What Does a Personal Injury Lawyer Do and Why is It Beneficial to Hire One?
A personal injury attorney is probably going to be your best friend if you’ve been involved in an accident and want to be compensated. As you may already know, they are the ones you need to call if you want to get the best possible settlement in your case.
However, you may not know what they do exactly in order to help you win the case. They basically provide you with legal representation when you’ve been injured in an accident. Their main goal is to pursue compensation for the victims of an accident.
Still, this is just an overview, as their tasks are more complex than what we’ve mentioned. Therefore, let’s see what a personal injury lawyer does and why it’s beneficial for you to hire one!
What Do Personal Injury Lawyers Do?
Naturally, what a personal injury lawyer does depends on each case, which is mainly influenced by a specialty area and the stage of the case that they are dealing with. However, there are some things that they will have to do regardless of what case they are responsible for.
- Investigating Claims – personal injury lawyers work on a contingency fee basis. This means that they usually finance the case they work on. They will put themselves at risk. This ensures that they will properly investigate and assess a claim in its initial phase. It is very likely that, if they think your case will not win, they won’t accept it.
- Evidence Gathering – as with any case or claim that is to be disputed, gathering evidence is very important. You can expect your personal injury lawyer to request certain documents from you, while they will also procure incident and police reports on their own. They may also track down witnesses and collect their statements. For comparison, they work quite like a private investigator.
- Negotiating with Insurance Companies – as mentioned before, a personal injury lawyer will make sure that you get the best possible settlement for your case. This implies negotiating with insurance companies and determining the maximum amount of compensation available. They will also communicate directly with the insurance companies and prevent you from doing anything that may endanger your claim.
- Sending Demand Letters – after investigating your claim, the lawyer may send a demand letter to an insurance company. Such a letter demands a certain amount in damages for the injured party.
- Preparing Pleadings – in case the insurance company refuses to offer the injured party a fair settlement, the lawyer will most likely prepare a complaint against the defending party.
- Conducting Discovery – the lawyer may also send interrogatories to the opposing party, asking for specific information.
- Representing Clients at Trial – if your case ends up in trial, then your personal injury lawyer can easily represent you in court, because they are familiar with the procedures and customs that it implies.
The Benefits of Hiring a Personal Injury Lawyer
As you can determine from the aforementioned, there are many benefits that come with a personal injury lawyer. The most important one is that they will get you the best possible settlement for your case.
According to statistics, claims that are not handled by a personal injury lawyer are usually settled for amounts seven to ten times less than the cases when the injured party has a lawyer by their side.
Therefore, it goes without saying that hiring a personal injury lawyer will result in nothing but benefits!
The Bottom Line
A personal injury lawyer will process all of the information they are provided with. Of course, you will be the one to give them most of it.
Therefore, it is important that, before questioning the actions of a personal injury lawyer, you make sure that you have given them all they need to win your case.
Moreover, given that most of them work on a contingency fee basis, you will not lose money if they don’t win your case. In short, there’s nothing for you to lose if you hire a personal injury lawyer!
