Silverthorne Attorneys Blog Post - Here Is What an Attorney Will Do if You Contact Them About Your Car Accident, and Why You Should Not Handle Your Car Accident Yourself.
What an Attorney Does When You Have a Car Accident
You’ve just suffered the shock of a car accident. You've been injured and even your passengers have been injured. Your car has been damaged to the point where it needs major repairs. Maybe it's so badly damaged that it can't be repaired. Even if your injuries are minor, and you can walk away from the accident, you’ll need another way to get where you’re going, whether it's work, school or shopping. On the other hand, your injuries might be so serious that you need hospitalization and then a period of rehabilitation. Whatever has happened, you decide to contact an accident lawyer such as those at Silverthorne Attorneys. What will the lawyer do when you contact them?Contacting a Lawyer
Of course, before you contact a lawyer, you need medical attention. This is a must, even if you believe that your injuries are trivial. For example, if you bang your head against anything, you should assume you have a concussion, even if you feel fine. A concussion is one of those injuries that may seem insignificant at first but can quickly grow to be life-threatening. Also, you’ll need to present medical bills to your lawyer as part of your case. Indeed, the best time to hunt for a lawyer is after you’ve received medical attention. Besides receiving compensation for injuries and medical expenses, you’ll want to find a lawyer for these reasons as well.- There were two or more parties involved in the accident, and you’re not sure who was at fault. A lawyer can help you determine who was at fault.
- Your injuries caused you to miss work.
- Someone was killed in the accident.
- You believe a drunk driver was involved in your accident.
- There was a faulty or inaccurate police report concerning your accident.
- Your injuries are psychological as well as physical.
- Your insurance company is being difficult or not responding to you at all. If you’re unsure about your insurance coverage, an accident lawyer can help you with this as well.
- The initial settlement offered by your insurance company is too low.
- You were driving your car as part of your job.
The Initial Meeting
The first thing you’ll need to do is gather documents that concern your accident. These include your medical bills and medical records, your insurance, the police report on the accident and any photos of the vehicles at the accident scene. The amount of wages you lost when you were laid up because of the accident should also be available to your lawyer.Your initial meeting with the lawyer is free. Its purpose is to see if you and your lawyer are a good fit and if your case is one the lawyer can successfully take on. When you do decide on a lawyer, you’ll hire them on a contingency fee basis. This means you won’t have to pay unless your case is successful. You’re also free of paying hourly fees or retainers. If you win your case, you pay a percentage of the settlement to the law firm.
There are questions you need to ask the lawyer before they take you on. It’s a good idea to write them down before you go to the consultation lest you forget them in the stress of the meeting. Ask the lawyer if they have experience with cases like yours and what their rate of success is. Do they actually win monetary compensation for their clients, or do they settle? Will the lawyer be the one who is handling the case, or will they give most of the work to their paralegals?
The Investigation
When you’ve signed on with the lawyer, they and their team will start to investigate your case. This can be a complicated process and may take longer than you’d like, but good lawyers strive to be as thorough as possible. Things they might do to investigate your case include gathering any surveillance data related to your accident. They’ll take statements from eyewitnesses and assess the damage done to your vehicle, both inside and out. Your lawyer and their team will find out the condition of the road you were driving on at the time. Bad weather, broken traffic lights, traffic signs that were hard to see or absent could have also contributed to the accident. The lawyer can also hire experts to analyze the tire marks on the road.The lawyer will also consult with expert witnesses. Expert witnesses are different from “regular” witnesses in that they are specialists in a certain field or fields. These fields include medicine, engineering or finance, or other subjects whose particulars aren’t well know to laypersons. Your lawyer may ask an expert witness to draw up a report, weigh in on evidence and give expert opinions on areas that impact your accident. An example of this is your lawyer looking over your medical records. This is an area that might need an expert witness. An expert medical witness can look at your injury and opine on how you came to have it. These marks can tell whether brakes were applied or not, for example.
The Lawyer and Your Insurance Company
Your lawyer will also be the bulwark between you and your insurance company. You may be shocked to learn that your insurer, which you thought was supposed to indemnify you when you get into an accident, is reluctant to do so. They may simply want you to settle for something much less than you are owed. Your insurance company may even want you to admit that you’re at fault. Your lawyer will handle all the pressure your insurance company will bring to bear on you in the form of phone messages, texts and correspondence.Damages Evaluated
The lawyer will also consider all of your injuries, be they physical, financial or emotional, and calculate the damages owed to you. This includes the wages you lost while you were unable to work, your medical bills and repairs to your vehicle, if your vehicle could even be repaired. Your legal team will probably rely on several expert witnesses, including those who specialize in financial matters.Formal Demand Letter
After your damages are evaluated and your medical treatment is over, your lawyer sends your insurance company a formal demand letter. This letter starts off with your name and contact information, the name of your insurance adjuster and your claim number. The body of the letter describes the accident in some detail. This is supported by statements from witnesses and police reports. It’s followed by a detailed description of your injuries and how your injuries were treated. It also lists whatever future treatments you might need to regain your health. The names of your health insurer, your health providers and the cost of your treatment follow. The one caveat is that the demand letter shouldn’t be written until you have achieved what’s called maximum medical improvement, or MMI. This means that the treatment for your injuries, whether it’s surgery or hospitalization or rehab, is just about over, and major medical bills are no longer expected.The letter also details the wages you lost while you were recuperating, the damage to your property, including your vehicle and any other incidental payments. It also lists your pain and suffering, which describes the physical and emotional trauma you’ve endured because of the accident.
These items are then followed by the demand for the dollar amount that you and your lawyer have agreed upon, and a deadline to hear from the insurance company. This is often around 30 days. The demand letter must be crafted carefully and skillfully. It must be very clear when it comes to listing your injuries and what they cost you. The letter should also have a timeline of the injuries. These must be backed up with proof such as police reports or medical bills. The letter should also be composed and sent in a timely manner. Silverthorne Attorneys pride themselves on their professionalism and thoroughness when it comes to this correspondence.
What the Interaction With Your Lawyer Is Like
Chances are you won’t be speaking with or contacting your lawyer every day until your case is finished. You’ll communicate most often as the legal team gathers evidence for your case and then when a settlement is reached or not. Usually, your lawyer will contact you every few weeks or so, though of course if there’s a break in your case they’ll call you right away. If you need long-term medical treatment, your lawyer or someone from their team will call you now and then to see how you’re making progress. These calls also monitor how your injuries are impacting your lifestyle, your mobility and other factors.A proficient lawyer calls their client rather than waiting for their client to call them, though they’ve given the client contact information. They also explain the case in language the client can understand. This requires a certain level of skill, since legal terms are often complicated and even opaque. Your lawyer will ask you if you want to be contacted frequently or only when something crucial to your case is happening. However you’ve decided on your communication, you should never be left wondering how your case is progressing for very long stretches of time.
About the Other Party
If you’re wondering if your lawyer can contact the other party in your accident, the answer is “Yes.” Indeed, your lawyer should call them right away. Calling helps start the investigation and the gathering of evidence. But contacting the other party, like everything else about your case, must be done professionally and ethically. This means that your lawyer will contact the other party through their insurance company or their own lawyer. The other party in your accident doesn’t have to be legally deemed at fault first before they're contacted. At the same time, you shouldn’t take the calls from the other party’s insurance company or their attorney. If they call you, refer them to your lawyer or your insurer. If you speak to them, they can use what you tell them in court if your case proceeds to a trial.If the Insurance Company Refuses
Sometimes, despite your lawyer’s best efforts, the insurance companies will simply refuse to give you a settlement, or you and your lawyer will decide that the settlement is too low. In that case, your lawyer might need to take the insurance company to civil court.If Your Lawyer Takes Your Insurer to Court
The overwhelming majority of accident claims don’t go to court, and overwhelming means 95 to 96 percent. This is because insurance companies don’t want to have to deal with the expense of court costs and the risk of a distressingly high monetary award decided by a jury. Even if your attorney files a lawsuit, the chances are high that your case will be settled even before they enter a courtroom. But if the insurance company decides that your injuries, pain and suffering aren’t as serious as you say they are or the settlement they offer is just insultingly small, your lawyer may find no other recourse than to take them to court. Some insurance companies deny liability altogether.Before you go to trial, your lawyer files a complaint with the court and has it served on your insurance company. They’ll need to respond, usually in 30 days. Then, both parties conduct a fact-finding process called discovery. Depositions, where witnesses are asked questions under oath, may also be part of discovery. This has to be done in a timely manner, as legal claims have statutes of limitations. These statutes of limitations differ depending on the state where you live. For example, if you’re filing a personal injury claim, you have three years to file it in many instances.
After this, there comes a civil trial. This begins with jury selection, though in some cases the attorneys ask for a bench trial, which is decided by a judge. There are opening statements, testimony from witnesses, the presentation of evidence and then closing arguments.
Because a civil trial takes time and is expensive, mediation is also an option if the insurance company denies a claim. Most of these cases settle, so a trial is avoided. During mediation, both the representative for the insurance company and your lawyer sit down before the mediator, who is a neutral third party.
A good lawyer can help you through the long and sometimes frustrating process of filing a claim after your car accident.