you must not rely on it completely. Instead, you should get a full-body check-up from a certified physician to understand the scope of the damages correctly.
4. Negotiate with the Defense on Your Behalf
The negotiation of the settlement amount is one of the key parameters that govern the success of your settlement case. Novice lawyers and inexperienced people often commit the mistake of accepting the first settlement offer that comes their way. They need to understand that it is the job of the insurance agency to save as much money as they can. Therefore, the first settlement offer that it presents will never be a fair one.
Under such circumstances, a professional lawyer has the experience of negotiating with the insurance company and the defense lawyers. The lawyer can present your case and ask for a better settlement amount. He/she can also threaten the company to take the person-at-fault to the court which almost always helps the victim get a better settlement amount. Both expecting a too high and a too low amount can impact the overall amount that the victim receives at the end of the settlement.
5. Calculate the Correct Estimate of Your Injuries
A professional car accident lawyer is well-versed with the different types of typical car accident settlement amounts. Therefore, he/she is in a better position to calculate the total amount of settlement. A professional lawyer knows all the major components of both the quantifiable as well as unquantifiable claim settlements. Therefore, he/she can help you file the amount under different categories.
Reliable auto accident lawyers are proficient in filing the paperwork before the commencement of trial. They ensure that you do not commit any mistake unknowingly while filing the paperwork for the trial process. By calculating the correct estimate for the injuries, they can negotiate with the insurance company and the defense in an organized fashion. Most professional lawyers can settle the case outside the court with a handsome settlement amount for you.
6. Minimize the Cost of Trial (With Contingency Fee Type)
Most professional legal firms operate on contingency fee parameters. This type of fee structure suggests that the lawyers will not charge a single penny if they do not win the case for you. When they do win the case, their total fee will come from the settlement amount directly. The lawyers charge a small percentage of the total settlement amount as the legal consultation fee.
Let’s take an example here. If the legal firm is charging a 5% fee and wins a settlement amount of 100,000 USD for you, its fee will be 5,000 USD. This pricing structure gives the legal firm a stronger incentive to get a better deal for you. This incentivization process ensures that the lawyers do everything in their power to win a huge settlement amount for you.
Note: Ideally, you should go with a reputed auto accident legal firm for the trial even if the firm charges a higher percentage in the contingency fee. This deal will help you get a better ROI since such firms are well-equipped to handle the case in a more effective manner.
7. File a Personal Injury Lawsuit
In case of complicated accident scenarios, you may need to file multiple cases against the party at fault. Filing a car accident lawsuit might not serve the purpose. Here, you may need to file a personal injury lawsuit as well. The complications associated with your lawsuit will determine its overall success and settlement amount.
A professional lawyer can link multiple lawsuits with a single thread to give you the leverage in a complicated case. He/she can help you claim
8. Effectively Gather the Evidence from the Scene of the Accident
If you want to convince a jury and the judge of your innocence, you need to gather the right evidence in an organized fashion. You need to collect evidence from multiple sources. In fact, you can start collecting evidence right from the moment the accident happens. After the accident, you should ideally take pictures of the damage and collect the statements of the witnesses at the scene. You can collect the basic evidence all by yourself, however, you need to rely on a professional lawyer to collect the rest of the pieces.
The lawyer can leverage his/her position to get in touch with the state traffic department and get the CCTV footage of the accident. This video strengthens your case further by a significant amount. The lawyer can also connect you to the right physicians and psychotherapists who give you the necessary medical certification for submission as evidence of injury.
9. Practice Your Plea for Presentation in Front of a Jury
If your case does go to trial, you need to be prepared for the speech that will put your case in front of the jury. Your lawyer will give a fair opening and closing statement, however, it is your description of events that will move the jury’s decision. You need to make sure that you don’t contradict your statements on the stand. If you do so, even by mistake, the jury will lose faith in all your statements and thereby rule against you.
Your lawyer will help you practice your plea multiple times before the trial. He/she will raise your confidence and add the necessary touch of innocence to the speech. With this practice, you will be in a better position to present your case in front of a jury. Most novice individuals who are fighting their own case tend to contradict their own statements due to stage fright.
10. Study the Relevant Case Studies for the Upcoming Trial
Studying the relevant case studies will help you prepare for the upcoming trial effectively. After referring to the case studies, you will be able to identify the most common mistakes that novice individuals committed in their trials. You can make a note of these mistakes to ensure that you do not commit them in your trial.
A reliable law firm will have plenty of case studies for you to look at. You can read these case studies to educate yourself on the best practices for the trial. Moreover, having an open conversation with your professional auto accident lawyer will help you further.
Ideally, your lawyer will pick out the most relevant case studies for you to help you prepare for the trial. He/she will also sit with you to identify your pain points and draft a speech that you can present in front of the jury. By the end of the training session, you can present your case pretty much all by yourself without any help from the lawyer.
11. Understand the Technical Nuances of Fighting the Case
There is a lot of technical jargon involved in the world of law. If you are fighting the case without a lawyer, there are good chances that the defense will try and confuse you with this technical jargon. When you have an expert lawyer by your side, you don’t need to worry about losing the case due to confusion. The lawyer will protect your freedom of speech during the trial and make sure that the defense does not confuse you during the presentation.
If you are fighting a case without a lawyer, make sure that you understand the basic terminologies used in court. A basic understanding of these terms will help you deliver a speech smoothly. Most professional defense lawyers are extremely smart. They will try to lead you on and put you on a train of thought that eventually forces you to contradict your statements.
12. Build a Strong Case for the Jury and the Judge
The professional lawyer will not only help you deliver the presentation correctly but also help you build it from scratch. With the help of a lawyer, you can prepare the most appropriate cadence for the delivery of the presentation. You can also line up your evidence and make sure that when you are called on the stand, you deliver your speech without any hesitation.
13. Keep Your Composure During a Cross-Questioning Session
The best lawyers will try and break you down in practice sessions. They will then give you the right tips on how to keep your composure during high-stress situations. Remembering these tips will help you stay calm and deliver your statements during cross-questioning effectively. The top lawyers will understand your strengths and weaknesses and devise a practice plan accordingly.
With a series of intense cross-questioning, the auto accident lawyer will help you prepare for all the questions that the defense will try and throw at you during the trial. This practice will help you build your confidence for the case and make sure that you do not hesitate in speaking the truth on the stand.
Note: If you want the case to tip in your favor and your lawyer to help you out well, you must never lie to him/her. Do not try and hide any facts from your lawyer. Even minor misunderstandings between you and your lawyer can create an opening for the defense to weaken the case.
14. Get the Necessary Emotional and Legal Support
The best auto accident lawyers are compassionate. They provide much more than just legal support. They also provide the necessary emotional support in times of need. Most reliable lawyers will do all the heavy lifting during the presentation scene and make the overall task easier for you.
If you have a reliable lawyer in your corner, you can leave the order of presentation up to him/her. The lawyer will use a question-answer type format with you during the presentation to drive the entire presentation in a pre-decided format. Most lawyers are great at handling the worst-case scenarios and exceptions during a trial. They will have the necessary backup plans ready in case things start going south.
15. Get an Overall Peace of Mind
Lastly, the number one reason why you should hire a professional lawyer for a car accident case is that it gives you significant peace of mind. The support of reliable lawyers can help you lead a normal life while preparing for the upcoming trial. The lawyer will take care of all the big and small details of the case for you.
A reliable lawyer has such vast experience in dealing with complicated cases that he/she is well-prepared for all the different exceptions that the defense might try to bring into the case. With such an experienced person fighting your case, you can rest easy and let the lawyer do the heavy lifting.
So, if you are thinking “How to settle a car accident case without a lawyer?” do take all these scenarios into consideration. If you think that going through all this effort all by yourself is worth saving a small percentage on the overall settlement amount, you can try fighting the case without a lawyer. However, do get an expert consultation from a friendly lawyer in case you do not want to avail his/her full-fledged services.
Even minor consultation from a friendly lawyer on the most critical aspects of the case can help you fight the case with the upper hand. So, if you are still thinking “Should I get an attorney after a car accident?” do not anymore and get in touch with a reliable lawyer right away!
