Most of the personal injury cases end up being complicated. One of the main causes is that the insurance company might simply an insurance company refusing to make you a reasonable offer or take you seriously at all.
Here are some of the top reasons to use a personal injury lawyer:
Your Claim is not easy for you to handle alone
At some point along the way, you might decide that your accident or injury claim is too complicated for you to deal with, all alone. Most of the personal injury cases involve technical or legal complexities. These usually make it very difficult for a non-lawyer to manage.
Your injuries are severe or permanently disabling. This makes the case more valuable and also means there’s a wide range in the amount of money you might wish to recover. In such a scenario, you might feel the need for an experienced lawyer to make sure that you maximize your compensation.
If you are lucky enough, your claim might not turn out to be that complicated. However, you still might not feel comfortable handling it yourself. You might realize this right at the beginning of the claim process. This commonly happens when the claim is headed to arbitration. The bottom line is that hiring an injury lawyer takes off a good deal of stress of your shoulders. It also guarantees you with a promising compensation.
You might reach a stalemate with the insurance company
Certain times, you may handle your claim comfortably and competently. However, you might still wind up wanting to hire a lawyer because the insurance company refuses to make a fair settlement offer. In case you do not want to settle for a token amount and you believe your claim is worth more, you will be needed to hire a lawyer to help you.
No Liability granted
An insurance company might even deny that their insured was in any way at fault for an accident. They usually do so in the hope that you will believe it, or that you will quickly become so frustrated that you give up and drop your claim. When you decide not to give up and stick to your claim, an insurance company might come around and make a reasonable settlement offer.
However, when an insurance company does not budge from its initial denial of all responsibility, you may need help from a lawyer. When an experienced personal injury lawyer can coax some money out of the insurance company, you will have received some compensation.
No Coverage granted
This is another common claim the insurance company might make. It is that the particular accident is not covered by the insurance policy. In this scenario, your first step should be to demand a copy of the insurance policy. You can read it carefully to see whether what the insurance adjuster says is true.
In case you locate in the policy exactly what the insurance adjuster says is there, it does not always end the matter. A majority of the insurance policy provisions can be interpreted several different ways. The courts usually try to interpret them so that injured people are covered. Thus, you must consider taking your claim to an experienced personal injury lawyer. The lawyer might be able to force the insurance company to provide the coverage it has been paid to provide.
When Government Immunity comes into the picture
The right to sue a government entity, a town, city, county, or state, or a school, transportation, or another local district, for an accident caused by its employee is strictly controlled by specific laws in each state. These laws that are commonly referred to as “sovereign immunity” and the “tort claims act” establish the rules about when you are allowed to sue the government since of an accident, and the special procedures you have to follow before you may do so.
However, nevertheless, the government’s response may be to deny you any compensation. It might argue that it is immune to claims in your particular kind of accident.
The truth is that a government’s claim of immunity is sometimes just a knee-jerk response that disappears after you negotiate for a while. However, claims adjusters for public entities do not usually give up public money easily. Certain times, they cling to an immunity defense all the way to court. Due to the complexity of the rules involved, if a claims adjuster refuses to make any settlement offer to you because of a supposed government immunity, you might have to consult a personal injury attorney out making a legal attack on that immunity claim.
Requirement of a legal advice
Occasionally, the success or failure of a claim turns on a specific legal rule. For example, your right to collect insurance from a business might depend on whether its employee was acting within the course of employment when the employee injured you in an accident. The law has technical rules about what is and is not the “course and scope of employment.” Or, you might have been injured on a buckled sidewalk, and the question of who is responsible might involve legal rules about water damage, tree roots, or other property law questions.
In some situations, you might have to consult with a lawyer on an hourly basis to get an experienced legal opinion. When you suffer from serious injuries, you need to get an attorney. This is mainly because your lawyer can help you make sure you get the full spectrum of damages you’re entitled to. Usually, lawyers are experts in negotiation and can maximize your recovery. The insurers and defendants might take your claim more seriously when you’re represented by an attorney.
Almost all personal injury lawyers work on a contingency basis. This implies that your personal injury lawyer will not be paid any money or legal fees unless you win your case or settle outside of court.
Usually, contingency fee agreements work by allowing the lawyer to collect compensation right out of your settlement or damage award.