7 Car Accident Tips

Car Accident Case Value

There are a lot of factors that go into determining the value. It’s not something that can be determined early on. There are several different types of damages that can be recovered in an auto accident injury case. One is economic damages. Those are the things like medical bills, lost wages, anything that we can place a value on and know from a bill or an invoice the amount of those damages.

There’s another category or type of damages in Kansas called non-economic damages, and those are a lot harder to determine. Those are the things like pain and suffering, the inconvenience of having to go to the doctor, the worry about the long-term ramifications of your injury, the impact the injury has had on your family, and all of the ways that the injury can impact your life beyond the medical bills and lost wages.

Once we have an idea of how much both the economic and non-economic damages are, and also how this injury has affected your life, then we would be able to give you an idea of the value of your case and help you determine the value of your case. If you have any questions about this, give us a call and we’d be happy to talk to you about it some more.

Cost of a Car Accident Case

People often ask us how much it costs to hire an attorney for a car accident case in Kansas. It doesn’t cost anything. You can hire an attorney for your car accident case. We work on a contingency fee basis, which just means you don’t have to pay us anything up front. I’m not going to send you a bill. You’re not going to have to pay us as I’m working on the case. Instead, our payment is a percentage of the amount that we recover for you. You never have to pay us as we’re going. We will get paid when you get paid. If you don’t get paid, we don’t get paid either, so there’s no risk to you in hiring an attorney to help you with your car accident case.

Talking to the Insurance Company

It is not a good idea to give a statement to an insurance company.

Insurance companies do a great job through their commercials and their advertising in making us think that they’re our friends and they’re going to take care of us, that they’re going to be there for us when an injury has happened, but, in all actuality, what they do when you have a car accident case is they immediately start looking for ways to either delay or deny your claim. They are skilled at asking questions in a certain way or a certain order that can help them in delaying or denying your case. Even if you’re just telling the truth, there are a lot of things that they can do to use your statement against you and harm your case.

Mistakes to Avoid in a Car Accident

Somebody asked us the other day what the common mistakes are that people make when they’ve had a car accident and they’re injured in Kansas. We see some of the same ones repeatedly. One is people oftentimes don’t gather all the evidence while it’s fresh in everybody’s mind and there at the scene in particular. It’s very helpful to make sure that you get photographs and witnesses’ information. A lot of people rely on law enforcement or other people who are investigating the claim to take care of gathering that evidence, but they don’t always do what you think they’re doing. A common thing people think is, “Oh, there’s surveillance video. I’m sure that that captured this,” but that’s not always the case. You want to make sure that you are gathering all the evidence that you can there at the scene, getting the information from the other people there, taking photographs and that kind of thing.

Another common mistake that we see is that people don’t go to the doctor, even though they are injured. A lot of times people have some adrenaline there at the scene, so they don’t think that they need to see anybody right then, so they don’t go to the doctor right away. A lot of people are also thinking, even when they do start having symptoms, when the adrenaline has worn off, “Oh, it’s okay. I don’t need to go to the doctor. I’ll get better,” but oftentimes what we see is that it doesn’t get better, and people eventually do have to go to the doctor, but, by that time, a lot of time has passed. The more time that has passed, the insurance company is going to use that to try to discredit your case and say if you really that injured, you would’ve gone right away. It’s really important to go to the doctor and get that treatment, document it, and get started on the road to recovery for that injury. The longer you wait, the worse it’s going to get, and sometimes the harder it can be to treat it and get recovered.

Another mistake we see is that people give a recorded statement to the insurance company. They want to trust the insurance company, they have a good relationship with their local agent, and they think there’s no reason they need to get an attorney involved or be concerned about this because they’re just going to tell the insurance company the truth. The insurance company’s sole focus at that point is to gather the information that they need to justify either delaying or denying your claim, and they’re skilled at asking questions in a way that actually can hurt you, even though you are telling the truth. They ask questions in a certain order or in a certain way that can harm your case, so don’t give a statement to an insurance company.

Finally, probably the biggest mistake we see people make is that they hire the wrong attorney. They have experience with or a prior relationship with an attorney that has handled something in the past for them, so they go to that attorney. You really want to make sure that you’re hiring somebody who is skilled and experienced in handling car accident cases and is able to obtain the best recovery for you.

Choosing a Car Accident Attorney

We got a call from a person who asked how to select the right attorney for their car accident case in Kansas, and there are really three main things that you want to make sure you’re looking for. One is you want to find an attorney whose core focus is handling car accident cases. You don’t want to go with an attorney who handles a variety of things because they won’t know all the ins and outs that are necessary to handle a car accident case in Kansas. You really want somebody whose core focus is on handling car accident cases.

Another thing is you want to find an attorney that is experienced and has a proven track record of success with car accident cases. Those attorneys are going to know how to handle your case the best way, and the insurance company is going to know who they’re dealing with and know that the attorney they’re working with knows the law and will be able to recover all the damages for their client.

Finally, the most important thing is to find an attorney that is a trial lawyer. Not all attorneys are trial lawyers, and that just means an attorney who is experienced in the court room and going to trial and will take your case to trial if necessary. Not all attorneys are experienced in going to trial and being in court and may want to take your case with the hopes of just getting it settled. You really need somebody who is a trial attorney, who can work your case up from the beginning, so that if you were to have to go to trial, you’d be in a position to do that.

Car Accident Case Timeline

We were talking to somebody the other day and they asked, “How long does it take to resolve an auto accident case in Kansas?” We explained that it’s really impossible to tell you that early on. What you really need to focus on is not how long it’s going to take to settle the case, but, instead, you need to focus on getting treatment for your injuries so you can get better and get your life back.

While you’re getting the treatment that you need, we’re going to work on your case. We’re going to be taking care of everything as you’re getting that treatment, so that when you’re done with treatment, then we will be in a position to reach out to the insurance company and see if the insurance company is willing to pay a fair and reasonable amount for your damages. If they are, then we can get the case settled very quickly. If the insurance carrier is not willing to pay a fair and reasonable amount for your damages, then it’s going to take a little more time. We will have to continue to work on the case and may have to file suit and litigate the case, which is just going to take longer.

Our number one goal is making sure that we get the best recovery for you, not just focusing on how fast we can get it, but just making sure that we get the best recovery for you. If you have any questions about this, just give us a call and we’d be happy to talk to you about it some more.

Who Pays Your Car Accident Medical Bills?

We were talking to someone last week who asked, “Who’s responsible for paying my medical bills from a car accident case in Kansas?” There are several different ways to get your medical bills paid that we can help you with. One is that every insurance policy in Kansas is required to have personal injury protection coverage, or PIP coverage. That is a coverage for medical bills that is usually at least $4,500 in medical bills, and it can go up from there. That coverage is to allow you, when you’ve been injured in a car wreck, to go get the treatment that you need, up to $4,500 in treatment, even if you don’t have health insurance. Your auto insurance under your PIP coverage will be the first insurance carrier responsible for your medical bills. Again, that’s so you can go get the treatment without having to establish who was at fault.

Once you exceed or use up all that $4,500, then your own health insurance would start paying the medical bills. A lot of people think that the responsible driver’s insurance company is who should be paying those medical bills – and they should – but in Kansas they don’t have to pay those bills as you’re getting the treatment. What we would do is we would be making sure that your PIP carrier and your health insurance carrier are paying the medical bills as you’re getting the treatment. Once you’re done with treatment, we submit all those bills to the insurance company of the responsible driver and collect payment of those medical bills from that insurance company.

 


 

Were you or a loved one in a car accident? Check out these 7 car accident tips, then contact our experienced Kansas car accident lawyers.

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