My Guide As to Why You Need to Hire an Attorney for Your Personal Injury Case

Victims of accidents often try to handle their own claims with the insurance company when injured in an accident, but this is usually a big mistake.

One reason, is people think it costs too much to hire an attorney. Well, most personal injury attorneys work on a contingency basis, which means they do not get paid unless they recover for you. Almost always, an attorney will get you more money than the insurance company is offering, more than enough to cover the expense of hiring an attorney.

1. Also keep in mind that the insurance adjusters are not your friends, even though they may claim they are trying to help you. The role of the claims adjuster is to pay as little as possible on your claim. That includes your own PIP adjuster. Hire an attorney whose job is to get them to pay what is fair.

2. Speaking of the adjusters, they know how this process works, and you do not. Unless you deal with claims all day long, everyday, you are not going to know what to do, let alone what is a fair settlement amount. Attorneys know this as well, and help to keep the adjusters in check.
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   Those adjusters are also counting on your inertia. If you delay long enough, the statute of limitations will expire and you will not be able to get anything. Insurance companies count on this, and every time someone procrastinates, they win.

4. Plus, your time is valuable. Do you really have time to deal with this? You are already busy getting your car fixed or replaced, plus going to the doctor, so do you really have more time to stumble through this process? That is what you pay an attorney for, who can also do it much quicker due to their skills and experience.

5. Then, the attorneys who are skilled in this area of law know the law, and you simply do not. If an adjuster tells you something, you will probably believe it, since they sound knowledgeable. Well, adjusters are not usually lawyers, so they often do not actually know what the law is and will misinform people. Attorneys know the law, and can make sure the adjusters do not get away with denying claims.

6. This means the lawyers know what to say, and just as importantly, know what not to say. Again, the adjuster's job is to pay as little as possible, so they will do their best to get all the information from you that could hurt your case, and not give you anything. You likely do not know what will and will not hurt your case, but your skilled attorney will. This is critical at the early stages of your claim when the adjuster will be hounding you for information you think you have to provide, but you do not have to provide anything most of the time, and some of that can be very harmful for your case.

7. Lastly, if you wait too long to hire an attorney, it simply may be too late. Many attorneys will not take your case if it is too close to the deadline to file a lawsuit, as they do not want to risk a malpractice claim if they miss the deadline after you waited 20 months. Further, even if you file the lawsuit to protect the statute of limitations, many times attorneys will still not want to take the case, as you could have already damaged your case far beyond repair. Then, once you are all alone and going against the insurance company's attorney, you will quickly be buried with discovery and other legal maneuvers, and then have no idea what to do at trial. Help yourself, hire an attorney with experience in this area of law as soon as possible to protect you from you.