When you have been involved in an accident leading to injuries, it is often in your best interest to contact an experienced car accident lawyer to discuss your potential case and see if hiring an attorney is the right move for you. However, after speaking with a law firm, how do you know when it is the right time to hire a lawyer for your Florida car accident versus attempting to resolve your claim with the insurance company by yourself?
First, it is imperative that prior to contacting a car accident lawyer, you seek immediate medical attention for any injuries you have suffered. Your physical and emotional health are the most important things you can handle in the car accident recovery process.
Second, you should know that most personal injury law firms, including Dannheisser Injury Law, offer free consultations or case reviews for accident and injury victims. During our free consultations, we discuss several items with you so we can provide you with our free legal opinion about whether or not we can help with your case. These items include but are not limited to:
After our consultation, we will provide you with our honest legal opinion as to if we believe you have a case and whether we can help you in your pursuit of compensation. Our team has reviewed thousands of potential cases. It is highly likely that your case facts, although unique to you, are similar to a past client or prospective client of ours. This familiarity with similar case facts and personal injury practice areas allows us to quickly form legal opinions on how to best proceed.
If we think the damages in your case are not significant enough to warrant retaining an attorney and paying a portion of your settlement in attorney’s fees and costs, we will be honest with you. We would rather you receive the maximum compensation possible as opposed to taking a percentage of your modest settlement. We will do our best to provide you with legal guidance as to how to approach settling your claim with the insurance company and be there to answer any questions you may have.
If we think you have a case due to your case facts, injuries, and available insurance, we will tell you as such. If you would like us to represent you in your case, we will then send you our legal representation agreement and medical record release authorization form for signature. After those are completed, we then send letters of representation to all involved insurance companies and handle all communications going forward to allow you to focus on recovering mentally and physically from your car accident.
The time it takes to resolve your Sarasota car accident varies greatly depending on the specific facts of your case. Car accident cases take anywhere from several months to several years to resolve, depending on the following:
It is in the best interests of all parties involved (the client, law firms, and insurance companies) to resolve car accident claims as expeditiously as possible. However, we will only pursue a verdict or settlement for your case when we believe the value of your case has been maximized through proper treatment, complete investigation of the accident and insurance policies available, and concrete establishment of all defendants’ liability.
Getting paid by an insurance company after you have either agreed to a settlement or received a jury verdict is usually a fairly straightforward process. Typically, the insurance company writes a check payable to your law firm (e.g., Dannheisser Injury Law) that is then deposited in the law firm’s trust account. The law firm will then disburse the funds according to the disbursement schedule that is signed by you, the client. This disbursement schedule will account for:
