Car accidents are a global issue, with over 50 million cases yearly. The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) says 1.35 million people die in car accidents worldwide each year. Car accidents can be very personal and leave a lasting scar. The physical pain is intense.
Individuals sometimes settle their car accident claims with a lawyer to save costs. However, some victims seek a personal injury lawyer to fight their insurance claim. The victims who rely on a legal expert often get the most compensation for their car accident claims.
Why Should I Rely on a Car Accident Attorney?
Choosing the right car accident attorney to handle your case is wise. The legal process can be complicated. Additionally, insurance companies train their adjustors to offer the least possible amount for your claims. Having a skilled attorney to help you navigate the claim process can help cut through the weeds on many complicated issues, including:
- Legalities: A car accident is one of the most complicated court cases. There are often multiple parties and insurance companies involved. A skilled attorney will help you understand your rights and obligations.
- Evidence: The evidence presented in your case should be as solid as a rock. A car accident attorney knows what evidence is helpful for your case and what evidence to ask for from the other involved parties.
- Medical and Damage Assessment: Knowing what your claims are worth is half the battle. A car accident attorney will help assess the value of your case and make a firm demand to the insurance companies.
- Financial and Claim Value: Fair compensation for your losses is essential. Having trusted counsel who won’t accept lackluster offers will help ensure you get the compensation you deserve for your claims.
- Communication and Negotiation: Lawyers know how to negotiate and what deceptive tricks to look out for.
- Potential Pitfalls and Risks: An attorney should be familiar with the risks involved with their decisions and prevent you from making easily avoidable mistakes.
- Procedural Hassles: The legal process is fraught with technicalities and procedural requirements. One false move could cost you your opportunity to seek compensation for your damages.
- Emotional and Psychological Stress: Accidents can affect your emotional and psychological well-being. After an accident, it’s essential to focus on your recovery.
Steps to Take Immediately After a Car Accident
Before worrying about how you can settle your car accident claim without a lawyer, you must first know what steps to take immediately following a crash. Taking the proper steps after a car accident can set you up for success in your legal claim, regardless of whether you choose to go at it with a lawyer or pro se.
Your top priority should always be the safety of yourself and others involved in the accident. Once you’ve assessed yourself, check in with the other drivers and passengers. If anyone needs medical assistance, you should contact emergency services right away.
Once everyone’s safety is assured, the next step is documenting the accident scene. If you can, take photos and videos of the scene. Make sure to focus on vehicle damages, the condition of the road, and any visible injuries.
Once the scene is documented, exchange insurance information with all other parties involved in the accident. If they cannot provide that information, ensure that you exchange contact information so you can reach them in the future.
If required, notify the police about the accident and file an accident report. This report will be essential to all insurance claims and legal proceedings that may follow.
Can I Settle Without a Lawyer?
While attempting to handle your car accident claim alone is usually not advisable, it can be done. In the United States, obtaining a lawyer for legal representation is not required. Individuals who choose to represent themselves are called pro se. When individuals choose to represent themselves, they must take on all the responsibilities the lawyer would have handled for them.
Below are some responsibilities pro se parties must handle:
- Gathering Necessary Documentation: You must get all the necessary information when settling a car accident claim without a lawyer. For example, in California, you must report the accident to the DMV if there are injuries or significant property damage.
- Obtaining Medical Records: To settle a car accident claim without a lawyer, you must get a hold of all your medical records. It’s essential to show the extent of your medical treatment and the associated costs.
- Prove Property Damage: You must compile the necessary documentation to prove the extent of damage to your vehicle or other damaged property.
- Eyewitness Statements: Eyewitnesses provide crucial, case-determining statements. Since you’re taking on your case alone, it will be up to you to contact eyewitnesses to help your case.
- Notify the Appropriate Entities: Each state has a specific reporting time frame. For example, Florida requires individuals to report accidents involving injury or property damage over $500 within ten days. In New York, no-fault insurance laws require you to file a claim with your insurance company regardless of fault.
- Calculate Damages: You must determine how much your case is worth before sending your initial demand.
- Send a Demand: When settling a car accident without a lawyer, you'll need a demand letter. A demand letter is a demand for payment the plaintiff sends to resolve a dispute. The plaintiff may request payment or some other relief to right a wrong or settle some type of grievance. The demand letter sets the tone for the entire case and lets the defendants know you aren’t messing around.
- Negotiate with Adjustors: Be prepared to present your evidence and make sure your claims are reasonable. Insurance companies in states like Pennsylvania must act in good faith and promptly settle claims. Skilled negotiations involve good communication skills, determination, and emotional control.
- Review the Settlement Offer: Review the settlement offer carefully. Understand the terms and make sure they cover all your expenses.
- Accept or Decline: If the offer is good, accept it. If not, continue to negotiate or seek further advice.
Finalize the Settlement: Once an agreement is reached, finalize the settlement by signing the releases. Make sure all terms are met before doing so. For example, ensure the release form releases all future claims related to the accident.
Is It a Good Idea to Represent Myself After a Car Accident?
Like any decision, choosing to represent yourself after a car accident has pros and cons.
Pros
- Save Money: Many defense attorneys will require you to pay a certain amount up front before they take your case. Some attorneys will have flexible payment options as part of their fee agreements, including contingency arrangements where you pay nothing unless you win. Representing yourself is the cheapest option, but costs like court and filing fees are still involved.
- Speak Your Mind: Many defendants want their "day in court" – a chance to speak their minds about the case and their feelings. If you’re running the show, you can speak your mind without an attorney telling you it may not be in your best interest.
- Personal Investment: When representing yourself, you are deeply invested in your case. This personal investment can lead to a deeper understanding of your legal rights and a stronger connection to the outcome.
- Control and Decision-Making: Self-represented individuals control their legal strategy and decision-making. They can choose how to present their case, which evidence to introduce, and which arguments to make.
Cons
- Lack of Legal Expertise: This is the biggest challenge a victim faces when defending themselves in court. A lack of legal knowledge can prevent pro se parties from making solid arguments.
- Procedural Pitfalls: Courts have strict rules that must be adhered to. Knowing where to find and how to interpret these rules can pose a significant challenge for non-lawyers.
- Inadequate Preparation: Lawyers spend much time researching, preparing legal arguments, and building cases. Self-represented individuals may not have the resources and experience to prepare correctly and may end up with weaker arguments in court.
- Emotional Stress: Legal proceedings can be emotionally draining, and self-represented individuals may struggle to manage their emotions while navigating their cases.
- Biased Perception: Judges and opposing counsel may assume self-represented individuals are less knowledgeable or capable and may bias their perception of the case.
As mentioned above, many pros and cons are involved with deciding whether to obtain legal assistance from a professional. More often than not, having a lawyer will result in a more favorable case outcome than trying to go at it alone. While you may want to avoid attorneys’ fees, you’ll likely end up with more money in the long run by trusting a personal injury attorney with your case.
Instances Where Self-Representation is Advisable
Although pro se litigation is a right in legal actions, it is not always advisable. However, there are certain circumstances where self-representation may be the best move. Circumstances where self-representation may be advisable include:
- When you believe you have a strong case
- When you have only suffered minor injuries or injuries that are expected to heal quickly
- When the at-fault party’s insurance offers to cover all of your expenses
- If you feel confident in your ability to obtain and present evidence in your favor
- If you have a significant amount of time to dedicate to your case
- If you’re excited about the prospect of representing yourself
- If you aren’t willing to pay a lawyer
Representing yourself will be a stressful challenge regardless of how you slice it. This is especially true if you’ve been injured in a car accident and are still receiving ongoing medical care for your injuries.
The legal process will drain a significant amount of your time and energy. It will be nearly impossible to push through the stress and difficulty to achieve a favorable outcome in your car accident case.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Settling a Car Accident Claim
If you’re planning on settling your car accident claim alone, there are some common mistakes you should avoid. Avoiding the following mistakes can prevent you from getting lowballed by the insurance company and walking away from your claim with far less than you deserve.
- Accepting the First Offer: More often than not, the first offer the insurance company presents is far less than your claim’s actual value. This is because insurance company adjustors are trained to give you the lowest offer possible to save the company money.
- Saying the Wrong Things to Adjustors: Oftentimes, self-represented litigants will speak too much to insurance adjustors. Anything you say to the adjustor will be used to justify them, giving you a lower amount. For example, you may say that you feel fine after an accident, only to find out that you suffered a traumatic brain injury days later.
- Delaying Medical Care: After an accident, you should get the medical help you need immediately. Failure to do so is not just a danger to your own health. The insurance company can use your delay in seeking medical help against you. They may insist that because you didn’t seek immediate medical help, your injuries are not severe.
- Overlooking Costs: If you don’t know what your claim is actually worth, you’ll have no idea if the insurance company is giving you a fair settlement offer. Take into account medical costs, time off from work, and pain and suffering before accepting a deal from the insurance company.
- Failing to Document: If you don’t keep proper documentation of all your losses caused by the accident, it will be difficult to prove your claims' worth. Even if you suffered tremendous damage due to the accident, without proof, the insurance companies are likely to shrug your claims off.
As you can see, there are many areas where a non-lawyer can easily go astray. These mistakes may cost you thousands of dollars, so it’s best to avoid them at all costs.
Dealing with Uncooperative Insurance Companies
An uncooperative insurance company can provide a challenge even for experienced litigators. Often, insurance companies are fearless in doing whatever it takes to save money. However, If you recognize these tactics up-front, you can take steps to challenge their tactics.
If you feel like the insurance company isn’t playing fair, take note of all the bad-faith practices you notice. Bad-faith tactics include unnecessary delays (stalling), offers way below the value of your claim, or outright denial of valid insurance claims.
If the insurance company is using bad-faith tactics, you should keep a detailed record. Once you have this record, you may be able to escalate the situation within the company itself. For example, you can threaten to take legal action against the company for its bad-faith tactics. This alone may be enough to get them to play fair.
Every state has a department that oversees insurance tactics. If you suspect foul play, initiate a complaint with your state’s insurance department.
Once initiated, they will investigate the claim so you don’t have to. If they believe the insurance company is behaving improperly, they could hit them with severe fines.
Understanding the Role of Medical Evidence
Medical records play a vital role in the claims process. Medical records provide convincing evidence of the extent of your injuries and the necessity of future care and evaluation from medical professionals.
If you’ve undergone extensive and regular care, this is evidence of severe injuries and high costs associated with your recovery.
Medical evidence can be used to prove damages other than treatment costs. For example, if you have a detailed medical history, this evidence will be used to confirm that you could not return to work. In return, you may receive compensation for lost wages.
Managing Mental Health During the Legal Process
The legal process can be overwhelming, especially for the unrepresented litigant. Add that to the recovery from the accident, and you have the perfect recipe for stress. There are specific steps you can take to mitigate stress after an accident and take care of your well-being.
You should try to recognize what parts of the process are causing you stress. Once you recognize these triggers, it may be easier to cope with them. After an accident, talking to your trusted support system is a great way to get your negative feelings about the situation off your chest.
If you plan to handle your claim alone, it’s a good idea to get organized. Not knowing what step is next in the process can cause serious problems. Break down the claims process into manageable steps so you can visualize exactly what needs to be done and when you need to do it.
Contact the Accident Helpers
If you decide after reading this article that handling your own claim is too much of a hassle, dedicated help is available. At The Accident Helpers, we connect people who have been injured and need legal representation to a network of attorneys nationwide so victims can get the compensation they deserve.
No matter your location nationwide, The Accident Helpers are here to ensure you connect with the expert help you need.
Don’t go at it alone. Contact The Accident Helpers today to connect with a skilled advocate who will maximize your compensation after a car accident.