When to Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer

Understanding the Value of Your Personal Injury Claim

When you sustain injuries from an accident, you may explore filing a personal injury claim. However, several factors affect your compensation, including the nature of your injuries, the extent of your treatment, whether you’ll be able to return to your job, and more. Aside from the physical aspects, not hiring a personal injury lawyer can significantly affect your compensation. Theoretically, you could try representing yourself, but you may not have the best outcome. Instead, you want a skilled personal injury lawyer to represent you as they specialize in these cases.

Here are some of the reasons why you should hire a personal injury attorney for your personal injury claim:

Understanding your legal rights

Without an attorney, you may be unaware of your legal rights and the full extent of damages you are entitled to receive. There are a variety of damages you may recover in a personal injury case. However, they vary by case and may need to be presented in a particular way. For example, there are differences between lost past and future wages and making an impairment of earning capacity claim. You may need an expert report from an economist or vocational expert for your claim. Additionally, where you may file a lawsuit may affect the value of your case and how smoothly it can work its way through the court system. Personal Injury Lawyers know where cases may present better —and can plan accordingly.

Insurance companies can take advantage of you

Insurance companies may take advantage of your lack of legal knowledge in various ways. One of them is they can use any mistakes you’ve made against you. Without experience, you don’t know what you should and should not say when talking to an insurance company about your case. One wrong thing can jeopardize your entire claim, and the insurance industry will take advantage of that. You need someone who knows the strengths and weaknesses of your case and can advocate on your behalf.

Low settlement offers

Another way insurance companies will take advantage of you is by giving low settlement offers that don’t fully compensate you for your losses. Though the initial offer may sound like a lot, you can get more with a lawyer.

At Flager & Associates, we’ve seen many people try and represent themselves before contacting us. These people are generally offered much less than what an experienced personal injury can get for them. We regularly see this with clients who initially try to represent themselves. They receive offers that are 7, 8, or 9 times lower than what our firm can do for them. In one scenario, our office was able to secure a settlement that was 20 times higher than the offer they received before contacting our office.

Personal injury lawyers know how to maximize the value of your case. If you were to represent yourself, you’d typically be assigned a low-level insurance adjuster who doesn’t have the financial authority to offer you what your case is really worth. Worse, you won’t even know how bad the offer is and what else is out there.
Having a personal injury lawyer makes insurance companies pay more attention to you. They know lawyers can take a case to court, whereas if you’re representing yourself, they know you don’t have any leverage.

Unsuccessful negotiating with the insurance company or the at-fault party

After you’re injured in an accident, there may be healthcare or workers’ compensation liens on what your insurance covers. While liens can increase your case value, your health insurance company can come after you to get that money back.

Without a personal injury lawyer, you may not know how to take care of these liens or if they’re even valid. Personal injury lawyers will work with these entities to negotiate and reduce their payback. In the case that a lien is invalid, lawyers can also dispute them. All of this skill, knowledge and effective negotiation may lead to more money in your pocket — not the insurance company’s.

No access to necessary resources and lacking expertise

Without a personal injury lawyer, you may not have access to the resources and expertise needed to build a strong case and prove the extent of your damages. This can include obtaining and reviewing medical records, interviewing witnesses and obtaining witness statements, obtaining medical experts to provide reports and/or testimony, hiring an accident reconstruction expert and more. Lawyers have relationships with experts or will find the ones to best support your case, so they can get reports when necessary and add value to your case.

Don’t Fight a Personal Injury Case Alone

Essentially, you’re fighting against multinational, billion-dollar corporations with a lot of money, resources, knowledge and power. You don’t want to go against them without knowledge or experience on your side. When you hire a personal injury attorney to represent you, your interests are aligned. The better you do, the better your lawyer does, so you can rest assured they are fighting for you. Additionally, there are plenty of misconceptions about personal injury cases, but attorneys handle them day in and day out and bring the experience you need to get the best result.

Don’t leave money on the table. Let Flager & Associates represent you and your personal injury claim. Our attorneys will put the best case forward, negotiate on your behalf, and get you the best outcome possible.

If you or a loved one was injured in an accident, contact the expert personal injury lawyers at Flager & Associates today by calling (215) 953-5200. We provide free case evaluations.

Written by Adam D. Flager, Esq., Associate at Flager & Associates, PC

With his practice focused on litigation, Adam primarily represents clients in personal injury cases, such as motor vehicle, slip and fall, defective products, and construction and worksite accidents. He is licensed to practice in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the State of New Jersey, the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the District of New Jersey, and the United States Court of Appeals, 3rd Circuit. Adam received his J.D. from Widener University School of Law in 2009, where he graduated with pro-Bono Distinction.