Car accidents occur every single day, and many of these accidents cause injuries to those involved. A person who is injured from a car accident that he or she did not cause has the legal right to collect money from the person who caused the accident to happen. When severe injuries and damages occur, the injured party can collect this money by settling with the insurance company or filing a lawsuit. If you are in this position and do not want to file a lawsuit, here are several tips to help you settle without using a lawsuit.
Talk to the Insurance Company
The first thing you can do to try to settle your case is talk to the insurance company that is handling the case. When you do this, you should use extreme caution, though. The insurance company might offer you a settlement amount right away, but they will also require that you sign a document that states that this money settles the entire deal. If you sign this and decide you did not receive a large enough compensation check, you can never go back to the insurance company and ask for more. The amount you receive is the final and only amount you will get from the case.
As long as you are aware of this, there is nothing wrong with talking to the insurance company to find out how much money they would be willing to give you. If you cannot negotiate a high-enough amount, you will need to hire a personal injury attorney to help you settle your car accident case.
Hire a Personal Injury Attorney
Hiring a lawyer does not mean that you will have to file a formal lawsuit to settle the case. Instead, it simply means that you have a legal professional helping you settle your case. Most personal injury lawyers are able to work out great settlements outside of court, and here are some of the benefits of having an attorney helping you with this:
- You only pay if you win – Most personal injury attorneys offer payment terms involving contingency fees. These fees work by taking a percentage of a person's settlement amount after the person receives it. The injured party then receives the remaining amount.
- Your attorney is an expert at negotiating – Attorneys who work in this field are excellent negotiators. This means that your attorney will most likely be able to persuade the insurance company to pay you a lot more money than what they were originally offering you at the start of the case.
- You will get more money – Even after paying your lawyer the contingency fees, you will most likely receive a larger settlement from the case.
Lawyers are also good at working out settlement amounts without going to court, and this is primarily because they know how to do this. Lawyers in this field know exactly how much cases are worth, and they know what types of things they can request compensation for. They also know how much insurance companies typically pay to settle cases. The result of this is that you will not have to handle the case and the negotiations yourself, and you will most likely end up settling without going into a courtroom.
If you are struggling with injuries that occurred from a recent car accident case, you should contact a personal injury law firm. When you do this, you can talk to a lawyer for free, and you will not have to hire the lawyer if you feel that he or she is not a good fit for you and the case you are trying to settle.
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