When You Need a Lawyer – And When You Don’t

In some instances, you may be able to settle your claim with the insurance company by yourself, without an attorney’s help.  However, it’s important that you realize you are going up against trained adjusters and claims representatives who get praised and promoted for keeping costs down and settlements low.   Still, you may be able to settle your claim by yourself if you don’t mind gathering all of the information necessary to determine the value of your claim if you don’t mind going to the time and trouble of interviewing necessary witnesses if you think you have all of the bases covered and if you know the insurance company is not trying to take advantage of you. (You and I both know insurance companies always try to take advantage of you!)    If you have questions or are not sure what you should do, speak with a personal injury attorney.  A personal injury lawyer can advise you on the proper course of action, explain your legal rights, tell you what to expect regarding the progress of your case, evaluate your case, and negotiate a full and fair settlement of your claim, all while representing your interests aggressively so you get the money you deserve for your injuries. On the other hand, if you are charged with dui and you want to be released temporarily, make sure to contact a bail bonds agency for expert bail bonds service.

Victims often share this concern:  Will I get more money handling my case myself, or should I hire a lawyer?   As you may know, a lawyer usually charges one-third of the amount he recovers for you as his fee.  The amount of money a skilled lawyer recovers usually much more than you could have negotiated on your own.  In fact, an experienced lawyer usually collects enough money to completely pay his fee and get more money for you as well.   What will happen if I don’t hire a lawyer?  This question is hard to answer.  You may do just fine, or you may permanently damage your case and make it much harder — or even impossible — to collect the money you deserve.   Consider this analogy:  You have a leaky faucet.  You can try to fix it yourself and you might do a good job.  On the other hand, you might cause further damage.  Then you call the plumber.  Now your plumber will charge you two or three times as much as he would have charged if you had called him at the beginning when all you had was a leaky faucet.  These extra charges are because of the damage you caused, which your plumber must now repair.    You can hire me near the end of your case if you are having problems collecting from the insurance company. Or you can hire me at the beginning of your case and I’ll do all the work for you. Either way, you will pay me the same. So why not hire me at the beginning? You will pay me nothing more — plus, you will save yourself all the time, stress, aggravation and hassle of dealing with the insurance company. What’s more, I suspect that I can persuade the insurance company to pay you much more money than they would pay you if you do not have a lawyer.  You don’t save any money by waiting to hire a lawyer.  The sooner you contact me, the sooner I can aggressively pursue your claim.