Perhaps you have been hurt in a car accident or other personal injury incident. The last thing you want to do is to make your daily life any more uncertain and complex than it already is. For you, the thought of seeing a personal injury lawyer and involving them in your case might seem like inviting another complication into your situation.
Before you swear off getting help from a personal injury lawyer, you should take a moment to consider the various services and forms of assistance an attorney can provide for you.
Far from complicating your life and the process of receiving compensation, an attorney’s efforts can help you receive compensation more quickly while doing less yourself.
7 Ways a Personal Injury Lawyer Can Help Your Case
Retaining a personal injury lawyer when another’s conduct has hurt you means having a legally trained advocate to help you throughout the life of your case. While you are represented, your attorney will help you in the following ways:
1. Helping You Take Action to Protect Your Health and Assert Your Rights
Accidents can happen without warning, leaving you feeling disoriented, literally and figuratively. You may not know what you need to do or who you need to speak with in order to get the help you need.
With an attorney on your case, you have someone working to protect your legal rights and direct you to other resources and professionals who can assist you in your recovery.
Your doctor might recommend follow-up care or suggest that you seek mental health treatment, for example. They can help you find appropriate treatment providers if such recommendations are helpful to you. If such recommendations do not help protect your health or advance your case, your lawyer can advise you of this, too.
2. Investigate the Facts of Your Accident
You may remember in detail what led to your accident and how you were injured. Without corroborating evidence that helps prove your recollection is right, it can be difficult to recover damages for your injuries through a settlement or favorable verdict.
A personal injury lawyer can take on the time-consuming tasks of finding witnesses and evidence to support your claim and prove the other party’s liability.
Some witnesses and items of evidence are not easily located, and testimony or physical evidence can change between the day of the accident and the day you need it for settlement negotiations or trial. Personal injury lawyers are equipped with the tools and knowledge to preserve and use this information and evidence when and as needed.
3. Handle Calls From Insurers and Others About the Case
After some personal injuries caused by accidents like car wrecks and slip and falls, you can expect to receive calls from investigators and insurance adjusters eager to get details about the accident. These calls can quickly become overwhelming, especially considering that what you say can impact your ability to receive compensation.
An attorney working for you will handle these calls on your behalf while also ensuring any responses provided do not jeopardize your ability to recover compensation. If it becomes necessary that you speak with these or other individuals about your claim, your attorney can help prepare you for these conversations ahead of time.
4. Consult With Experts When Necessary
Not every case requires the help of an expert witness, such as an accident reconstruction expert, engineer, or medical expert. However, when individuals with these skills are needed, the success of your case can hinge on how credible this expert’s opinion is perceived to be by the judge or jury.
Without an attorney’s assistance, it is your responsibility to know when an expert would be helpful to your case, retain an appropriate expert to assist you, and take the steps necessary to present that person’s opinion at trial, if necessary. But if you have a personal injury lawyer, those tasks fall to them.
5. Negotiate a Fair Settlement to Your Case
Insurance companies and businesses are likely to offer you a settlement to resolve your case when evidence of their responsibility is clear. However, it is not uncommon for some of the first settlement offers you receive to be inadequate to compensate you for all of your losses or to reflect the value of your case.
The terms of any settlement can be negotiated, but the negotiation process can be intimidating and unfamiliar territory to most injury victims. A skilled and knowledgeable personal injury lawyer can be right at home in this environment and able to negotiate a settlement that fairly addresses your losses.
6. Take Your Case to Trial
If settlement talks are not fruitful, you may be faced with a choice of whether to forego receiving compensation or take your chances at trial. The choice is easy when a knowledgeable and skilled personal injury lawyer assists you with your case.
Bringing any case to trial is no small feat, and there are numerous steps to complete along the way. Some of these tasks are time-sensitive or involve adherence to the court’s procedural rules. You could try to get your case that did not settle ready for trial by memorizing and following these rules, or you can entrust this task to the capable hands of an attorney.
7. Represent Your Interests After a Settlement or Verdict Is Reached
In some situations, a settlement or verdict may not be the end of your road to compensation. A party could not fulfill their part of the bargain under the terms of a settlement agreement. Or it may be that the defendant who lost at trial will appeal the verdict and seek a new trial.
These events can be disheartening and leave you wondering what can be done to salvage your case. Your rights and your ability to take action in this situation are slim, so it is critical that you have a personal injury lawyer who regularly handles these cases to take action.
Failing to respond to an appeal or not taking prompt action to collect on a settlement agreement or verdict can result in you giving up your right to those benefits.
When to Retain a Personal Injury Lawyer
You do not realize the benefits of having a personal injury attorney working on your case until you retain one, so you should prioritize choosing a lawyer after your accident. The team at Schiff & Associates is capable of handling your personal injury claim from start to finish, and we will assist you in pursuing compensation when another’s carelessness causes you harm.