Any time you suffer serious injuries in an accident, including traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, or amputation, working with an attorney is invaluable for seeking the compensation you deserve, as well as giving you a better understanding of the claims process and how much compensation you might expect.
A personal injury claim requires you to establish that another party caused your injuries. If you believe that happened, or that outside factors contributed to the accident, you probably need an attorney to collect evidence and pursue your personal injury claim. In many accidents, multiple parties may share liability.
If time has passed since your accident, especially if you have not communicated with the insurance company or liable party at all, immediately consult a personal injury attorney to ensure your claim is still valid.
The insurance company may deny the claim for one of several reasons. The insurance company believes that the party they cover did not cause the accident. The insurance company may attempt to claim that you caused the accident, or may try to establish that another party bears liability for the accident.
Before accepting a settlement offer from the insurance company or the liable party in your accident, contact a personal injury attorney. Many will offer a free consultation that will give you a better idea of how much compensation you should expect, and how you should react to the terms offered in a given settlement.
The insurance company will often want to know more about how those injuries affect your life, both immediately after the accident and in terms of your long-term prognosis.
In the case of an accident with a commercial truck driver, for example, an attorney might get access to the trucker’s logbook, which will show how long the truck driver spent behind the wheel before the accident.