When To Hire a Lawyer After a Car Accident in Houston
Car accident injuries can require expensive treatment in Houston, TX. If your injuries prevent you from working and paying your medical bills, you’re trapped in a cycle where you cannot work until you recover, but you cannot recover until you work.
If someone else’s negligence caused your accident, you have another option. You can pursue an injury claim against the at-fault driver and their insurer. But to get the best possible outcome, you either need to know insurance and injury law or hire a lawyer.
Contact Attorney Brian White Personal Injury Lawyers, at (713) 500-5000 today for a free consultation. After an accident, it is always best to talk to an attorney to learn about your legal rights and options.
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How Attorney Brian White Personal Injury Lawyers Can Help After an Automobile Accident in Houston
Attorney Brian White Personal Injury Lawyers has been dedicated to representing accident victims across Houston, Texas, for many years running The firm has obtained settlements and damage awards worth millions of dollars to the firm’s clients.
The Houston car accident lawyers at the firm have over 45 years of combined experience. When you hire the firm to handle your case, you’ll have legal assistance in the form of:
- Hiring experts to strengthen your case
- Internally investigate your claim to collect evidence and identify all of your damages
- File a lawsuit if the other side refuses to offer a fair settlement agreement
Multi-billion dollar car insurance companies have experienced and skilled lawyers on their side. Contact Attorney Brian White Personal Injury Lawyers to discuss your case with an equally experienced and skilled lawyer.
How Common Are Car Accidents in Houston?
Houston had almost 67,000 traffic accidents in 2021. But not all these crashes involve an injury claim. About 42,000 of these accidents only caused property damage. This leaves about 25,000 crashes that caused injury or death.
About 25% of traffic accidents in Houston involve only a single vehicle or a collision with a pedestrian or bicyclist. This leaves about 18,000 motor vehicle collisions where someone was killed or injured.
This still does not tell you how many injury claims resulted from Houston car accidents. About 52,000 people were injured or killed in these accidents. Once you eliminate single-vehicle crashes, pedestrian accidents, and bicycle accidents, you have about 36,000 people injured or killed in motor vehicle collisions each year in Houston.
Houston has about 2.3 million residents. So you would not necessarily call car accident claims common. But up to 36,000 yearly injury claims in Houston is still a lot.
Overview of When To Hire a Lawyer After a Car Accident in Houston
When you get injured due to someone else’s intentional or negligent actions, the law entitles you to seek compensation for your losses. Texas uses a fault-based insurance system. This means every car owner must buy liability insurance to register their car.
A liability insurance policy is an agreement between an insurer and a policyholder. When the policyholder incurs a liability that falls within the policy, the insurer agrees to pay it.
When you get injured in a car accident caused by someone else, you start with the at-fault driver’s liability insurer. You file an insurance claim that gets assigned to an adjuster. The adjuster investigates your claim and decides whether the insurer will pay.
If the insurer agrees to pay, the adjuster will make a settlement offer. If the insurer refuses to pay, you will need to overcome the claim denial or file a lawsuit against the at-fault driver.
When To Get a Lawyer
You might need a lawyer at several steps in this process, such as:
Fighting a Claim Denial
Adjusters deny claims for many reasons, including:
- The policyholder did not cause the accident
- The accident did not cause your injuries
- You received unnecessary medical treatment
Often, a claim denial only requires additional documentation. But sometimes, you need to present legal arguments to overcome the denial. You should talk to a lawyer when the insurer denies your claim so that you know what your options are for overcoming it.
Negotiating a Better Settlement
The offer you receive to settle your claim will likely be too low. Adjusters do this on purpose. They assume you will feel desperation and frustration with the claims process and accept their first offer.
Understanding the value of your claim is crucial to negotiate a fair settlement. To do this, you must talk to a lawyer who knows what insurers normally pay for similar claims. You also need a lawyer who has litigated cases and knows what a jury could award you.
Battling Blame for the Accident
A common strategy used by adjusters to avoid paying a claim is to blame you for the accident. This can put you in a dangerous position. If you get blamed for the accident, you can lose your right to recover compensation for your injuries. Worse yet, you could have to pay damages to others injured in the accident.
A lawyer can provide critical advice to help you reduce your exposure and fight to put the blame back where the facts show it should lie.
Schedule a Free Consultation With Our Houston Car Accident Lawyers
A car accident lawyer provides advice, representation, and advocacy. To discuss how Attorney Brian White Personal Injury Lawyers can help you with your case, contact us to schedule a free consultation.
Other Car Accidents We Cover
- Multi-vehicle accidents
- Road defects accidents
- Red and yellow light accidents
- Seatbelt injuries
- Interstate crashes
- U-Turn accidents
- Single vehicle accidents
