You can settle a car accident claim without a lawyer with the following steps:
- Investigate the collision and compile evidence proving the fault
- Identify the liable parties and build a case against them
- Inform those parties and insurance about your claim in a demand letter
- Navigate Louisiana personal injury laws and insurance laws
- Calculate the value of all your damages, both present and future
- Negotiate for a settlement that addresses those damages
- File paperwork to initiate a lawsuit if needed
- Advocating for your interests in court
If all of these steps sound complicated, it’s because they are — and you’ll have to do them all yourself, while also healing from your injuries, dealing with medical bills, and maybe being unable to work. You’ll also need to stay within Louisiana’s statute of limitations, which is one year from the date of your accident.
When you settle a car accident claim without a lawyer, you have to handle every step of the process on your own. Not only is it time-consuming, it can be overwhelming for the majority of car accident victims. For this reason, we always recommend hiring a Louisiana car accident lawyer to take care of the legal considerations while you focus on recovering from your accident.
A personal injury lawyer can serve as your advisor, advocate, and more while you seek a car accident settlement. A reputable car accident lawyer will offer free consultations and work with you on a contingency fee basis, meaning you won’t pay anything unless you win your case.
Issues You Could Encounter While Seeking a Car Accident Settlement Without a Lawyer
Even if the claims process outlined above may seem straightforward, there are multiple points at which issues can arise. The insurance company will almost certainly push back in a number of ways when you submit your claim in an attempt to pay out as little as possible. Here are just a few of the ways in which insurance adjusters can minimize the value of your claim:
Low-ball your claim’s value
When assessing your claim, your insurance provider will probably make an initial settlement offer to “save you the hassle of negotiating” or a similar reason. However, this initial settlement offer most likely doesn’t reflect the true value of your damages, which means you’ll be on the hook to pay any further costs down the road.
In this instance, the insurer is relying on the fact that you’re stressed about mounting medical bills, in pain from your injuries, and unsure about the future, in order to get away with paying you the minimum possible amount for your damages. Hiring a law firm to represent you will allow you to focus on your life while we take care of negotiations with insurance, so you won’t have to settle for less than you deserve.
Take your statements out of context
You should always be careful of what you say after your car accident, especially when talking with insurance. Any statements you make about either the accident or your health could have an impact on your compensation. Any discussion of fault on your behalf, or even a careless comment about your actions before the crash, could invalidate your claim or lead to less compensation.
When you hire a car accident injury lawyer, we’ll communicate on your behalf with third parties to protect your rights. Our attorneys are trained to communicate properly in order to protect your claim, and we know what you’re entitled to under Louisiana law. We’re on your side and can translate your needs safely to the other party.
Suggest you are at fault
In some cases, your insurance company could claim that you caused the accident and reject your claim outright. If that happens, you’ll have to decide whether to undertake the arduous search for additional supporting evidence or to take the at-fault driver to court instead. Either way, you’ll have to fight to prove your rights to damages, which could take months.
Hiring a lawyer can help ensure that your rights are maintained. We’ll do the hard work of interviewing witnesses, tracking down police and medical reports, and compiling evidence to prove your case, so you can focus on healing. The personal injury lawyers at Gordon McKernan Injury Attorneys know what it takes to prove an accident claim, and we’ll use that knowledge to fight for you.
Advantages of hiring a car accident injury lawyer
After being injured in a traffic collision, you need time to heal without worrying about how you’ll get back on your feet, afford your medical bills, or when you’ll get back to work. Avoid stress and the possibility of further injury by hiring a car accident injury attorney to take care of your case.
When you hire Gordon McKernan Injury Attorneys, we’ll take on a lot of tasks as we represent you, but our goal throughout the process remains the same: to secure you the maximum compensation efficiently, and to serve as your advocate and advisor to help you stay as stress-free as possible. From the moment we sign on to your case, we’ll take care of all the details and keep you informed so you can make the final decision. When a Louisiana car accident lawyer represents you, we’ll do all of the following:
- Investigate your accident: We’ll invest the time and resources in collecting evidence, analyzing your car accident report, interviewing witnesses, consulting experts, and compiling everything into a strong case. We work on these cases every day, so we know what it takes to get you the compensation you deserve.
- Bring in expert witnesses: In some cases, industry expertise is needed to understand the cause of an accident or the full extent of the damages you’ve suffered. When that’s the case, we’ll work with experts to provide the evidence needed to secure your compensation.
- Identify damages you aren’t aware you can recover from: You might not be aware of all the damages you can recover, though the effects of your car accident can be far-reaching and touch multiple aspects of your life. A lawyer can help you identify your current losses and potential future damages as well, such as costs of physical therapy and rehabilitation, transportation to appointments, lost wages and promotions, your pain and suffering, and more.
- Accurately value your damages: For economic damages like medical bills and missed wages, an accurate value is fairly easy to determine—though you’ll still have to request pay stubs, gather receipts, and get estimates for repairs. For non-economic damages like pain and suffering, loss of consortium, or loss of quality of life, it can be difficult to accurately account for those losses. A personal injury lawyer can help you accurately assign a value to your damages for your demand to insurance.
- Protect your rights and serve as your advocate: Remember, insurance does not have your best interests at heart, but its own profit margins. A lawyer on your side will help you protect your rights by communicating on your behalf, helping prepare statements, filing paperwork, drafting a demand letter, steering negotiations, and advocating for you in court if necessary.
- Keep your case on track: Time is a critical factor in personal injury cases. Louisiana’s one-year statute of limitations means that we have minimal time to get your claim rolling if you want to receive any compensation. A lawyer’s full-time job is to keep your case on track, so you can trust that we’ll file everything within legal deadlines to help you get the compensation you need.
Hiring Gordon McKernan Injury Attorneys Costs You Nothing Out-of-Pocket
When you hire a lawyer on the Get Gordon team, you won’t pay anything out of pocket unless we win or settle your case—guaranteed. We go a step beyond most law firms, which will still charge you legal fees and other fees if they don’t win your case. When you work with Gordon McKernan, you won’t pay a dime unless we win your case. We’ll handle all of the costs related to investigating, building, and filing your claim, and our payment will come out of the compensation we recover for you.
Call an Experienced Louisiana Car Accident Injury Lawyer
After a car crash, your first concern is your health—and your second is probably your finances. Protect both by hiring an experienced car accident attorney from Gordon McKernan Injury Attorneys. We’ve helped hundreds of clients win over $3 Billion in compensation for their damages, and we can help you too. Call us today for a free, no-risk consultation.
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