Were you severely injured in a car wreck? Read these 4 things you need to know about car accidents, then contact our Kansas lawyers today.
1. Mistakes To Avoid After a Car Accident
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.
2. Insurance Investigation
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.
Do not give a recorded statement to an insurance company. Get an attorney involved to help you with this.
3. Attorney Fees
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.
4. Case Value
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.
Were you or a loved one severely injured in a car accident in Kansas and have questions about these 4 things you need to know about car accidents? Contact our experienced Kansas car accident lawyers today for a free consultation and case evaluation.
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