When Do You Need to Hire a Car Accident Lawyer?
You never leave the house and expect to get into a car accident. However, traffic accidents can happen, regardless of how much care and caution you exercise behind the wheel.
If someone else is negligent, you can find that your life is turned upside down in a matter of seconds. Fortunately, compensation might be available to you following a car accident in Houston, TX.
Here’s the thing, though. Even you might be entitled to a financial recovery, getting money in your hands can be challenging. It can be even more difficult to recover all of the money you deserve.
Fortunately, there are ways to increase the odds of getting a substantial award. The best course of action is to hire a personal injury lawyer in Houston with extensive experience handling car accident cases like yours.
Here’s when you should really consider reaching out to a car accident attorney for help.
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Your Injuries Are Severe and You Need Time to Recover
The days, weeks, and months after a wreck can be really tough. That’s certainly true when your crash injuries are severe. You might need extensive medical care. You might be in excruciating pain and have a difficult time moving around.
It could take a while for you to get well enough to get back to work.
At the same time, you’re finding that you’re in an increasingly difficult situation – financially speaking. Medical bills are adding up and the fact that your income has come to a screeching halt is making matters worse.
The good news is that you can recover compensation as long as someone else is at least partly responsible for your crash. However, you are simply not in a place that will allow you to dedicate the time and energy that’s necessary to pursue a legal claim for damages.
This is a time when you should absolutely enlist the help of qualified Houston car accident and injury lawyers.
At Attorney Attorney Brian White Personal Injury Lawyers, our attorneys can begin to work on your injury case as soon as you call us for help. After your free consultation – which can be done anywhere that is convenient for you – we can launch a thorough investigation into your accident.
We can handle all communication with at-fault parties and insurance companies.
We can – and will – handle the ins and outs of your legal case so that you can focus on getting better. You can invest your full attention in your physical and emotional recoveries. We’ll work on recovering the money you need to cover your costs and expenses.
Insurance Companies Are Involved
Insurance is typically the primary source of compensation after a car accident. Texas has fault-based insurance laws. This simply means that, following an accident, you can file a claim to recover benefits from the at-fault driver’s insurance provider.
If, for some reason, the driver is uninsured or underinsured, you can potentially recover benefits from your own insurance company. In any event, there’s a very good chance that an insurance company (or two) will get involved as you pursue damages after your accident.
It’s important to know that insurance companies are not on your side. Despite what they might say on billboards or in ads on TV. Insurance companies are in the business of making money. Insurers don’t make money by approving claims and paying out benefits.
So, you can bet that an insurer will go to great lengths to deny a claim and/or minimize any amounts that are paid to injury victims like you. It doesn’t matter whether it’s your insurance provider or someone else’s. The company will do whatever it can to keep you from getting the money you deserve.
Common tactics include:
- Denying a claim without reviewing or investigating the circumstances
- Offering a lowball settlement that’s subject to a ticking clock, and
- Using your emotions and stress to attempt to manipulate you into accepting less money than you deserve.
Insurance companies use these tactics, time and time again, because they have some degree of success. However, there’s a time when these tactics are unlikely to work – when you’re represented by an experienced lawyer.
At Attorney Brian White Personal Injury Lawyers we’ve spent years taking on the largest insurance companies in the state of Texas – and winning big for our clients. We won’t let them bully you or push you around. We’ll make them act in good faith and take your demand for compensation seriously.
You’re Being Blamed For the Accident
Following a collision in Houston, don’t expect anyone to assume fault or accept liability. Rather, be prepared for anyone involved to point fingers. They might even point a finger at you, even if you had nothing to do with causing the crash. This is a fairly common tactic.
First, know that sharing responsibility for a car accident will not necessarily disqualify you from recovering a financial award. However, sharing fault will impact your case in one way or another. That’s because Texas has modified comparative negligence rules.
Under the law:
- Multiple parties can share fault and financial responsibility for a car accident;
- Blame is allocated to all responsible parties, based on their individual role
- As a crash victim, you can recover damages as long as you share no more than one-half of the blame for the accident;
- Your damages will be reduced by however much fault you share.
So, you can recover compensation from anyone who contributed to your car accident, as long as you’re not more than 50% to blame. If you are allocated some of the blame, your financial recovery will be adjusted to reflect that.
Don’t let someone blame you for an accident that’s not your fault. Don’t let someone assign you a larger role in the accident than you played. If you allow either of those things to happen, your ability to get the money you need will be in jeopardy. Protect yourself by enlisting the help of an experienced personal injury lawyer in Houston.
At Attorney Brian White Personal Injury Lawyers our attorneys will stand up and work hard to protect you if you’re blamed for a car accident. We will scrutinize your crash from all angles, determine the cause(s), and use that information to establish who is really to blame.
We’ll gather evidence that disproves the claims that you’re to blame or, at the very least, minimizes your role.
The Value Of Your Case is Contested
No two car accident cases are the same. Injuries can range from minor to moderate to catastrophic. The extent of damage to property varies. Victims handle the emotional trauma of a collision differently. All of these things can – and should – influence what a car accident injury case is worth.
Insurance companies have algorithms and computer programs to calculate what a claim is worth. You can bet that these practices are designed to identify the least amount of money the insurer could potentially offer you without acting in bad faith. Insurers want to pay you as little as possible.
So, if they can’t legitimately deny the claim, an adjuster will attempt to drive down how much the claim is worth.
Don’t let insurers push you around. Don’t let them bully you into accepting less money than your case is worth. Call Attorney Brian White Personal Injury Lawyers and let our experienced car accident lawyers help you fight to get all of the money you deserve.
Our attorneys will work closely with specialists and professionals as we value your case. We’ll rely on their expertise as we identify your damages and figure out what they’re worth.
We won’t just attempt to determine your costs today. We’ll do our best to capture how your injury will likely affect you for years to come. When we sit down to negotiate a settlement, we’ll rely on the results of our comprehensive review to leverage a fair award on your behalf.
You’re Having Trouble Getting a Fair Settlement Offer
Most car accident cases settle privately. However, you should never take the threat of litigation off the table. Insurance companies might not be inclined to negotiate seriously or extend more money than they want to if they don’t think that you’ll take them to court.
You can almost force their hand by bringing an experienced Houston trial lawyer on board. When you get an attorney involved, especially an attorney with a demonstrated track record in the courtroom, insurance companies have to take note of that.
They have to consider the fact that your lawyer will bring the case to a jury if you aren’t offered a legitimate and fair settlement.
Contact Our Houston Auto Accident Lawyers For Help Today
Have you recently been involved in a car accident in Houston, Texas? Call Attorney Brian White Personal Injury Lawyers to find out how our Houston car accident lawyers might be able to help you get the money you deserve. We offer a free consultation, so reach out to us by phone or connect with us online today.
OTHER TYPES OF CAR ACCIDENTS
- Speeding Car Accidents in Houston
- Rear-End Car Collisions in Houston
- Self-Driving Car Accidents in Houston
- SUV Rollovers
- Single-Vehicle Accidents
