If someone injures you in a car accident due to their own negligence, you have every right to seek compensation from them through a personal injury claim.
There are plenty of auto wrecks where one driver is obviously negligent. In many cases, there is alcohol involved in the wreck in one way or another. If someone has injured you in such a wreck, contacting a lawyer with experience in this field is vital. You’ll want to contact them as soon as possible after the crash in the most literal sense. Seeking treatment is MOST important, but you should contact your lawyer before you talk to your insurance company if at all possible.
Insurance companies, to put it bluntly, have a job to do. That job is making a profit. This sometimes makes for an adversarial relationship between the insurance companies and their clients. Luckily, your attorney will be the one who deals with them; not you.
Your attorney will need to go over the circumstances of your wreck and make sure that you have a case before they take you on as a client. If they work on contingency (as we do), you’ll never be asked to pay a penny out of pocket for their help. Contingency agreements work both ways though. If the attorney doesn’t feel that your case has a good chance of winning, they will simply decline to represent you.
If your case moves forward, there is a chance that your attorney will be able to negotiate a settlement with the other party’s attorney. If this happens, you won’t actually have to set foot in a courtroom. The attorney will simply let you know the figure being offered, and if it’s acceptable to you, the case ends with the payment.
For more information, see our page on car accidents or call us at (214) 651-6100 for a free consultation.