Dealing with a Personal Injury After a Car Accident: Do You Need an Attorney?

A car accident or personal injury can turn your life upside down. And you hope you can just get your life back to normal right away after it. Unfortunately, it may take time for you to recover from your injuries and you have to deal with insurance companies to get the compensation you need to help you move forward. Insurance companies are known for offering lowball settlement offers or denying claims. If you accept an insurance company’s offer without evaluating the true value of your claim, you can end up with compensation that won’t cover your present and future needs. This is the reason you must speak with an experienced local personal injury lawyer.

A Personal Injury Can Lead to Complications in the Future

If you have been injured in a car accident, your medical bills may continue to roll in long after your treatment. But, the nature of your injury may cause you to need further treatment down the road that you failed to anticipate initially. A lot of conditions and complications may appear weeks or even months after your initial injury. And once you sign the settlement papers with the insurance company, you waive any future claims you might have had against it.

Why Consult an Attorney

As a business, insurance companies try to keep expenses low while keeping their profits high. Once a company is notified about their policyholder’s situation, they will contact you to try to settle things up as quickly as possible. The company will send a claims adjuster to negotiate with you. This person will try to ask for a recorded statement about what occurred from you. However, they will only use your statements against you later. 

It is not a good idea to offer this recorded statement because you may not know about everything that occurred after the accident. The claims adjuster will ask questions to get you to admit to your own negligence even if you didn’t do anything wrong. 

A skilled lawyer can help you know the value of your claim, accounting for all present and future damages associated with your injury. This may include rehabilitation, expensive prescription medicines, and physical therapy. Also, you might be entitled to other damages such as lost wages, pain and suffering, and reduced earning capacity. Insurance claims adjusters tend to come into the picture while you are most vulnerable. They will take advantage of your situation and may try to assert that your pain is a pre-existing condition. Thankfully, your attorney will have your back every step of the way and will demand the compensation you need and deserve. 

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