Is Your Injury Severe Enough to Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer?
At least once in a lifetime, everyone experiences injuries due to accidents. In most cases, the injuries are minor, and people can go back to their lives in just a couple of days. But the most severe injuries caused by accidents due to another person’s fault need to be addressed to a lawyer. How do you know if the injury is severe enough, so it’s worth it to hire a personal injury lawyer? Obviously, you want to get through the process of solving the situation as soon as possible, but at the same time, you have the right to get compensation.
Not all accidents are equally the same or need guidance from a lawyer. But sometimes, the injuries are severe enough to claim compensation. So, hiring a lawyer is the smartest decision to make, so you can improve your chances to protect your future. When should you hire a personal injury lawyer? The answer might depend on the severity of your injuries.
Here are some tips to use that will help you determine if the injury is severe enough to hire a personal injury lawyer.
Your injuries are bad
One of the biggest reasons why you should contact a personal injury lawyer is if your injuries are severe enough. And we’re not talking about scratches: serious injuries can cause shocking brain injuries, broken bones, permanent scarring, and some might require hospitalization and surgery. This is personal pain and sorrow and can have severe psychological results, such as anxiety, depression, insomnia, fear, and more.
Permanent disabled
The injuries resulting from an accident can leave a person permanently disabled. It’s perhaps the biggest reason why you should call a personal injury lawyer. The long-term effects will cost you a fortune and may affect your ability to go to work and continue to do the activities you used to enjoy before the accident. Look after yourself, it’s in your interest to make sure that you can continue to live freely after the injury happens. For this type of case, the personal injury lawyer will be able to determine what your injuries are worth and fight for the compensation you deserve.
The insurance company
Some people might refuse to fight for receiving compensation just because their insurance company doesn’t offer a settlement. You shouldn’t stand for that – a personal injury lawyer will go against the insurance company and come to an agreement. Lawyers are better equipped to go against insurance companies, and they will know best how to negotiate the process. And if you need funds for hiring a lawyer, get a loan and get the legal funding to pursue your case.
The longer you will wait, the lesser you will get. The best lawyers will handle your case uniquely and get it done to the deadline. The job of the lawyer is to show the judges the truth of the situation: that the culprit isn’t right and that you lost something valuable due to this accident. Do not wait until making a decision. It’s important to act with promptitude, so hire a lawyer as soon as possible – each day that passes, you lose evidence. In case of a major accident, a good lawyer will be able to show the jury much evidence, so they can have more time to take the right decision.
How much time do you have to hire a lawyer after the accident?
Although you might have heard that two years is the limit time when you can fill your application for compensation, there are plenty of instances that require less than two years. In this case, if you don’t send your application in time, you might lose all your rights to make a claim. But there might be exceptions as if you were younger than 18 years old when the accident happened, then you may still have the right to request compensation. Depending on the type of accident you’ve had, you may have more than two years. If a lawyer will say that it’s too late, make sure you don’t give up, and ask several personal injury lawyers if you’re still qualified to make a claim. As you can see, there might be important exceptions that might be applied to your case. So, make sure that you’ve received thoughtful answers before making a decision.
How to find the right personal injury lawyer
You may already know a lawyer, either you’ve met them before in some legal matter, or because some else recommended them to you. But if this lawyer has little experience in handling such cases, it might not be a good fit for you. So, you should reconsider hiring another one, that is more skilled and has more knowledge.
What should you look for when hiring a lawyer?
General experience: the lawyer’s background matters a lot. You should ask questions like:
- How long the lawyer has been in practice?
- Does the lawyer most often represent claimants or defendants?
- Does he or she have enough experience with your case?
In every law practice, lawyers work together on cases. So, it means that less experienced lawyers can handle another lawyer’s tasks. If work gets done more quickly, this can benefit you. But if the inexperienced lawyer entirely takes your case, then you should choose a more qualified, experienced, and expensive lawyer.
And don’t consider too much the size of the company from which you choose your lawyer. In most cases, it has nothing to do with how well the lawyer handles the case. You might imagine that a larger and more modern law office can give you a better settlement, but this is rarely true. Your case can easily get lost in the tons of other cases at a big law company. Also, bigger law offices have the habit of requesting money for expenses that aren’t accurate. That money could be used on much more important things.
If you’ve suffered traumatic brain injuries due to an accident, and you are unsure what to do now to recover, you should consult with a lawyer immediately.
