Waiting To Call A Lawyer After An Accident?
I'm going to answer the question: Do I really need to call a lawyer right after an accident?
I got a call from a lady today who was in a car accident, didn't want to make a fuss, and had never worked with an injury lawyer before. A lot of people I talk to, they have worked with an injury lawyer before, but the lawyer was a jerk and they didn't want to use them again. Or it was just such a negative experience they didn't want to call anybody. They're like, this one I'm going to try not to make a big deal about it, maybe I won't have to deal with a lawyer.
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Cooperating With The Insurance Company
This lady who called me, literally didn't want to call a lawyer, tried to cooperate with the insurance company, and it bit her in her backside. She gave him a statement. They're using that statement to deny her claim. They told her "oh the last step is just give a recorded statement and then we'll be able to make an offer".
Well she gave a recorded statement, the insurance company led her into saying things that weren't even true, that isn't how the accident happened. But they have a way of asking you these questions to get you to say yes. You're trying to be cooperative, you're trying to give them what they need so they can evaluate your case or so they say.
Their Goal Is To Pay You Little To Nothing At All
They don't take those statements to help you. They take those statements to help themselves and their goal is to pay you as little as possible or nothing if they can. So I always tell people, don't give a recorded statement unless you're represented by an attorney and the attorney preps you and is present.
If you're dealing with an insurance company on your own, boy they're going to nail you to the wall on that and offer you nothing. Or they're going to offer you a thousand dollars, five hundred dollars, fifteen hundred dollars.
Gaps In Medical Care
That's not the only problem, this lady has huge gaps in her medical care. Had she consulted with an attorney early on, the attorney could have told her, "listen you want as clean a medical record as possible, if you're hurt, you can't miss appointments, you can't go to the doctor for a while, take three months off, come back and go again". I know that in real life that happens all the time. You think you're cured and then you need to go back to the doctor.
Get A Consultation From A Lawyer ASAP
So it's always a really good idea to get a consultation from a lawyer as soon as the accident happens. Now I'm available to do that in this lady's case even though there are challenges to her case. She's a very nice lady and I told her I would try and help her. But boy, sure her case would have been much easier to resolved much faster for a lot more money if she had talked to me early on.
Now I still think I'm going to be able to get her money and make sure all her bills are paid and she's not going to have to worry about it. But she sure didn't make my job any easier and I definitely could have got her case wrapped up for a lot more money if we just talked closer to the beginning of the case.
