Why You Should Never Settle Without Talking to a Personal Injury Attorney

When you've been injured in an accident that was someone else's fault, it can be frustrating to wait for compensation that you need to use to get your life back in order, but you should never settle a personal injury case without first consulting an experienced personal injury attorney. In fact, if an insurance company has come running quickly to offer you a settlement, knowing that you've never seen a lawyer, a red flag should be going up. Insurance companies are businesses, and they don't offer money to people who don't have a valid claim against their insureds. If you've got a good enough case to get a fast offer from an insurance company, then you have a case that might garner a much better offer with representation from a knowledgeable personal injury attorney.

The temptation to sign on the dotted line and collect a fast check can be incredibly difficult to resist, especially if you've lost wages from missing work, and especially if an insurance adjustor is giving you the "it's now or never" routine, telling you that the offer is only good for a limited time. Here are just a few of the reasons why you should never fall for that age-old insurance company line.

Statistically, people who hire attorneys get larger settlements. Statistics prove that people who leap to accept quick settlement offers made by insurance companies usually wind up with only a fraction of what they could have had, if they had consulted a personal injury attorney. In fact, the settlement offer that was extended to you on a "limited time only" basis is likely to be what the industry refers to as "nuisance value" - the amount necessary to make an uninformed claimant "go away".

You Could be Hurt Worse than You Realize. Particularly when people have been hurt in accidents that involve catastrophic forces, like automobile wrecks, train derailments, or aviation accidents, to name a few, certain kinds of extremely debilitating injuries may not begin to show symptoms for months. For example, many people who suffer a whiplash injury think that recovery is well under way when their soreness starts to fade, so they can be taken by surprise several months later when evidence of traumatic brain injury can begin to surface - changes in mood, loss of concentration, memory losses, loss of appetite, a lost sex drive, and even more severe symptoms. Insurance companies try to settle cases before these far more serious and costly injuries start to show up. If you settle too soon, you could be left with the expense of seeking treatment for hidden injuries.

You could sign away more than you intend. Although it's unethical, it happens; an insurance adjustor presents you with a "release", full of confusing legal terminology, and he tells you that you are only releasing the company on a limited issue. In reality, your signature might grant a release on other issues that the adjustor didn't mention to you orally. Never sign a release without at least getting a personal injury attorney to read it and translate the legalese for you.

You may not know all of the items of damage that can be compensated. Attorneys ensure that you are compensated fully for every item of damage caused by someone else's carelessness. A personal injury lawyer can effectively gather evidence about the circumstances and cause of the accident; pull together your medical records and testimony from physicians; develop a history of your earnings and education; and obtain opinions from outside experts, like accident reconstructionists, medical specialists, occupational experts, economists, mental health professionals, and others.

Your personal injury attorney uses this evidence to calculate the full value of your damages claim, including current and future medical expenses, lost wages and future lost earnings, present and future pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of consortium, and where appropriate, evidence to support punitive damages and attorney's fees, should the matter go to court. An attorney who practices personal injury law will also make sure that all of this evidence is presented to the insurance company, forcing the company to see your case as much more than a mere nuisance.

If you've never heard of some of these items of personal injury damages, then you're already under-valuing your own claim. The insurance adjustor certainly isn't going to mention them, if you don't.

Personal injury lawsuits are complicated. Insurance companies don't view individuals acting alone as a serious threat of litigation. They know that, even if you managed to successfully file a lawsuit in the right court and name all of the appropriate parties, insurance defense attorneys would immediately begin a series of procedural moves designed to make you fold, overburdening you with thousands upon thousands of pages of confusing legal paperwork.

Most personal injury attorneys provide free consultations, so there is really no reason not to at least discuss your case with an experienced personal injury lawyer. When you are represented by a knowledgeable personal injury attorney, insurance companies view your case as a real threat of litigation, with the potential to expose them to large court verdicts. Insurance companies may be much more motivated to settle for an amount that fairly compensates you for the harm you have suffered.

All content on Accidents.com is for informational purposes only and is NOT intended as legal or medical advice. Please seek advice from a professional on any related topics.

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