Nobody wishes to face a situation wherein they have to hire a personal injury lawyer. This type of attorney specializes in personal injury cases and typically helps people who’ve been hurt by faulty products, involved in car, motorcycle and boating accidents and whom have lost loved ones due to the negligence of others. If you are wondering if you need to hire such a lawyer, here is a helpful guide which can help you decide.
Determine How Serious Your Injuries Are
Often, the question of whether or not you need to hire a personal injury attorney comes down to determining how serious your injuries are. You should know that insurance companies typically use two broad categories when classifying injuries: “soft injuries” and “hard injuries”. Soft injuries are minor in nature and affect muscles and other soft tissues. A soft injury can be a strained neck, a bruised arm or a sprained ankle. Hard injuries are more serious and can include broken bones, head injuries and lost limbs. If your injury is “hard”, you definitely should hire a personal injury lawyer because you are most like due some compensation if the blame can be put on someone else.
Were You Offered a Low Settlement Amount?
The typical insurance company is out to maximize its profits by giving injured parties the lowest possible settlement amounts. You can find out if the settlement you were offered is low or not by finding and making use of a personal injury settlement calculator online. If you think you’ve received a settlement offer that’s too low, you can either go into negotiations with the insurance company yourself or hire an attorney who’ll negotiate for you. You should know that an attorney who has a lot of experience dealing with insurance companies has a better chance of getting a good settlement than you do as experience counts for everything when it comes to dealing with insurance companies.
Has Your Life Been Dramatically Altered Because of Your Injuries?
Has your life taken major turn for the worse since your injury? Maybe you cannot work for a long time to come or you were told that you’ll be needing medical assistance and/or rehabilitation for months or even years into the future. If this is the case, you should most definitely hire a reputable and experienced Arizona personal injury lawyer. Your attorney will work to build a case to prove that your life has been dramatically altered since you sustained your injury.
It is a wise to at least sit down and speak with a personal injury lawyer about what happened so that he or she can hear how your injury occurred. Be prepared to answer a lot of questions about the incident as the lawyer will need many facts before determining whether or not you have a case. It’s of the utmost importance to work with an attorney who has handled cases very similar to yours and who has helped his or her clients obtain large settlement amounts.