A Lawyer Can Assist With Your

Car Accident Claim - Here’s How

If you suffered property damage and physical injuries during a car accident,
here are some reasons why hiring a lawyer can help you in receiving a
satisfactory claim.

If you’ve been in a car accident and have suffered injuries and property
damage, you can either deal with the insurance company and settle the
claim yourself or you can hire an attorney to do it for you. It all depends on
how complicated your case is and if you think it’ll be difficult to handle it on
your own. Here’s how lawyers can help you.

● Establish rapport with Insurance Adjuster

If you have encountered grave, personal injury, your car accident lawyer will
start off by communicating with the other driver’s insurer and/or an
insurance adjuster. Usually, adjusters are from a third-party insurance
company that remains unbiased toward both parties. It is necessary to keep
a regular connection and a good relationship with the adjuster since they
carry the pocketbook.

● Gathering Liability Evidence

Even if you have collected pictures of the scene from the car accident, your
lawyer may want to take a look physically by visiting the scene. Good
Lawyers are known to pay attention to details; they might notice something
that you or someone else probably couldn’t see.

Your lawyer may also take notes and collect reports regarding the accident
and interrogate police officers and witnesses who were present during the
scene.

● Gathering Evidence of Damage

This is an essential part where lawyers can come in handy. If you have
suffered significant injuries during the car accident that left you with a PTSD
anxiety, a good lawyer will gather all the necessary paperwork regarding it
from your healthcare provider.

However, medical institutions do not put the release of documents to their

patients and lawyers as their first priority, even if it is your right to obtain
them. The reason is that typically, small clinics or doctors’ chambers may
not have adequate staff members and the time to respond to medical record
requests. As for the big hospitals, they usually have a certain process that
needs to be followed for you to receive your medical documents, which most
of the time isn’t clear and concise, and they may simply end up not
responding to requests.

And when the hospitals do respond to your requests, some information may
not be written accurately regarding your accident. Therefore, it is the
attorney’s job to keep drilling the hospital staff to provide more information
regarding your injury. Doctors may also miss out on writing the cause of the
injury. If that’s the case, then your lawyer can send out a letter requesting
the doctor to mention if the injury caused was due to the accident or not.
Any form of disability or hindrance caused due to the car accident will be
provided as evidence, and that it is due to the other drivers’ negligence that
the accident happened.

Dealing with Medical care providers is not straightforward as they are usually
very reluctant to hand out documents. It’s not because they do not want to;
it’s because it is a tedious job to respond to medical record requests, and
they simply want to avoid the hassle. Your lawyer, if they are good with
creating a rapport, can continue to grill the staff for information which
otherwise you wouldn’t have been able to do.

This part also includes doctors providing testimony, either physically or on a

letter, which is regarded to be the top evidence regarding your case.

● Negotiate with Lien Holders

If you receive health, disability, or workers’ compensation benefits from an

insurer, that insurer will have a lien (hence becoming a lien holder) on your
claim. Lien holders can be banks, financial institutions, or any private party
that has a legal claim on your property.
Therefore, it is necessary to discuss and negotiate with the lien holder to
reduce its lien. This way, even if you are able to save a dollar, it goes to
your pocket.

● Arrange a Settlement

This is the important part where your lawyer’s negotiation skills will be
tested. He/she will sit down with the insurer and negotiate your settlement.
A good lawyer will leave no stones unturned and provide relevant evidence
of your personal and property damages and liabilities that you have
suffered. They will try their best for you to receive top dollar from the
insurer and thus help you reach a settlement.

Settling the claim by yourself

You may think that you can do all this by yourself and not have to pay 1/3rd
of your money to the lawyer! If your case is small and not complicated, you
can, by all means, go ahead and negotiate the settlement yourself.

However, if it’s a bigger and more complicated case and your medical bills
top $3k for which you had to take out a personal loan and were even unable
to work for more than a week, hiring a lawyer would be your best option.

Car accident and personal injury lawyers are typically good at what they do.
Handling all the paperwork yourself is tiring, not to mention the post-
traumatic stress disorder that you’re probably going through may not help
you much on the legal issue front. This is where the lawyers can play their
part in providing you with the best settlement they can.

Competent Lawyers are naturally a persistent bunch when it comes to

collecting information or evidence regarding your accident claim. Therefore,
investing your money in a lawyer, and a good one too, will get you the
compensation you deserve that may make up for the damages and liabilities
you suffered, including mental trauma. They will go to great lengths to
collect all necessary documents to ensure you get the best out of your claim.