What You Need to Do When You Plan to File a Personal Injury Lawsuit
No one expects to be in a motor vehicle crash but many are. It has been estimated that more than 37,000 people in the United States are killed each year on its roads and highways, according to the Association for Safe International Road Travel (ASIRT). A lot of these accidents are caused by someone driving under the influence or using a device. It has been estimated that at any given moment, during the day, there are more than 660,000 people driving while texting or playing with their radio. Almost 1.1 million people were arrested for the infraction of driving after using alcohol or some other substance, in 2015. Drunk driving hurts one person every two minutes. If you were in an accident that you did not cause, personal injury law firms recommend you do the following.
- Get medical treatment as soon as you can. There are a few reasons this is so important. From a medical standpoint, doctors and other medical professionals can do the most to help you and your injuries if they see you right away. Secondly, you may not know how serious your injuries are until you are seen by a qualified doctor. From a legal perspective, not going to the hospital or doctor when you clearly need to look a lot like you are trying to make your injuries look worse than they are. That will do a lot of damage to your credibility and case.
- Follow all medical advice that you are given. You want to get the biggest and best settlement you can from the responsible insurance company. That insurance company wants to pay as little as they can get away with. They will do whatever they can to reach that goal. That means, they may check to see if you are as injured as you say you are. If you go to work when your doctor has said you cannot, they will use that as a reason to not pay you. Follow all of the medical instructions to the letter and you will be fine.
- T Go in and talk to some personal injury law firms. Experienced and qualified personal injury law firms can help you get what you need to recover. You should take advantage of most law firm’s policy to give free first consultations and bring questions with you. You should ask:
- What is your billing policy? All law firms have their own billing system and even if they promise to not bill you unless you win, that means they will not charge a fee. You may be on the hook for other expenses.
- How much experience do you have in the courtroom and negotiating? Most people do not realize that over 96% of these cases are settled through negotiations but you want someone comfortable in front of a judge, too.
- How long have you worked in personal injury law? You want someone who is passionate about what they do and will go to the matt for your and your case. This is not the time to hire someone who is “phoning it in.”
- Get as much documentation as you can. Get all of the documentation from your medical treatments. You should even tell the medical professionals you plan to file this kind of lawsuit so they can keep records to help you. Also, get the records from your accident. If the police were called and the other driver was arrested, that can be of help to personal injury attorneys. You should also get video and pictures of the scene of the accident. If you cannot go by, have a friend or family member do it for you.
- Talk to witnesses at the scene. Find out if other people saw what happened. If you do not go to the hospital immediately, look around. You can also go back to where your accident happened and see if there is any video of the accident.
If you have been hurt, getting help from one of the personal injury law firms near you can make all the difference in your case and settlement so start looking early after your accident for the right lawyer.