You should hire a lawyer as soon as you know the extent of your physical injuries and property damages or if your loved one died in the accident. Healing from your injuries or making funeral preparations may be more important to you after a car accident than hiring a lawyer. But, you do not want to wait too long to discuss your case with a lawyer.
Keep in mind that the State of Tennessee’s Law of Statute of Limitations gives you one year from the date of your car accident to file a personal injury claim or lawsuit. So, hiring a lawyer quickly can help you avoid missing the state’s filing deadline.
Hiring a Lawyer after a Car Accident
A lawyer knows the process of filing an insurance claim or personal injury lawsuit to recover damages from a car accident. They can also help explain to you what kind of settlement to expect.
Having a knowledgeable lawyer working on your behalf can level the legal playing field. A lawyer will communicate with auto insurance companies and other parties you’re your interests in mind. Insurance companies usually do not want to deal with attorneys because they know that attorneys will not accept low—or no—settlement offers for their clients.
Having a proficient car accident lawyer provides excellent benefits for injury victims and their families. The attorneys at the Law Offices of Ogle, Elrod & Baril, and PLLC specialize in personal injury and motor vehicle cases in Tennessee. So, our law firm is more than capable of handling your car accident case.
Reasons to Hire a Lawyer
It is possible for you to handle your insurance claim independently. However, you might want to hire a lawyer if:
- An insurance adjuster denies your request because of lack of sufficient evidence
- You do not know how to collect relevant evidence to support your claim
- An insurer gave you a low settlement offer that does not cover all of your damages
- An insurer delays settling your claim
- You later develop an injury that requires costly medical treatment
- An insurer falsely claims you are partially responsible for the accident
Determining the Value of Your Claim
Injuries from an accident impact your life more than you can imagine. The type of injury you sustained may require frequent doctor visits, multiple surgeries, prescription medication, and other health-related issues that can become very costly.
Your attorney can help you obtain reimbursement for medical bills and receive compensation for future treatment. Once you accept a settlement from an insurance company, you cannot go back and ask for more money if you have additional health issues in the future.
Your attorney’s goal is to help you recover as much compensation as possible. Having information about the costs of your medical bills, loss of income and other accident-related damages will help in estimating the worth of your case.
Also, serious injuries increase the value of your claim. So, medical records and other documents that show your damages and how the accident has impacted you and your family will help to boost your claim’s value.
How a Lawyer Can Help Your Case
A car accident lawyer has a variety of ways to collect evidence for a case. The Law Offices of Ogle, Elrod & Baril, PLLC, for instance, works with experts who recreate vehicle crashes to determine how a crash happened and who was at fault for the accident. We also work with medical experts who review medical reports and give their opinion about a client’s injury.
We can also obtain surveillance or traffic camera video footage that may have captured the accident. Additionally, our clients help us in collecting evidence by ordering their medical records and obtaining from their employers the wages they lost because of the accident.
Free Evaluation of Your Car Accident Case
The Law Offices of Ogle, Elrod & Baril, PLLC offers free, no-obligation legal consultations. We can determine if you have a viable claim and if you are eligible to recover compensation for the damages from your car accident.
Call us today at 1-865-546-1111 to schedule an appointment with one of our car accident lawyers and learn about the benefits of hiring a car accident lawyer.