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CategoriesTop 3 Reasons Accident Victims Should Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer
After a car accident, you likely feel stressed and unsure of what action to take next. If a negligent driver caused the collision, you might file a claim with their insurance company to seek compensation for your injuries or property damage. However, without skilled legal representation, the insurance company may try to offer you a lowball settlement offer or use other tactics to deny your claim.
The most important thing you can do after an auto accident is to hire an experienced car accident lawyer. An auto accident attorney can help you understand your legal options and fight to get you the most compensation possible. Learn the top three reasons to hire a personal injury lawyer and how the attorneys from Cofman Townsley can help after an accident.
As a car accident victim, you likely feel extraordinary stress after your accident. You may face financial struggles due to hospital bills, lost wages, and emotional distress related to the crash.
Adding the stress of filing an insurance claim and negotiating with uncooperative and unsympathetic insurance adjusters for a fair settlement on your own can be challenging. Hiring an attorney can minimize the anxiety you experience during the legal process. Your attorney from Cofman Townsley will do the following on your behalf:
- Explain Your Legal Options: Hiring an attorney can give you peace of mind by knowing your legal options. Your attorney can go over all possible outcomes of your case, help you estimate a fair settlement, and inform you of the steps you need to take to move forward in seeking compensation.
- File a Claim with the Negligent Driver’s Insurance: Without an experienced attorney by your side, you must complete all necessary paperwork on your own. Filing your own claim opens you up to easily avoided mistakes and missed deadlines. Our attorneys will handle the complex legal paperwork for you, so you can focus on recovering.
- Negotiate with the Insurance Company: Insurance companies are notoriously tightfisted and often lowball victims. They may try to interview you without an attorney and get you to admit fault. They may also try to pressure you into accepting a low settlement offer that doesn’t cover your damages or mislead you about your rights after a crash. Our attorneys have experience fighting these unscrupulous insurance companies and understand how to negotiate to achieve fair settlements for our clients.
Building a winning legal case against an insurance company is challenging, especially for an accident victim without legal experience. Arguing a case, gathering evidence, and negotiating with insurance companies are skills cultivated over years of handling personal injury cases. If you attempt to build your case on your own, you may lose out on compensation due to missing or irrelevant evidence.
An experienced attorney can bolster your claim with the insurance company, stressing the severity of your damages, proving you were not at fault, and convincing them to settle for a reasonable amount. If they refuse to pay, your lawyer can continue building your case for representation at trial. Your attorney from Cofman Townsley will build your case by:
- Gathering all photos, videos, or security footage of the accident
- Using police reports, weather reports, and witness statements to prove how the accident happened and who was at fault
- Working with expert witnesses, such as doctors or professional accident recreations
- Using your medical records, including hospital stays, prescribed medication, physical therapy, and mental health treatment, to show your injuries and what they cost you physically, financially, and mentally
Working with a skilled attorney can help you maximize your compensation after an accident. They can do this by helping you understand what your case is worth and negotiating with the insurance company for a fair settlement, so you can avoid accepting a lowball settlement. Once you accept a settlement, there is no opportunity to get more money later, even if it runs out long before your bills do.
A lawyer can calculate what your settlement amount should be based on all economic factors, including medical care, lost wages, and temporary or permanent disability. They can also estimate damages for non-economic elements like pain and suffering and other ways your injury negatively affects your life that you may not have considered on your own.
Insurance companies understand that accident victims are often emotionally and financially vulnerable after a collision. They may exploit your vulnerability by offering you an unfair settlement, denying your claim, or trying to prove you were at fault for the accident. They may even try to scare you by telling you that if you don’t accept their first offer, you will lose out on getting any compensation at all, which is untrue.
Your attorney at Cofman Townsley can negotiate with the insurance company on your behalf to maximize compensation. They can present evidence of your injuries and the other driver’s negligence, such as witness statements and medical records, to convince the insurance company to pay you the full amount that you are rightfully owed.
Personal Injury Attorneys at Cofman Townsley
Working with a skilled attorney is critical to ensure you receive a fair settlement after an accident. Without representation, you may fall victim to manipulative insurance company tactics and lose out on damages that could help you rebuild your life.
If you have been injured in a car accident, call Cofman Townsley today to schedule a free consultation. Don’t risk representing yourself; let one of our St. Louis car accident lawyers handle your case and get the peace of mind and compensation you deserve.