Why hire a personal injury lawyer? (2 of 2)

personal injury | July 4, 2014

Welcome back. In our last post, we began discussing why it’s important to hire an experienced personal injury lawyer after being injured in a car accident with a negligent driver.

As we said, the other driver’s insurance company — and maybe even your own insurance company — might try to lead you to believe that you will be offered a fair settlement or that you don’t need a personal injury lawyer, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Insurance companies have their own best interests in mind and routinely make unfair, low settlement offers to car accident victims. They assume that average people don’t know what they are entitled to following an accident, and they try to take advantage.

Unfortunately, for many accident victims, it takes being jerked around by insurance adjusters and disputing what a claim is worth before they finally decide to call a personal injury lawyer.

Some car accident victims worry that they will not be able to afford to hire an attorney or that they will end up getting a lower settlement after paying attorney’s fees compared to if they would have handled the case themselves.

However, hiring an experienced attorney often results in a larger amount of damages being recovered, even after attorney’s fees and costs have been factored in. That’s because an experienced personal injury lawyer knows what the accident victim is entitled to and will demand a fair settlement.

If need be, the personal injury lawyer can also file a lawsuit against the insurance company on the accident victim’s behalf, though most personal injury cases are settled before a lawsuit needs to be filed.

Just having a personal injury lawyer on your side sends a message to the insurance company that you are taking the situation seriously and you will not be accepting an unfair settlement offer.

For more information on why it’s important to consult a personal injury lawyer after a serious car accident with a negligent driver, please speak with a car accident lawyer in Sacramento.