Why Car Accidents are Best Handled by Lawyers

Getting into a car accident can be a shocking and scary experience. If you sustain injuries, healing could be a long road and you’ll have some hefty medical bills to pay. Even if you aren’t injured, you’ll still need to pay to repair or replace your vehicle. Car accidents aren’t cheap, and if you think you’re covered by your insurance company, that may not be the case.

Car insurance companies are notorious for offering people settlements far below what they deserve. If you’re relying on recovering compensation from your policy after an accident, consider hiring an attorney instead. If you’re unsure about the immediate steps to take following a collision, it’s crucial to understand What Should I Do Right After A Car Accident to protect your rights and ensure you handle the situation properly, which is why car accidents are best handled by lawyers.

Car Accident Attorneys Get Better Settlements

If you have bills, a lawyer is your best option. Attorneys get higher accident settlements than what policies pay out. Part of this is because your policy won’t cover things like lost wages and pain and suffering, but it’s mainly because insurance companies aren’t on the consumer’s side.

You’ll be hard pressed to find an insurance company that will make a settlement offer anywhere close to the award an attorney can get from a lawsuit. There’s a good reason for this: insurance companies are for-profit corporations and adjusters are incentivized (and required as part of their job) to offer you as little as possible.

Their goal is to get you to accept a small offer to protect company profits. This is why you have to fight hard just to get them to offer you another few hundred dollars even when your case should be worth thousands more.

You May Need To Pay Unexpected Medical Bills

Since attorneys tend to get higher settlements than insurance companies pay out, the potential for unexpected future medical bills is another good reason to work with an attorney. 

Some injuries don’t show all the symptoms right away and if you settle too soon, you could lose out on getting the funds to cover long-term therapies and other treatments.

Negotiating With An Insurance Adjuster Is A Nightmare

Nobody likes negotiating with insurance companies because they can be pretty fierce and some of them act like a settlement is not negotiable. When you’re still healing from an injury, fighting and getting stressed out is the last thing you need.

When you attempt to negotiate a car accident settlement with your insurance provider, there are three ways you’ll hit a brick wall:

·  Your negotiation skills may be weak

·  Your case is already assigned a maximum and adjusters can’t offer more

·  You’ll get exhausted fighting for each additional dollar

Negotiating is an art that takes skill to be successful. Attorneys are master negotiators. However, even if you have strong negotiation skills, that doesn’t mean you’ll get what you want because all cases are assigned a maximum payout. Adjusters aren’t allowed to offer you any more than this number.

They won’t tell you what this number is, but they will make you fight hard for every dollar until you get close. By then, they’re hoping you’ll be too tired to continue and you’ll just accept their last offer.

Fighting For Compensation Detracts From Healing

It works against your healing process to spend all of your time and energy fighting to get compensation. You need as much rest and as little stress as possible while you heal because stress slows wound healing. You’ll recover faster when you have a lawyer handling your situation.

When you hire a car accident attorney, they’ll handle everything for you, including negotiations. This applies whether you have an attorney negotiate with your insurance company or if you file a lawsuit. In either case, they’ll negotiate a settlement on your behalf.

If you were seriously injured, you’re probably better off filing a lawsuit because there’s a better chance at recovering more compensation. However, if you live in a no-fault state, you might not have the option. In that case, it’s still wise to have a lawyer negotiate on your behalf to get the highest settlement possible.

Your Car Accident Claim Is Worth More Than You’ve Been Told

If you’ve received a settlement offer from your insurance company, don’t accept it until you’ve spoken with an attorney. Once you accept the offer, you lose the right to sue. If you accept a low offer, you probably aren’t getting enough compensation.

When you work with an attorney, they’ll fight hard to get you generous compensation that will cover your medical bills, household responsibilities, and lost wages. Where appropriate, they’ll also seek compensation for pain and suffering and any other damages that apply to your case.