Most people like to save money and do everything they can for themselves. Indeed, there are multiple businesses focused on facilitating the “Do It Yourself” movement. Many people even take the DIY phenomena to legal matters. Unlike the choice to change your car’s oil yourself instead of taking it to an auto repair business, hiring a car accident lawyer to represent you in relation to an auto accident almost always leads to receiving more money than you pay for the services. In other words, the attorney’s fee is almost always far less than the increase in settlement one would expect to receive after hiring an attorney.
Benefits of Hiring a Car Accident Lawyer
Multiple studies have concluded that injured parties represented by an attorney receive on average 300% larger settlements than those who try and do legal work themselves. Fillmore Spencer typically charges a contingency fee of 33% on car crash cases and other personal injury matters. Therefore, after an accident, when you hire an experienced attorney to assist in securing fair treatment from the insurance company, you create a win-win relationship.
Another benefit to retaining a lawyer to help with legal matters, rather than trying the DIY route, is that a car accident lawyer can shoulder many burdens that a person dealing with neck, back, or other injuries do not need to deal with immediately after an accident. Car accident lawyers can make connections with insurance adjusters and facilitate prompt payments for vehicle damage, make recommendations for experienced medical providers that will promptly and efficiently help those injured, can help secure temporarily lost income payments to help you get by while waiting for your case to settle, etc.
Though the financial benefit of hiring an attorney should be more than enough to justify avoiding the DIY mentality when it comes to the law, the “de-stressing” benefit should be an equal consideration. When you are injured, the most important thing a person can do is everything within their power to regain their health. The attorney-client partnership in resolving personal injury matters enables the client to take care of their physical needs, while the attorney handles the temporal work.
Insurance companies have more money at their disposal than many small countries in the world, and oftentimes, insurance adjustors will wield their superior economic sword to criticize and even attack people who honestly report their injuries caused by the negligent acts of others. Though there are certainly some unscrupulous people out there that try to take advantage of the insurance liability system, the vast majority of insurance claims filed are due to injuries that cause significant changes in the claimant’s lifestyle. An experienced attorney in handling personal injury cases knows how to guide unsuspecting injured clients past the pitfalls that adjustors like to use when fighting a sincere claim for reimbursement of damages.
Some of the “gotchas” insurance companies use to devalue claims are very simple. For example, most people, when asked a question such as, “How are you doing today?” will answer, “I am fine.” So, when an insurance claim adjustor calls an injured person a day after the accident and asks, “How are you doing?” and the person says, “I am fine, thank you,” the insurance adjuster will make a note in their file similar to: “I called the day after the accident and asked how the injured person was doing and they responded ‘fine.’ They didn’t report any pain. Then, a month later, when the injured person calls and reports that they are experiencing neck or back pain, the adjuster says, “When I spoke with you the day after the accident, you said you were fine.” So, you can see how simple thoughtless communication can sometimes be used to devalue a fair and reasonable claim.
When you hire an attorney, both the liability insurance adjuster and your own insurance representatives have a duty to only contact you through your attorney; this way, the attorney has the opportunity to counsel you and work together to present your injuries and other damages in as clear and concise a manner as possible.
At Fillmore Spencer LLC, we pride ourselves in creating win-win partnerships and helping accident victims get the most fair and reasonable compensation possible for injuries caused by another’s negligent actions. Let us put our experience to work for you so you can focus on recovering to your pre-accident condition as soon as possible.
Randall K. Spencer has recovered many tens of millions of dollars for his clients related to wrongful deaths, auto accidents, plane crashes, train crashes, semi-truck crashes, motorcycle accidents, slips and falls, and many other incidents caused by negligent acts of others. In his civil litigation practice, Randall has represented business both as plaintiffs and defendants in everything from simple contract or real estate cases to multi-million-dollar business litigation matters. Randall has represented multiple families who have lost loved ones due to medical neglect and other negligent conduct of doctors, hospitals, and psychologists. In Randall’s criminal defense practice, Randall is experienced in trials from Murder cases to speeding tickets and most everything in between. He has handled many white-collar crime matters in both the criminal courts and administrative proceedings.
