After an accident that leads to an injury, you may find yourself navigating through a challenging and complicated period of recovery, financial strain, and legal issues. While you may want to try and keep things simple and pursue a personal injury claim on your own, there are significant benefits to retaining a personal injury attorney, and retaining one can lead to securing you the best possible outcome for your case. In this article we will be delving into the adversarial tactics that an insurance company will deploy against someone without legal representation as well as outline how hiring an attorney can have a positive impact on your personal injury claim.
The Insurance Company’s Advantage
Insurance companies will try their best to paint themselves as someone who is always there for you, but this could not be further from the truth. Despite their friendly advertisements and cute jingles insurance companies operate with the primary goal of maximizing their profits, no matter what. This typically means trying to minimize the payouts on any claim, a practice that becomes significantly easier if they are dealing with a claimant who lacks legal representation. Insurance companies will typically deploy a few strategies to try and take advantage of you, these are:
- Quick Settlement Offers: While a quick offer might seem great, it is a common tactic an insurer will use with an unrepresented claimant. Insurance companies are betting on your lack of knowledge regarding the true value of your case, hoping you will take a low offer. These offers are often much lower than what is fair or necessary to cover your long-term expenses related to your injuries, and are typically given out to try and get you out of their hair as soon as possible.
- Delay Tactics: On the flip side, an insurance company will also deliberately try and delay your proceedings as much as possible. Insurers have time on their hands and know that financial pressure is likely to build on you, pushing you towards accepting a settlement that might be much lower than what you deserve.
- Misinterpretation of Statements: Insurers are adept at twisting your words or taking a statement out of context, the goal of this is to try and minimize their liability for your claim and discredit your account of the incident. When giving a statement to an insurance company it is always best to proceed with caution as anything you say may be misconstrued against you.
- Request for Unnecessary Information: Insurance companies will often request excessive and unnecessary documentation or information that is not relevant to your claim. This tactic is used to try and overwhelm you and complicate the claims process and to try and discourage you from pursuing the compensation you deserve.
The Role of a Personal Injury Attorney
While an insurance company tries their hardest to minimize your claim, an attorney makes sure that everything is taken seriously. A personal injury attorney will work as hard as possible to put you in the best position to receive a fair settlement or judgment. A skilled personal injury attorney will work their hardest to get you the compensation that you deserve, here is how they make a significant difference in your case:
- Expert Evaluation: A personal injury lawyer is well versed and experienced in all injury claims, this expertise allows them to accurately assess all aspects of your injury case. They will take into account your current and future medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, and any other damages that are pertinent to your case and make sure that the insurance company takes all of these into account as a part of your injury claim.
- Negotiation Skills: Car accident lawyers typically have years of experience in dealing with insurance companies. This means your attorney will be familiar with their tactics and will fight fervently on your behalf against any low offers for your case.
- Litigation: If a fair settlement is unable to be reached, a personal injury lawyer will take your case to trial on your behalf. The litigation process is a time consuming and expensive endeavor that involves your lawyer taking months to prepare a well researched case to a court of your peers. The threat of litigation can be a strong leverage tool as well, as some insurers would rather settle your case instead of wasting their companies resources on a trial.
- Stress Reduction: Managing your recovery as well as your own legal claim can be a huge burden. An attorney will try to alleviate that burden as much as possible so that you can focus on what is really important, your recovery.
- No Upfront Costs: Most personal injury lawyers work on a contingency fee basis. This means that your attorney will only get paid if they win your case. This contingency fee allows you to put your case in an attorney’s hands as you can trust that their interests align with yours as they are just as motivated as you to get the best possible outcome for your case.
A personal injury claim is designed to be as complicated as possible to handle alone so that an insurance company can use their vast resources and arsenal of tactics to minimize your claim and pay you as little as possible for your injuries. This is not right, if you or someone you know has been injured by the negligence of someone else it is crucial that you get into contact with the best personal injury lawyers in Utah at LifeLaw Personal Injury. Our team of personal injury lawyers will try and make the legal process as simple as possible so that you can focus on your recovery and wellbeing. If you have been injured do not let an insurance company take advantage of you, contact us today for a free consultation and to discuss your options further.