After you or a loved one have suffered an injury in a car accident, your thoughts may turn to compensation sooner rather than later. Your financial circumstances may change for the worse almost immediately after your car accident. In addition, you want justice for what happened when you have suffered an injury by someone else’s mistake.
The only way to get justice is by filing an insurance claim or lawsuit after a car accident injury. A car accident lawyer can guide you in both ways so that you can take action to obtain financial compensation for your injuries.
You Can Sue if Someone Was at Fault for Your Accident
Perhaps we should better ask this question, “should you sue after a car accident?” If someone else was to blame for the accident, the answer is absolutely, yes. First, you should contact an experienced attorney to review your legal options and help you get in the best possible position to exercise your legal rights.
Although attorneys may tell you that you are entitled to financial compensation after you have suffered an injury in a car accident, there is a major qualifier attached to it. You can only be paid damages for your car accident injuries if someone else was to blame for them. You must show the other driver did something that actually caused the accident.
If you cannot prove legal responsibility for the accident, you cannot successfully file a lawsuit. It is difficult to prove what happened in a car accident when you try to file a claim on your own.
Negligence Is the Basis for Car Accident Claims and Lawsuits
To be in a position to file an insurance claim or a lawsuit against the responsible driver, you need to demonstrate that someone else was negligent. Not every action behind the wheel leading to a car accident qualifies as negligent. In every personal injury case, negligence is a legal term with a specific meaning.
Negligence Depends on What a Reasonable Driver Should Do (Or Not Do) Under the Circumstances
The definition of negligence is that someone did something unreasonable under the circumstances when they owed you a duty to exercise reasonable care. Their actions need to cause your injuries.
Every driver owes the duty of care to other drivers around them on the road and the passengers in the vehicle. A driver cannot simply do whatever they want behind the wheel because it can endanger other people.
In a car accident case, the questions revolve around what the driver did and whether it was unreasonable. A reasonable driver is not necessarily perfect, but they do follow traffic laws and exercise due care behind the wheel.
Examples of Negligence in a Car Accident Case
Reasonable drivers do not:
- Violate the speed limit or drive faster than is reasonably safe under the conditions
- Drive distracted by doing things like texting while driving
- Drive recklessly or drunk
- Change lanes without closely checking their blind spots
- Fail to yield the right-of-way when it is legally required
Not every car accident is someone’s fault. Even if it is someone’s responsibility, you first need to gather the evidence that proves it. The insurance company will not take your word for it, especially when it means that they will need to pay out money. Therefore, you need a car accident attorney to help prove your case. Your attorney will investigate your crash, building a strong case for why you deserve financial compensation for your injuries.
You Can File a Lawsuit or an Insurance Claim After a Car Accident
Whether you can sue after a car accident is not always the same as whether you should sue. There are other ways to get money from the responsible driver to pay for your car accident injuries. Many drivers will begin the legal process by trying to deal with the responsible driver’s insurance company. State law requires drivers to have auto insurance to cover injuries in accidents just like yours.
In most cases, you can actually reach a settlement that will pay for your damages. However, you can expect it will take a considerable time. Insurance companies are in business to make money for their shareholders, and they do not exist to make your life easy in any way.
On the contrary, the insurance company will do everything they can to make your life harder because they think it will save them money at your expense. Their behavior aims to either avoid paying you what they owe (as the party responsible for insuring the driver) or reduce the size of your check.
When you hire an experienced car accident attorney, they will deal with the insurance company on your behalf. They will gather the necessary evidence and file the claim. They will also handle the communications with the insurance company.
Many People Settle Claims as Opposed to Filing a Lawsuit
You have the right to file a legal claim after someone else has injured you in a car accident. You will need to engage in extensive negotiations with the insurance company before the claim settles fairly. Your attorney might likely advise you to reject multiple settlement offers that do not fully pay you for your car accident injuries.
The chances are that your claim will settle at some point before you need to file a lawsuit against the responsible driver. The insurance company knows that it can only push its luck to a certain point before you file a lawsuit. At that point, the insurance company must pay its attorneys to defend the responsible driver in court.
Although insurance companies usually try to leverage favorable rates from insurance defense firms, a personal injury trial will still cost them money that they might not have spent if they had settled the claim in the first place.
The Insurance Company May Leave You With No Choice but to File a Lawsuit
Therefore, a car accident lawsuit is not always your first option when you are seeking compensation. You will likely get your money sooner, and you do not have the risk of the jury ruling against you. If the insurance company offers you a settlement, chances are they will continue to raise their offer as they negotiate with your car accident attorney.
However, you may have to file a lawsuit under certain circumstances. First, the insurance company may deny your initial claim.
An insurance company may deny a claim because:
- They do not believe that you have included sufficient evidence with your claim to show that their driver was at fault
- They believe that you were the one who was at fault for the car accident
- They did not offer you enough money to pay for your injuries, and they will not raise their settlement offer
A Claim Does Not Always Mean a Fair Settlement
Even if the insurance company makes you a settlement offer, it does not mean your case is over. In many instances, your case is just beginning because you likely need to exchange multiple offers and counteroffers to finally reach an agreement. The negotiation process can take more time than you might like.
While you must remain patient when trying to settle a car accident claim, you can wait only so long for the insurance company to get serious about resolving your case. You may need to file a lawsuit if it looks like you cannot favorably settle your claim.
The Insurance Company Is an Intermediary and Not the Decision-maker
Remember that it is not the insurance company that has the power to determine your legal rights. The insurance company is the business that steps into the shoes of the driver who caused the crash. They are an intermediary, albeit one with the self-interest of protecting their own bottom line.
A car accident settlement is a way the insurance company pays you in exchange for your legal right to compensation. Accepting a car accident settlement extinguishes your legal right to any further compensation in connection with your injury.
Only a Jury Has the Power to Decide Your Legal Rights
If the insurance company does not pay you what you believe you deserve, you can still file a lawsuit. Ultimately, your legal rights are decided by a jury and not by the insurance company. A lawsuit can bring your case to court and have the jury determine whether the driver is liable and how much they need to pay for your injuries.
Even if you file a lawsuit, there is no guarantee that your case will go to trial. It can go to trial if you do not settle the case and the judge does not dismiss it. However, a lawsuit is often one step in the legal process on the way to a settlement of your case. Settlement negotiations do not stop just because you have filed a lawsuit. In fact, as the case progresses, settlement negotiations may gain steam.
In the end, it is very rare for a car accident case to go all the way to a jury trial. In most cases, you will reach a settlement agreement, meaning you do not need a trial. However, a trial is always an option if you cannot favorably resolve your case before then.
You Need a Car Accident Lawyer to Get the Best Possible Result
The one constant, regardless of whether you settle your claim or file a lawsuit and go to trial, is that you need an experienced car accident attorney to handle your case. There is simply too much at stake in your case to leave anything to chance or trust the insurance company.
It is not a paranoid overstatement to say that the insurance company is out to get you. They will do whatever is necessary to save money on your claim, whether it means denying it entirely or trying to pay you less than you deserve. Often, insurance companies go right up to the line of what can be considered bad faith.
Trying to deal with the insurance company on your own will be challenging, even when you are not recovering from physical injuries. The combination of your reduced physical capacity and the natural advantage an insurance company has over individual claimants should convince you that you need help handling your claim.
How a Car Accident Attorney Can Help Your Case
When you hire a car accident attorney, they can:
Car Accident Attorney, Phillip J. Barkett
- Investigate and get to the bottom of your accident, obtaining evidence to help you meet your burden of proof.
- Estimate the value of your claim after reviewing your documentation and situation.
- Help you prepare the actual claim or lawsuit complaint to begin the legal process.
- Communicate with the insurance company on your behalf, keeping them from pressuring you and potentially trapping you into undermining your own claim.
- Negotiate potential compensation in a car accident settlement.
- Help you determine whether it is better for you to file an insurance claim or lawsuit for your car accident injuries.
- Take your case all the way through the court system or as far as is necessary to maximize your financial compensation.
Your legal rights in a car accident that someone else caused are valuable. You should do whatever is necessary to get the most possible money for your injuries, whatever it takes. In some cases, it may mean filing a lawsuit.
Most often, the prospect of a lawsuit or a jury trial may convince the insurance company to raise its offer in a settlement negotiation. Your car accident attorney knows how to use all the leverage at your disposal to put pressure on the insurance company when it is necessary.
Many people worry about the cost of hiring a personal injury lawyer and filing a lawsuit. Some victims might believe they cannot afford to seek compensation for their losses. However, because car accident lawyers work on a contingency basis, everyone can afford to hire an attorney. You pay nothing upfront and no legal fees unless the lawyer wins compensation for you.