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Missing Information In A Car Crash Case

The problem is that she did not know the name of either of the two drivers of the Uber vehicles, now she had a license plate number. And I have resources where I might have been able to identify one of the drivers. But this is a practical example of why talking to a lawyer and hiring a lawyer as soon as possible as you can after a crash is a really good idea. Because I know that you  as you read this, it might sound like self-serving advice. And when I was a young lawyer or even before I was a lawyer, I would hear lawyers give that advice and I would think to myself,

“Like, yeah, of course you want people to call after every crash because that's how you make your money.”

But this story with this lady explains exactly why it really is true that you should talk to a lawyer and it also explains why insurance companies and claims companies string the injured person along.

They tell you things like, “Don't worry we're gonna to take care of you, send us that bill again.” “Oh, yeah, yeah, we're switching it to another adjuster…” Crap like that, and then all they're doing is delaying to get you past that deadline, because guess what?

Do Not Miss Your Deadline In Your Case

Once you miss that deadline, the case is over, no money no recovery, any doctor and bills are your responsibility, bad news right? And that's exactly what was happening with this lady so why was it a bad idea for her to delay?

Well, the closer you get to the deadline, it's harder to find a lawyer to represent you for us to file a lawsuit by the deadline. We have to identify the drivers and the owners of the vehicles and named them in the lawsuit and each and every one of them because if we miss one and it turns out that one person, let's say the crash happened after, we take depositions let's say the crash happened because one of the cars was head brake failure, well that's negligence in maintaining the vehicle by the owner.

But if we didn't sue the owner by the 2-year deadline we may very well be out of luck. So if we go in front of a judge or jury and they stand and they decide that most of the fault or all of the fault for the crash is due to the faulty brakes that's the owners responsibility. Unfortunately we never sued the owner and now the case is over and the injured person gets nothing so this is the sort of research that lawyers do when you bring their case to them and we need enough time to do it.

I know a lot of lawyers, and my general rule is I need at least 60 days before a filing deadline to review the case, identify the defendants and do what I need to do. I break my own rule sometimes because I like to help people, I've been doing this for over 20 years now there's a lot of little tricks I know about how to identify people that I didn't know earlier in my career and I don't think most lawyers know so I can get a lot done in a short period of time.

But it depends on what's going on in my office, so that's the moral of the story, this lady is a super-duper nice lady, she trusted the insurance company and they strung her along and now they're not calling her back a week before the statute runs and she put herself.  She painted herself into a corner because it may be that no one will be able to identify all the correct defendants, she can still file a lawsuit against the people and entities she knows, she can sue Uber and she can sue if she can find somebody to look up that license-plate number.

Talking to an Injury Lawyer Can Help

And once she find out who the owner of, at least one of the vehicles is, and she might get lucky. But it's lawyers stuff like that, and they're not interested in taking the case because the lawyer doesn't want to have professional responsibility for a case that has problems.

The other thing is she made some bad decisions about treatment. I don't want to go into any more details because I don't want to identify her or provide any information that might identify her because we're speaking in generalities, but a lot of times clients will call me during the course of their case. And ask me, like, “Well you know with regard to my treatment, I feel this certain way and I want to do this."  And I'll tell them in my office you treat and you go to the doctor's you want to go to and if you want to have a surgery then you have a surgery.  If you don't want it then we build the case around.”

Not all lawyers are like that. But at the end of the day, when it comes to treatment, I can tell you the consequences of what a decision is going to be like. This doesn’t pertain to this lady who called me yesterday, but I've had clients who say, “You know I'm frustrated I'm not getting any better can you call my doctor? And ask him to write in their little in the notes that I'm better and I can go back to work and I shouldn't have any more treatment.” And you know in the context of a work injury case, if a client really wants to do that, I still don't want to do it.

Because here's what almost always happens. If they're still in pain, and they're just frustrated and they want to get back to work, they end up going back to work and hurting themselves again and it's bad for them and they end up with worth at the worse outcome but see you have to know these consequences you have to know that if you settle a case before you're completely healed or at maximum medical improvement, you have to know that that case is over, and that it's a really bad idea to do it.

An Injury Lawyer Gives You Options.

Even though if you don't know that there are other options for you, I do you know a good injury attorney will know other options and they can help explain the consequences of your decisions and give you other options. And really that's the value of a good lawyer who knows what they're doing. But they must know injury law, so moral of the story, do not wait until the last minute.

I know that a lot of people don't want to make a big deal.  They don't want to hire a lawyer. They want to settle the case themselves. They don't want to pay a lawyer fee out of their settlement, I get it.

But you know, Allstate Insurance has actually done studies you end up with more money in your pocket. But if you do hire an injury lawyer on average even with the attorneys fee being deducted.

And you also you know you in theory if you have a good injury lawyer all your boxes get checked. The case gets maximized, your bills get paid. It's a much better situation all the way around.

Now even if you do want to handle the case yourself and you are 60 or 90 days before the deadline, understand no insurance company waits until 60 or 90 days before the deadline to settle it. They are positioning you to cheat you out of a settlement. They're not doing it to help you.

They're doing it to pay you nothing and get away with it.  So call a lawyer and if it's a medical malpractice case if it's a doctor mistake or a hospital mistake or a nursing home case, those cases are more complicated. 

You better call the lawyer right away. Because there is a lot of investigation and work that has to be done on those cases before you can even file a lawsuit.

Why not get a free consultation?

Here how it goes:

• You call for free (or I can call you).
• I listen to your story.
• I answer your questions & concerns.
• I tell you my plan.
• You can hire me or not hire me, your choice.
• Either way, we end up as friends.

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I look forward to hearing from you if I can be of assistance to you and your family if you have been hurt at work, and what I can do to help.