You
may be thinking: Okay, so I get that I need an attorney right away… but what will the attorney actually do for
me?
Well,
remember how we said that no accident is “routine”? By the
same token, how an attorney serves a client’s interests will vary from accident to accident. As a
general proposition, however, a lawyer for a car accident victim will try to
take steps to ensure that the victim receives the maximum compensation possible
for the harm the accident caused. This often includes any or all of the
following steps:
Careful
Investigation of How, Who, and How Much:
Because all car accidents are distinct, lawyers
for accident sufferers usually begin by inspecting three main questions:
How did the accident happen? That is, what
chain of events, obvious or not, ended in a crash that caused a client’s injuries?
Who has legal responsibility for the crash?
In other words, what do the facts of how the accident happened say about who
had a legal duty not to act in a way that might harm others, violated in that
duty, and caused the crash?
How much has the
injury impacted the client’s life?
Specifically, what is the appropriate amount of money that a victim should
receive to compensate for all of the ways the injury has caused harm?
The answers to these questions provide a
road map, of sorts, for the attorney and the injured client to help them decide
on a strategy for seeking the compensation the client deserves. Armed with this
information, for example, the lawyer and client can decide who to pursue for
payment, and can have a sense of how much money it is realistic to obtain from
each one. The information can also help them decide whether to pursue
negotiation right away, or to take legal action, or to hold their fire and
collect more information before making a decision.
Negotiation Conducted From a Position of Strength:
One option for seeking
accountability and compensation that is almost always open to car accident
victims and their lawyers is negotiating with the parties who have legal
liability for the accident (which often includes those parties’ insurance
carriers). Lawyers frequently give careful thought to how to enter into these
negotiations to give a client the best chance of recovering the most money
possible. Perhaps the most significant consideration in that regard is the
lawyer’s assessment of when the client’s case has reached peak strength since
that is usually the most advantageous moment to press the “other side” for the
maximum payment.
Of course, lawyers and their
clients cannot always dictate the terms of negotiations. Insurance companies,
for example, have a bag of tricks they often deploy in hopes of minimizing the
amount of money they need to spend to escape liability for an accident. One
such tactic involves insurance companies trying to negotiate directly with
accident victims before they have had a chance to hire a lawyer. A calculated bet
on the part of insurance companies is represented by this. They hope to catch
accident victims at a vulnerable moment and to convince them to jump at what is
almost always a “lowball” settlement offer.
Underhanded tactics like this
illustrate why we believe it is so important for accident victims to retain
experienced car accident injury counsel right away. Dealing with aggressive
insurance adjusters gets a whole lot easier when all you have to say is “talk
to my lawyer.” Letting a lawyer take over discussions with an insurer level the
playing field, and gives you the power to decide when your case is strong
enough to press your advantage.
Skilled Trial Advocacy:
Another option car accident
victims and their lawyers virtually always have is to take legal action in the
courts against the parties with the legal liability for causing an accident.
Depending upon the facts and circumstances of the crash, the lawyer and client
may decide to file an action right away or to give negotiations a chance to
play out before suing, or that they need to collect more evidence before deciding
on a course of action.
Whatever the decision, the
most important factor in taking legal action can often end up being the skill,
experience, and reputation of the lawyer the accident victim hires to prepare
the case. We are going to clue you in on an open secret of the legal
profession: not all attorneys who advertise for car accident cases have what it
takes to take a case to trial and win. However—and this is the important
part—an injured car accident victim cannot hope to recover the maximum compensation
they deserve without a true, honest-to-goodness “trial lawyer” by his or her
side.
Here’s why. Most car accident
cases in Florida and throughout the United States “settle” before they ever see
the inside of a courtroom. However, unless the “other side” knows that the
accident victim’s lawyer has the chops to take a case to trial and win, the
other side’s lawyers and insurance representatives will never “pay” to avoid
going to court. Attaining a higher-value settlement for the clients can be achieved
just by acquiring a reputation as a trial lawyer to be feared.
Of course, some cases do not
settle. In those instances, a car accident victim always benefits from having
an attorney who wasn’t bluffing in telling the other side “we’ll see you in
court.” To be sure, no lawyer can guarantee the outcome of a trial (or
negotiation, for that matter). But accident victims give themselves the best
chance of winning when they retain legal counsel who—from Day One—looks at a
case with an eye toward how to win it in front of a judge and jury.
Waiting Costs Money:
We would be remiss not to
mention one other consideration in deciding when to get an attorney after a car
accident: Waiting costs money, potentially lots of money. The older a case is
when an attorney takes it, the less “fresh” the evidence and the more difficult
the investigation into the how, who, and how much. Witness memories fade. First
responders move on. Accident scenes get cleaned up. In short, the passage of
time steadily eats away at the top-end of the amount of money an accident
victim might hope to recover.
Then there is the “statute of
limitations,” a law that sets the deadline by which an accident victim can take
legal action in Florida courts. If you miss the deadline, you are most likely
to lose legal rights to compensation. In Florida, most car accident lawsuits
must begin no later than four years after the accident, and just two years if
the victim died in the crash. In other words, if you wait too long to get a
lawyer after a car accident, your claim will be worth zero.
Don’t Wait to Get Help:
Do not wait to retain the
services of an experienced car accident lawyer after a crash. The sooner you
act, the better off you and your case are likely to turn out. A skilled car
accident injury attorney can help you understand your options.
