Finding the best attorney for car accidents is crucial for obtaining the best results for your personal injury claim. There are many qualified car accident attorneys in the Charlotte, North Carolina area, which includes Matthews, Gastonia, Indian Trail, Mint Hill, and the surrounding areas. Layton Law is proud of our 4.9-star rating on Google, which is the result of client experiences with our firm. In our opinion, the best attorney for your car accident will depend on a few key factors:
- Location – The location of the car accident attorney may not be as crucial as you think when choosing the best attorney for car accidents. We estimate that 90% of the car accident claims we handle settle outside of court. This means a lawsuit never has to be filed, and you never have to make an appearance of any kind. Your car accident attorney works on your case and obtains the best settlement offer possible. Then, you get to decide whether to take that settlement.
- Experience – The experience of your car accident attorney is something you will want to establish in a free consultation with the attorney’s office. Our office offers free consultations with an attorney. You’ll not only get your questions answered, but you will get a feel for whether you think you are going to work well with our firm.
- Fit—Much of your personal injury settlement process will be governed by how good a ‘fit’ you are with the attorney working on your car accident case. Reaching a settlement with an insurance company requires extensive work on the personal injury attorney’s part. Make sure you choose a law office committed to keeping you informed about the process as it progresses. While your primary job is to complete all of your medical treatment related to the accident, you also need to know where you are in the process of settling. Our office understands that you’ve been through a life-changing experience. We understand the desire to be part of the process of reaching a settlement.
- Strategy – Every law firm has a different strategy for maximizing the value of your claim. A diligent car accident attorney researches the driver who hit you, examines each code entered into the police report, and reaches out to the attending officer, when necessary, to help the firm understand why the officer drafted the accident report the way they did. These insights turn into persuasive arguments which are used to boost the value of your claim.
- Your Goals – We want to know what your goal is reaching a settlement. Quite often, when we sign up a new personal injury client, they let us know they have never worked with a car accident attorney before. While we handle car accident claims every day, you’re new to the process. We make sure you understand each phase of the process. We also want to know what your goal is for the outcome. While some clients simply want as much money as possible, clients also desire the satisfaction of holding another party responsible for their actions and being treated fairly. The demand package we send out to the insurance company outlines not only your injuries and our legal theory as to liability but also outlines why you deserve what we are demanding from the other side.
What Happens After Choosing An Attorney For Your Car Accident?
Once you decide on what you believe to be the best attorney for car accidents, you’ll want to know what the next steps are in developing your case against the other driver. Once hired, our firm immediately begins work on the following:
- Sending a letter of representation to the other driver’s insurance company. This puts the insurance company on notice that we represent you. It also means you stop receiving communication from the insurance company. This includes requests for a recorded statement, which we do not allow our clients to provide to insurance companies unless a lawsuit has been filed.
- Communication with medical providers. By letting medical providers know we represent you, they are aware of where to send your medical records and billing as soon as your treatment is completed. In many cases, when a medical provider knows you are represented by a car accident attorney, they will wait to be paid until a settlement is reached. Our firm works with hundreds of medical providers in the Charlotte area, and we have their contact information on file to let them know we represent you. The relationships we have formed over the years with medical providers also mean that we may be able to negotiate your medical bills for you as part of the settlement. This means more money from the settlement goes to you, the injured party.
- Speaking with witnesses. If there are witnesses to the accident, we touch base with them early in the process, in hopes of obtaining a written or oral statement from them that supports your case. Witnesses have a short memory, so it’s important to establish communication early on in the process when the witness’s memory is fresh, and they can give a detailed account of what they saw. When we can provide a witness affidavit as part of our demand package, we increase the value of your claim.
- Understanding your journey back to health. Our clients’ lives are dramatically changed by car accidents. The value of your case is more than simply the payment of your medical bills and some money for pain and suffering. There are many factors that can increase the value of your case; however, if your car accident attorney does not discover them, they never make it into the settlement discussion. Many clients miss key events due to a car accident—the birth of a child, a graduation ceremony, milestone birthdays of family members, etc. All of these are components of your personal injury claim and should be accounted for and outlined in your demand.
Future Treatment After Your Car Accident
Many clients never recover fully from a car accident. By closely examining your medical records, we can discover where your doctor has indicated that you may need treatment in the future, long after you’ve settled your personal injury claim. We can further establish that need by asking your medical provider for a statement that outlines future treatment you may need. We can also estimate the cost of future treatment. As you may predict, these are additional factors that are implemented in our settlement strategy when trying to reach a fair result for you. Depending upon the situation, we may work with your doctors to obtain what is known as an Opinion Letter, where the doctor speaks directly to your future medical needs which are a direct result of the car accident.
Speak With A Car Accident Attorney Today
If you’ve been injured in an accident, do not delay. Speak with a personal injury lawyer today. You’ll receive the piece of mind that comes with knowing your options, and we hope you will decide that The Layton Law Firm is the best attorney for car accidents. All personal injury consultations are free. They can be done in person, on the phone, or by Zoom. Call us at 704.749.7747 or click here for a FREE CONSULTATION. We will call you today.