Have you been severely hurt in an accident caused by someone else? Check out these 4 personal injury tips, give our Orlando attorneys a call.
1) Accepting the First Settlement Offer
You should never accept a first offer from an insurance company without first speaking with an attorney. Insurance companies know that once an attorney is involved, especially a skilled attorney, that they will have to pay full value of that claim.
Clients oftentimes don’t understand or underestimate the full value of their potential claim. There may be avenues of compensation that they never considered. This is why it is so important to hire an experienced personal injury attorney here in Florida to help you navigate these waters as soon as an accident happens. Do not hesitate. Do not accept any first offer from an insurance company without first speaking with an attorney.
2) Available Damages
Every case is different, but certainly you can be compensated for the physical injuries you sustained in the way of medical bills getting paid back. Also, there is a possibility of getting compensated for pain and suffering. This can be a massive recovery depending on how your life has been affected; if you receive a permanent injury, for example, things that you’re going to need to do for the rest of your life to compensate for that injury. There’s also claim for lost wages if you lost time from work, the salary that you’re not able to accrue. Also, the potential to make money in the future, loss of future earning capacity. There are claims that can be made for emotional distress caused by this accident. Sometimes family members might be able to make claims based on your injuries as well.
The specifics of every case are different, and the details are very important. It’s very important that you hire an attorney who is going to turn over every stone and attack every potential claim for you.
3) Role of Expert Witnesses
In personal injury cases, sometimes your attorney will retain an expert. Sometimes that expert will counter the testimony of a medical expert who might say that your injuries are not related to this accident or that your treatment was excessive or not necessary. Sometimes we hire an expert to counter testimony regarding liability – how an accident happened, who might have been at fault.
Experts are critically important to cases because we always prepare our cases as if we are going to trial, even if they do not. Insurance companies either valuate your case or don’t based on what they believe the expert testimony will be taken at jury trial. It’s very important that you hire a law firm who has relationships with these types of experts, who is prepared to hire them to counter the insurance company and their experts. This will help extract the most value from your case.
4) Case Value
Every single case is very specific and unique. The value of a case tends to be tied to how much medical bills there are related to your injuries. Now, that’s just a starting point.
The value of a case from the medical bills can shoot upwards for things like pain and suffering, lost time from work – which includes lost wages – loss of future earning capacity. Perhaps you’ve lost the ability to continue doing what you did before. There are so many other circumstances surrounding your case outside of just what the medical bills are that can raise the value. Consequently, there are things that can lower the value of the case if there’s any fault that could be attributed to you.
Insurance companies use many different methods of trying to reduce the value of your case. It’s our job to do the opposite. It’s critically important that you hire an experienced attorney who has been doing this for a very long time to be able to extract the most value from your case.
Have you or your loved one been seriously hurt in an accident caused by someone else in Florida and have questions about these 4 personal injury tips? Contact our experienced Orlando personal injury lawyers today for a free consultation and case evaluation.
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