When to Get a Personal Injury Lawyer

Dealing with the aftermath of a personal injury incident can involve grappling with a wide variety of negative emotions. You also might experience confusion or even shock because of the seriousness of your injuries. Knowing how to respond after a personal injury incident helps you take control of your emotions, as well as know when to get a personal injury lawyer.

Receive Medical Care

Unless you sustained minor injuries such as cuts and abrasions, you should seek medical care immediately following a personal injury incident. Getting prompt medical care demonstrates the seriousness of your injuries. If you delay getting the right type of medical care, the insurance adjuster processing your claim might question the seriousness of your injuries. Receiving immediate care also lets the other party’s attorney know that you required medical attention right away after a personal injury incident.

If you sustained one or more minor injuries, you can remain at the scene of the personal injury incident to gather physical evidence and get the names and contact information of witnesses. However, you should eventually get medical care to treat minor injuries.

Contact a Personal Injury Lawyer

The second step to take after a personal injury incident is when you need to get a personal injury lawyer. Hiring an attorney as close to the date of the personal injury incident as possible ensures you collect the physical evidence you need to build a strong insurance claim, as well as a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages. Your attorney reviews the formal incident report filed by either a law enforcement agency or a representative from a business or medical facility. Hiring a personal injury lawyer also helps you obtain additional evidence, such as the footage captured by a traffic or security camera.

An attorney also interviews witnesses to obtain the influential type of legal support that helps you receive just compensation for your injuries.

File an Insurance Claim

Although filing an insurance claim seems like a straightforward process, the fact is just one mistake on a claim form can lead the insurance company processing your claim to deny it. Hiring an experienced attorney helps you avoid making a mistake, whether it involves submitting inaccurate information and/or forgetting to fill out a section. A personal injury lawyer also ensures you include the convincing physical evidence you need to gain approval for compensation. 

At Morgan and Morgan, our experienced personal injury attorneys have developed positive professional relationships with insurance adjusters across the United States.

File a Civil Lawsuit

Filing a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages typically occurs after you file an insurance claim. The reason for the order of the two actions is that preparing to file a personal injury lawsuit takes longer because of the amount of physical evidence required, as well as the time it takes to interview every witness. An attorney also helps you navigate the litigation process, which includes the discovery phase. The discovery phase allows both parties to exchange physical evidence and review the statements provided by witnesses.

Negotiations to reach a settlement usually unfold during the discovery phase of the litigation process.

A vast majority of personal injury cases do not reach the trial phase of the litigation process. Taking a case to trial can cost more than the value of the compensation awarded by a civil court judge. In addition, you might have to miss a significant amount of time from work, which might put you in a deeper financial hole.

The settlement process consists of three steps.

Calculate a Fair Value for Compensation

The most common reason why insurance adjusters and defendant attorneys reject settlement offers concerns the submission of unreasonable values for compensation. As the first step of the settlement process, your attorney calculates a fair value for compensation by first adding up every tangible expense, such as medical bills and the receipts from repairing property damage. Your personal injury lawyer also acquires copies of bank statements and employer timekeeping records to determine the value of lost wages.

Then, your attorney determines a value for non-economic damages, such as the costs associated with emotional distress issues like fear, anger, and anxiety. A traumatic personal injury incident can trigger symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which can produce lingering negative symptoms for several years.

Mail a Demand Letter

Sending a demand letter lets the other party know that you are serious about receiving just compensation to recover from financial losses. A demand letter should include the date and time of the personal injury incident. If you can not pinpoint a date and time, which happens sometimes for elder abuse and medical malpractice cases, then you should submit an estimate as to when you sustained one or more injuries as the result of at least one act of negligence. Submitting a detailed description of what transpired before, during, and after the personal injury incident helps the other party determine whether to accept your offer to negotiate a settlement.

An important section of a demand letter explains how your personal injury lawyer calculated a fair value for compensation.

Negotiations

Negotiating a settlement requires the finely honed skills of an experienced personal injury lawyer. Your attorney submits the initial offer, which the other party can accept or reject. If the other party rejects the initial offer, you might receive a counteroffer or a formal legal notice that communicates the other party’s wishes to move forward in the litigation process. Several counteroffers can follow until both parties agree to a settlement or decide to take the case to the trial phase of the litigation process.

Your personal injury lawyer also can negotiate a settlement with the insurance adjuster processing your claim.

The longer you wait to hire a personal injury lawyer, the longer you have to wait to file a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages. If you wait too long, you might pass the deadline for filing a personal injury lawsuit in the state where you live.

Every state has established a statute of limitations for filing a personal injury lawsuit. Most states have set the deadline between two and four years, although a few states grant plaintiffs as long as six years and as short as one year to take legal action. The clock starts to tick on the filing of a personal injury lawsuit on the date of the incident. However, you might receive an extension if your attorney can prove you sustained one or more injuries that developed delayed symptoms. Injuries such as whiplash and concussions can develop symptoms that do not make an impact until a few days after a personal injury incident.

Acting with a sense of urgency is important to meet the deadline for filing a personal injury lawsuit. Nonetheless, you should be proactive for two more reasons. First, procrastinating can cause you to fall behind on paying off debts, such as medical bills. Some healthcare providers place medical liens on potential legal judgments that award monetary damages, but most healthcare providers send bills according to a regular schedule. The faster you file a persuasive personal injury lawsuit, the faster you might receive compensation to wipe out all personal debts. The second reason to act with a sense of urgency involves the reliability of witnesses. Witness statements tend to be more accurate the closer they are given to the date of a personal injury incident.

Hesitating to get the legal support you deserve can be the difference between you receiving just compensation and falling into a deep financial hole. Act with a sense of urgency by scheduling a free case evaluation today with a personal injury lawyer from Morgan and Morgan.