Hiring A Personal Injury Lawyer

Personal Injury is most important to us because it involves your health. Essentially, you are attempting to establish that another party—in a car accident or a slip and fall—is responsible for an injury you sustained. As a result, you are asking to be reimbursed for the expenses, pain and suffering you’ve already sustained, and then additionally asking to be compensated for the same in the future. While every client agrees there’s no amount of money that can make up for lost health, the goal is to obtain fair value for you if you’ve been injured.

Hiring A Personal Injury Lawyer

Some clients wrestle with the idea of hiring a personal injury lawyer. Perhaps you feel like you’re not the “kind of person who sues people,” or maybe you’re concerned that you could do better settling on your own without paying a lawyer fee. Both of these are legitimate concerns, but we encourage you to move past them. If you’ve been injured, you deserve the protection provided by having someone represent you. Our experience is that hiring a personal injury lawyer generally leads to better results for clients, as compared to taking on the case by themselves.

Your Inexperience Is A Detriment

A primary concern is that the insurance company may try to take advantage of your inexperience. This will manifest itself in seemingly minor ways, but in the end they add up to a significant difference for you, the injured party. You’ll find you’re only being offered the low end of value for your personal property damaged in a car accident; your injuries are being down-played by the adjuster; your lost wages are being challenged as excessive, and your medical treatment sometimes characterized as excessive. These are common strategies employed by the adjuster as negotiation techniques. If you take them to be facts because you aren’t accustomed to negotiating these items, you’ll end up settling for something less than full value.

Contributory Negligence

I get calls every day from clients who have been told by the insurance adjuster that their claim is being denied based on contributory negligence. This is yet another common strategy employed by insurance companies to devalue the claim of the injured. While contributory negligence is an issue in North Carolina, it is often used to convince the injured party they aren’t entitled to be compensated. An experienced personal injury lawyer will examine the facts associated you’re your claim, research the existing case law for similar fact patterns, and identify situations where juries in the past have found in favor of the injured party in circumstances like yours. This assists dramatically in overcoming the contributory negligence argument.

Case Value

Your personal injury lawyer not only has his or her own experience regarding past clients with similar injuries, but also has access to the collective knowledge of other personal injury lawyers in the community, and databases of research which help to determine the reasonable value of a claim based on injuries and factual circumstances. This helps to ensure you’re not settling to less than you deserve.

Negotiating Your Claim

Your lawyer will assist tremendously in negotiating your medical bills. This adds immediate value to your claim because it means more settlement dollars go to you instead of your medical providers. North Carolina has statutory protections for some medical providers which result in medical liens against personal injury settlement awards; however, your lawyer can present a proposed settlement to those medical providers and encourage them to accept a reduced amount of their bill in exchange for getting the case settled quickly. This involves presenting information to the medical providers which shows them not only their pro-rata share as compared to other medical providers, but also establishes with them the uncertainty of proceeding with a lawsuit which could result in the medical provider recovering nothing.

Your Time Is Valuable

Most personal injury cases take months to resolve, especially if the company feels they are not responsible. When you are represented by an injury lawyer, the stress and anxiety associated with communicating with the insurance company falls on the law firm, not on you. You’re able to get on with your life, knowing the law firm is moving your case forward by collecting medical records, medical billing, and negotiating your settlement with the adjuster.

Best Results

While I never promise specific results to clients, our experience is that clients rights are better protected with a personal injury law firm on their side. That protection manifests itself in many ways, one of which is knowing you’re receiving full value for your claim. Once a claim is settled and you release the insurance company and the at-fault party, there is no turning back. Our belief is it’s in your best interest to have professional guidance during this process.

Paying Your Lawyer

Our firm traditionally works on a contingency basis. This means “we don’t get paid unless you get paid.” We love this arrangement because we believe it inspires the law firm to always act in the best interest of the client. You can count on the fact that the lawyer isn’t working just for the sake of getting paid by the hour—they’re working on your case because they believe in the case. Similarly, when you receive an offer which is ‘low’ or under value, you can count on your attorney communicating that to you. Maximizing your settlement amount is in the interest of both you and your attorney. Similarly, if you receive a reasonable or fair offer, you’ll find your attorney will communicate this to you as well. The decision is always your as to whether to settle, but it’s a tough decision and it helps to know the lawyer is on the same side of the table as you.

If you or someone you love has been injured by fault of a company please call us to find out your rights. We are more than happy to hear your story and give you a complimentary assessment of your case or claim. If we can’t take your case for some reason, we will help refer you to another trusted lawyer or law firm who can assist you. If you’d like to speak with an attorney today, call 704.749.7747 or click HERE to send us a request for a phone consultation. We hope you’ll choose to Recover With Us.