If you’ve been injured in an accident caused by the negligent actions of another, you may be struggling to recover while feeling anxious about how to pay your bills. The purpose of a personal injury claim is to bring justice and recover a fair settlement or jury award for the injured party. While it is possible to bring a personal injury claim without the help of a lawyer, it can be a real challenge to get the outcome you deserve.
Why It’s Important to Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer
Experienced personal injury lawyers bring the expertise required to handle personal injury cases. There are many reasons to hire a personal injury lawyer for help with your injury claim, including:
1. Represent your interests
Insurance adjusters do not have your best interests in mind when they offer you a settlement; they will try to get away with the lowest settlement they can. Because their compensation is tied to the size of the settlement, personal injury lawyers are highly motivated to get you the largest settlement possible. They will accomplish this by advocating for you when negotiating a settlement.
2. Full evaluation of your losses and injuries
A good personal injury lawyer will sit down with you and fully evaluate your losses and injuries (damages) so they can calculate the true value of your claim. With their knowledge of local personal injury law, they will likely identify losses that you may not have thought of such as loss of consortium.
3. Get a fair settlement for your losses
Insurance companies will do everything they can to get an injured person to take a settlement that is far below the actual value of their claim. So, what is a fair settlement and how do you ensure that you get one? A fair settlement covers all past, present, and future economic and non-economic losses related to your injury. The only way to know for sure that your settlement is fair is to have a personal injury lawyer review your case and calculate the approximate value.
Economic damages are compensation for objectively verifiable monetary losses, including:
• Lost wages
• Loss of employment or business opportunities
• Medical expenses
• Cost of disability (adapting to a new lifestyle or ongoing therapy expenses)
• Property loss or damage
Non-economic damages are compensation for losses that are more difficult to quantify with a number, including:
• Pain and suffering
• Emotional and mental anguish
• Loss of consortium (damage to spousal relationship)
• Loss of society and companionship
• Loss of enjoyment of life
4. Gather evidence to build your case
The plaintiff must prove four elements in order to recover a settlement or jury award:
1. A duty of care was owed
2. A breach of duty occurred (negligence)
3. The breach was the cause of the injuries
4. Damages were suffered such as medical bills and disability
When you work with a personal injury lawyer, you gain access to an investigative team that will gather evidence through research, document gathering, and interviews to prove each of the four elements of negligence.
5. Alternative dispute resolution
In most cases it makes sense to settle a personal injury claim outside of court, saving time, money and emotional distress. An experienced personal injury lawyer will know when a case can be resolved out of court and will be well versed in the art of mediation and arbitration.
6. Court experience
If your case cannot be resolved out of court, your personal injury attorney will develop a legal strategy to present your case in court and represent you at trial.
7. Peace of mind
When you are dealing with a personal injury you should be able to focus on your recovery, not fighting with the at-fault insurance company or debt collectors. A personal injury attorney will take a huge burden off of your shoulders by handling your personal injury claim and making arrangements with your medical providers so you can pay your medical bills after you have received your settlement.
Contact a personal injury lawyer today!
An accident lawyer can help you recover a full and fair settlement for the injuries you sustained in an accident caused by the negligence of another with no up-front costs to you. We know the sneaky strategies used by insurance companies to get injured people to agree to settlements far below what they are worth. Our clients typically end up with a settlement or jury award that is five to ten times larger than they could have negotiated on their own. We have been representing injured people injured in Whatcom County, Skagit County, Island County and Snohomish County since 1979. Contact the experienced and hard-working personal injury lawyers at Tario & Associates, P.S. in Mount Vernon, WA today for a FREE consultation!