Following an accident with significant personal injuries, you may find yourself wondering if you really need a personal injury lawyer. Does a personal injury lawyer really help you following an accident? What exactly does a personal injury lawyer do, anyway? With a better understanding of exactly what a personal injury lawyer can accomplish, you can make a better decision about whether a personal injury lawyer can help you following your accident.
Personal Injury Law: Defined
A personal injury lawyer in Nevada works with clients who have suffered injuries in serious accidents. Those accidents may include slip and fall accidents, construction accidents, auto accidents, product liability accidents, medical malpractice incidents, and nursing home injury and abuse cases. To file a personal injury suit, clients will typically need to have suffered significant injuries, including:
- Traumatic brain injury
- Spinal cord damage
- Amputations
- Broken bones
- Organ damage
- Burns
- Sprains and strains
- Severe lacerations
The severity of the injury will depend on the type of accident and the cause. In a personal injury case, the victim will file a claim against the person or entity that caused his injuries. The person or entity that caused those injuries may include both private individuals and companies or corporations that failed to take adequate precautions to protect their customers. In the claim, the victim will list physical and financial damages suffered as a result of the accident and seek compensation for those damages.
Working With a Personal Injury Lawyer: The Benefits
Filing a personal injury claim usually involves working with the insurance company that covers the party responsible for those injuries. Often, retaining a lawyer can offer significant benefits to your claim. A personal injury attorney’s duties include:
Collecting Evidence Concerning the Accident
In a personal injury case, often, the victim must prove that the other party caused his injuries through negligence or deliberate malice. Unlike a criminal case, the victim of an accident need not completely eliminate any doubt that the other party caused the accident; however, the victim may need to prove that the other party contributed substantially to the accident. An attorney can help with the following:
- Access security footage from the accident scene. In the case of auto accidents, security footage from parking lots and traffic cameras may prove which vehicle failed to follow the law or took action that caused harm to another driver.
- Speak to witnesses. Often, lawyers can draw recollections from witnesses that can help put together the scene of the accident and help better understand exactly what led to the victim’s injuries.
- Look through pictures to find vital evidence. Did you take pictures of the scene of the accident following your injuries? By looking through those photos, an attorney can often reconstruct the scene of the accident and provide important proof that the other party caused your injuries.
- Connect with expert witnesses. Sometimes, an expert witness can help put together the events that led to the accident, including reconstructing car accidents and determining fault in other types of accidents. Expert witnesses can also help explain concerns or events to the judge if the case must go to court. Most lawyers regularly work with expert witnesses, so they can provide access and assistance to their clients.
Negotiating With the Insurance Company
In many cases, the insurance company responsible for covering your accident may try to decrease the compensation that it owes. The insurance company may, for example, issue a low settlement offer that does not cover all of your medical expenses and other costs following the accident, or the adjuster might try to get you to admit fault in your accident. An attorney can offer a great deal of assistance in your negotiations with the insurance company.
- An attorney will help you understand the full compensation amount that you deserve. Some accident victims take the insurance company’s initial offer because they do not know better. They might also take that offer because they need the funds in their hands faster. By working with a personal injury attorney, however, you can develop a better understanding of how much the insurance company really owes you, preventing you from accepting a low settlement offer and missing out on the funds you deserve.
- An attorney can negotiate on your behalf. Not only does the attorney know what to say to help move the process forward, but also an attorney may take over negotiations on your behalf, removing that stress from your shoulders. When you work with an attorney, you can turn that responsibility over to the law firm instead of having to worry about it yourself. Once you’ve retained an attorney, you can refer all questions from the insurance company to your attorney.
- Many times, an attorney can increase the compensation the insurance company offers. Sometimes, simply showing up with an attorney lets the insurance company know you will go the extra mile to pursue compensation. As a result, just having an attorney can increase the damages you receive from the insurance company. In other cases, the attorney can help fight for the compensation you deserve even when an insurance company tries to place limits on the funds that you receive.
Providing Valuable Legal Advice
How long will it take before you have the funds you need in your hands? How much should you expect from your claim? An attorney can answer those key questions for you, helping you better prepare your finances and your plans for the weeks and months following your accident. Not only that, an attorney can provide you with valuable legal advice about the entire process, including:
- What you should and shouldn’t say to the insurance company
- What to do if the insurance company denies your claim
- How to handle conversations with the insurance company
- What to post on social media during the claims process
- How to maximize your claim
If you suffered serious injuries in an accident, an attorney can help not only get the funds you deserve, but also remove some of the stress that you must deal with during the claims process. Contacting an attorney as soon as possible after the accident can help get the funds you need in your hands.