Personal Injury Lawyers Tell Their Story
Written by John Heenan Tuesday, 13 December 2011 11:32
Many times I'm asked after a personal injury accident, if the insurance company will take care of my injuries.
In fender benders, that's pretty much the case since it's the majority of all accidents. Take your bent car to a mechanic, get an estimate of what it will cost. When you take that paper to the insurance company, you car will probably get fixed and be good as new.
If it's something more serious than just damage to your car, like a personal injury. Say your back hurts or you're having lingering medical problems since the car accident. Well, you can't just go to a mechanic and find out how much it's gonna cost to fix, submit that information on an insurance company and expect to get paid.
It becomes more complex and those are the types of cases I want to talk about today.
Insurance companies pay you for your injuries as the law requires. When you are not at fault in an accident that causes you a personal injury, you want the other guy's insurance company to pay up. The opposing company really has a couple of different motivations. One is to follow the law and pay the amount they must pay, the other is to pay as little as they can get away with and maximize their profits.
In cases with involving personal injury, especially serious personal injury, I would say it's prudent to consult with a lawyer before settling your injury claim. There has been studies that have shown that injury victims receive almost triple the amount when they hire a lawyer. The comparison is based against to trying to settle their claim themselves.
Sometimes personal injury lawyers don't get called until AFTER the insurance companies made a settlement offer. You should call your personal injury lawyer before you accept or reject it. Most lawyers have free case evaluation. We look at the offer that's been made to the person, we look at the extent of their injuries and then frankly, we tell them whether we think the offer is fair or not.
If we think the offer is fair, I'll tell you. There's no reason to hire me, because you've gotten a fair offer. The flip side to that is sometimes, we'll look at offers that have been made and say we think you can and should do better and not settle your claim for this amount. We then get started in the process to get them more than what's been offered.
It is a bottom line game for insurance companies and rightfully so. There is an obligation of these companies to their shareholders. The difference is when it's my car accident or your car accident. The insurance adjuster handling your claim is a professional whose job it is to pay you the absolute minimum he can.
And just as a baseball player would have an agent help them negotiate a contract to get the most salary and benefits they're entitled to, I think personal injury lawyers can help in these cases. That's why people come to us after they've been injured in a car accident. They want someone to advocate for them, to look out for them, and to deal with an insurance adjuster who's a sophisticated party, and who is on their side.
The way personal injury lawyers are paid means you can always afford their services. No money changes hands since the lawyer is paid on a contingency fee basis. When the client gets paid, the lawyer gets a portion as his fee. This gives everyone the right to legal representation no matter how much money they have.
It's in my own best interest to make as much money as I possibly can for you because it helps both of us.
You could always represent yourself. Then again, you can pull your own tooth or give yourself a root canal too. I always use the story of baseball players when it comes time to bargain for their salaries with the team. They know the team wants to keep their salary low. They hire an agent to help them get the most money they can.
It's similar in the context of personal injury claims. You're dealing with a sophisticated insurance company, whose motivation is, to keep your claim to the lowest dollar that they have to pay. I think it makes sense to hire someone to be on your side to be an agent for you, and represent your interest.
One issue is the length of time it can take to settle a lawsuit. In Montana, insurance companies can be forced to advance money before a final declaration. Medical bills and lost wages are two of the types of payments that generally are made during a lawsuit on a personal injury case.
Personal injury lawyers do a lot more than just negotiate for you. Injury victims in Montana have access to the courthouse. If we can't reach a compromise with the insurance company, we can put it in front of a jury of Montanans, whose job it is to decide what their reasonable compensation would be.
Going to trial is not that big of a deal. Personal injury lawyers like me are in the game with you. Taking legal action against an insurance company we don't think is playing fair is fine by me. Make sure you ask your personal injury lawyer in your first conversation if they go to trial. Some have not. Trust me when I tell you the insurance companies know who fights for their clients and who does not. Make sure your lawyer will go to trial for you.
About the Author:
Billings lawyer John Heenan has been consulted by ABC-TV's Nightline and quoted by the Wall Street Journal. Now as an writer and Billings injury lawyer John Heenan has a complimentary book for you on your rights when you've been injured. Get your personal injury guide now before you require it.
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