Car accidents cause immense property damage and serious injuries every day. In the aftermath of a car accident, you may have considerable expenses and a long and complicated road to recovery.
Worse, many people have to aggressively fight the insurance company to have their losses and challenges recognized as they pursue much-needed compensation for their losses.
Having a car accident lawyer on your side as you pursue a car accident claim can offer a number of advantages.
What Can a Lawyer Do for You After a Car Accident?
Following a car accident, you may need to go through a lengthy investigation process to better understand what caused your accident, including all factors that may have contributed to it.
The insurance company will likely investigate to look for reasons why its covered driver does not bear liability for the accident rather than looking into evidence to establish that driver’s liability. A lawyer will look for the evidence you need to clearly prove your claim.
Furthermore, a lawyer can often access some types of evidence more easily than you can on your own and ensure that you collect that evidence properly to include it as part of your claim.
Accessing Video Footage
Video footage can be one of the most effective pieces of evidence for your car accident claim. If you have dash camera footage, you can access it relatively easily. On the other hand, other types of footage, including the other driver’s dash camera footage or security footage from local businesses, can prove much more difficult to access. A lawyer can collect that evidence for you.
Collecting Witness Statements
Witness statements can provide essential information about the potential cause of an accident. Often, outside witnesses have a better view of exactly what led to a car accident than either party involved in the accident directly.
By working with a car accident lawyer, you can ensure that you effectively collect those witness statements and record them early in the process, when witness memory remains clearer, instead of allowing witness memory to fade and grow unclear over time.
A Lawyer Can Provide Essential Information About the Compensation You Deserve.
A car accident can leave you with substantial financial and non-financial losses. Many people end up dealing with serious financial challenges due to a car accident.
By working with a lawyer, you can get more information about the compensation you should reasonably expect for those losses, which means you can ask for fair compensation from the insurance company.
Discussing your losses and your rights with your lawyer can also help you avoid accepting a low settlement offer that does not reflect the damages you actually sustained in the accident.
Looking at Your Medical Bills
Medical costs often pile up after a car accident. You may find yourself dealing with not only bills from emergency medical treatment but also the cost of ongoing treatment. Even physical or occupational therapy costs after your accident can add up higher than anticipated, leaving you short on funds and struggling to decide what to do next.
Those bills can also get complicated. You may have more than one bill from the same procedure: bills from both the hospital and a surgeon or anesthesiologist who participated in the procedure you needed, for example. A lawyer can help you evaluate all those bills and go through them so that you do not miss out on any compensation you deserve for your injuries.
Calculating Time Lost at Work
As part of your claim, you can include compensation for wage losses related to your accident. Sometimes, it can prove difficult to calculate exactly how much income you have missed out on, especially if you spent a long time out of work because of your accident or had to use your vacation time to help cover some of that missed time.
A lawyer can help take a closer look at all the time you had to miss at work because of your accident and the wages you missed out on because of that lost time, then include that as part of your claim.
Evaluating Pain and Suffering
After your accident, you will face far more than just financial losses. Many people find themselves dealing with serious physical and emotional struggles because of the challenges that went along with the car accident.
While conditions like depression, anxiety, and PTSD may come with a specific diagnosis and medical record, other challenges, from the loss of independence that often accompanies severe injuries to the need to miss out on activities you would otherwise have enjoyed, may prove more subjective.
A lawyer can help you lay out the suffering you faced as a direct result of your accident and include it as part of a comprehensive injury claim.
A Lawyer Can Connect You With Experts Whose Testimony Can Prove Essential to Your Claim.
Sometimes, you may need to bring in experts to help put together the extent of the damages you sustained or even clearly establish liability for your accident. Generally, experts take a couple of key forms.
Accident Reconstruction
Some forensic experts look at the damage to the vehicles involved in the accident, the scene of the accident, and other available factors to better understand what likely led to the accident.
You may need an accident reconstruction expert when you have a car accident with disputed liability. Reconstructing the scene of the accident can provide deeper insight into what caused the accident, which can help establish liability and give you the evidence you need to proceed with a claim.
Medical Testimony
As part of your claim, you must establish the losses you sustained as a direct result of your accident. That may include not only a look at your medical bills, which you can provide the insurance company directly, but also a deeper look at the challenges you will face in your daily life because of your injuries, what medical treatment you needed, and what medical treatment you will likely need in the future.
A medical expert can help provide those essential insights so that you can offer a better look at your losses and include all of them as part of your claim.
A Lawyer Can Navigate Any Challenges the Insurance Company May Throw Your Way After Your Car Accident.
A car insurance claim involving injuries often proves much more complicated than an accident claim that deals with property damage alone. In many cases, insurance companies will try to limit the compensation they have to pay to anyone injured in an accident with a driver the company covers. To help accomplish that goal, insurance agents have a number of tactics they may use.
Disputing Liability
Sometimes, insurance companies may start by disputing liability for the accident. The insurance agent may pressure you to accept liability for the accident or admit that you contributed to it somehow. Accepting liability could prevent you from getting the compensation you deserve for the injuries and other damages you sustained because of the accident.
A lawyer can ensure you do not inadvertently accept liability for any part of the accident.
Low Settlement Offers
Many insurance companies will begin by issuing a low settlement offer shortly after you submit the information about your claim. That settlement will generally reflect a small percentage of the damages you sustained in the accident.
If you accept that offer, you cannot pursue further compensation from the insurance company in the future, which means you may miss out on the funds you need to take care of your medical bills, replace some of the funds you lost because of the inability to work, and rebuild your life following a serious accident.
Denying the Extent of Your Injuries
Your injuries cause you immense suffering and considerable limitations. Because of those injuries, you may miss out on activities you would otherwise have enjoyed, suffer through the substantial loss of independence, and even face challenges and changes in your relationship with friends and loved ones as you attempt to navigate the recovery process.
The insurance company, however, may fail to acknowledge the full extent of those injuries and the challenges they cause you, which could cause you to miss out on much-needed compensation.
In addition, the insurance company may take any statements you make to the insurance agent, including any statement about your recovery or plans, as evidence that you may not have suffered the severe injuries and limitations noted in your accident claim.
When you deal with the insurance company on your own, you may accidentally make a statement that could work against you.
A lawyer, on the other hand, can make sure that you do not inadvertently make a statement that could indicate that you have recovered more than you really have.
Delaying Processing
The insurance company needs to respond to your claim within a reasonable timeframe. Not only that, you need the funds from your accident claim as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, the insurance company may sometimes delay processing your claim or communicating with you for as long as possible. If you struggle to get the insurance company to respond or get in touch, your lawyer can help facilitate those communications. Often, insurance companies will respond more quickly when they know you have a lawyer on your side.
A Lawyer Can Present Your Case in the Best Light if You Have to Go to Court.
Most car accident claims settle out of court. However, in some cases, you may have to go to court to get a reasonable resolution for your car accident claim, especially in cases of extreme injury or disputed liability.
If you do have to take your case to court, having a lawyer on your side who already knows and understands your case can make it much easier to present your case to the court.
A lawyer can put together your claim in a clear, compelling way, with all the evidence you need to establish liability clearly laid out for the judge or, if necessary, the jury to look at.
Then, the lawyer can present that case on your behalf, offering strong arguments regarding the compensation you need so that you can move forward with the claim process more effectively and increase the odds that the court will side in your favor.
Having a Lawyer on Your Side Can Reduce Much of the Stress Associated With the Car Accident Claim Process.
Andrew Finkelstein Car Accident Lawyer in New York
Filing a car accident claim can feel incredibly stressful. In many cases, you may find yourself fighting with the insurance company to get the compensation you really deserve. You may not know how much compensation you should expect or how to effectively manage your claim.
By working with a car accident lawyer, however, you can reduce your stress and feel much more confident about the outcome of your claim. As a result, you can focus on the recovery process, which may speed your physical recovery and allow you a better outcome.
Contact a Car Accident Lawyer as Soon as Possible After Your Accident
If you suffer injuries in a car accident, do not delay moving forward with your claim. Instead, get in touch with a personal injury attorney in New York as soon after your accident as possible to receive the support you need to handle your car accident claim, from dealing with the insurance company to, if needed, presenting your case in court.