By Dan Noll on July 31st, 2023 in Car Accident
Protecting Your Rights After Being Injured in a Wreck: Why Do I Need a Car Accident Lawyer in Springfield, Explained
Victims who are injured in a motor vehicle accident may face unexpected medical bills, lost wages, and disabling personal injuries. Some of these personal injuries may be permanent and have life-changing consequences for a victim and his or her family. This includes being unable to continue to work in the same job, or even being able to work at all. Other times, victims may need to adjust nearly every facet of their life, particularly when they are paralyzed, suffer a traumatic brain injury, had an amputation, or experienced another significant personal injury. Despite these serious injuries, many individuals ask themselves why do I need a car accident lawyer in Springfield to handle their case.
After all, Illinois law does not require a personal injury victim to obtain legal representation. Indeed, many individuals have previously handled insurance claims directly with adjusters. This includes health insurance or dental insurance billing errors, fender bender auto claims, home insurance losses, and other insurance claim issues. As a result, many people take the position that they can just handle their personal injury case after a car wreck too.
This can be a huge mistake. The experienced car accident lawyers at the Noll Law Office know that individuals who try to handle a personal injury case without proper legal representation are often going to obtain less compensation than they deserve. Not only this, but many insurance adjusters will take advantage of a victim’s situation and lack of experience to help boost the insurance company’s bottom line. If you or a loved one were seriously injured in any type of motor vehicle accident in Illinois, contact the Noll Law Office at (217) 414-8889 to learn more about how their experienced staff can help protect your rights to compensation.
Why You Shouldn’t Try to Handle Your Car Accident Injury Case On Your Own
Unlike a medical co-pay bill, dental filling claim, fender bender, or storm damage case, a personal injury claim is about more than just replaceable property – it’s about you. Personal injury cases are complex because of that element. Not all injuries will heal in the same manner that a fender can be replaced or a cavity can be filled. Rather, personal injury cases are complex and involve significant aspects of the law and medicine that cannot be taken for granted. Unfortunately, insurance companies already know this and will try to take advantage of the complexity against you.
Given these factors, some of the reasons why you shouldn’t try to handle your car accident case on your own include the following:
Legal Complexities
Unlike an overpayment or medical billing error, car accident cases have many legal complexities that make it hard for a non-lawyer to handle. This includes issues involving liability, causation, damages, comparative fault, and other legal claims. Insurance adjusters, although they are usually non-lawyers, are trained in many of these legal issues which allows them to have an advantage over a non-lawyer.
Medical Complexities
In addition to the complex legal issues, personal injury cases often involve complicated medical issues from car accidents. Not only does this include issues such as the type of injury and causation, but also future pain and suffering. In addition, catastrophic personal injuries such as those causing paralysis, brain injuries, amputations, internal injuries, and other disabling or life-changing injuries can be very difficult for a non-lawyer or non-medical professional to handle. Again, insurance companies will often train their adjusters on certain common – and often high-value – personal injuries that occur in car accidents, in order to have an advantage over an injured victim.
Training, Resources, and Experience
Although most car accident victims may believe that they will have a level playing field when they are trying to resolve an injury claim with an adjuster, that is rarely the case. Even though insurance adjusters are often non-lawyers, they have significant advantages over you. For instance, insurance adjusters are well-trained by their companies, often being sent to regional or national conferences where some of the top defense lawyers are teaching seminars or classes. Many times these conferences are taught to lawyers as well, meaning that these non-lawyer adjusters will be working alongside lawyers and learning directly from lawyers.
To that extent, insurance adjusters often have significant resources available to them. That may be in the form of a lawyer who is working “behind the scenes” to help review claims, formulate responses, and even provide research or arguments to adjusters. In addition, adjusters also have access to make other types of research databases on law or medicine, as well as other claim files that they can use to help beat or minimize your claim.
Finally, just as a matter of practicality, insurance adjusters have significantly more experience handling claims. Even if you have handled other insurance claims for yourself or family members, some insurance adjusters will have handled hundreds or thousands of cases before. This experience and ability to handle cases is extremely beneficial and, outside of a car accident lawyer in Springfield, there are not many other individuals who will have the same level of familiarity or experience.
Access to Counsel
As noted above, many insurance adjusters are non-lawyers but will have access to a defense lawyer. This silent lawyer is often floating between multiple adjusters, monitoring claims and how the process is going. Sometimes adjusters will roundtable cases or claims with the lawyer, getting helpful advice, arguments, and statements which can be used against you. Thus, even if you believe you are working with a non-lawyer, oftentimes there is a lawyer that is feeding information to the adjuster to help defeat your case.
Attrition
One of the largest drawbacks to handling a car accident case on your own is the fact that you are injured. Insurance companies know this and can use it against you in several ways. First, they can push out claims and drag it on, waging an unfair war of attrition in paying your claim while you have unexpected medical bills and increasing lost wages.
Second, even a victim who is more advanced and experienced in handling a car accident case can have that turned around and used against them, as an insurance carrier could also that you are fighting back too well and, therefore, you cannot possibly be as injured as you say you are. This is particularly true in cases where your claims for quiet enjoyment, ability to work, and other arguments as to your level of functioning are challenged. Thus, even if you believe you are able to handle your case, you should be mindful of this argument and hire an experienced car accident lawyer in Springfield, Illinois instead to protect your rights to compensation.
Why You Need a Car Accident Lawyer in Springfield
Instead of trying to handle a case on your own, for the reasons noted above and many other reasons which can affect your outcome, some of the reasons why you should contact a car accident lawyer to represent you include the following:
Legal Experience Handling These Types of Cases
When you hire a car accident lawyer instead of trying to handle a claim on your own, you are hiring someone who has gone to law school, passed the bar examination, and has gained available experience representing other clients and victims of personal injury accidents. This includes motor vehicle accidents, where some lawyers may spend their entire career just handling car accident cases. This limit in their practice area helps them become extremely proficient not just in the law, but also in recognizing patterns and common defenses used by insurance adjusters or defense lawyers. As a result, this often results in a much stronger case and a much better likelihood of recovering compensation.
Better Understanding of Anatomy and Medicine
In handling personal injury cases, car accident lawyers need to know the medicine just as well as a doctor. In fact, in nursing home and medical malpractice cases, it is often said that the lawyer needs to know the medicine better than the health care provider or facility being sued. This requires a personal injury lawyer to learn details and levels of anatomy and medicine which can greatly help establish a damages claim for injuries sustained in the past, currently suffering, and what is likely to occur in the future. This is a huge advantage and the reason why victims need to hire a car accident lawyer in Springfield, IL for their case.
Better Training and Resources
Another important reason why to hire a car accident lawyer is that they have better training, resources, and experience than nearly all non-lawyers will have. This includes victims and insurance adjusters. In addition to hardcopy and digital resources, personal injury lawyers handle many cases, building relationships with treating physicians and leading experts in the region. This forges professional networks where car accident lawyers can reach out to ask questions and get answers from other professionals. That is a huge advantage, particularly in more complex legal and injury cases. Victims who hire experienced car accident lawyers like the fifth-generation lawyers at the Noll Law Office are beneficiaries of the decades of experience and relationships built by the lawyers and law firm that they hire.
Understanding the Going Rate
Even if an insurance adjuster is offering you what appears to be real money, that might not be the true amount that you are entitled to. Indeed, the going rate of what a case is worth can fluctuate based on many factors, including even just the county or locality where you are bringing the case. These are not factors that are written down or something that can be easily researched. However, an experienced car accident lawyer will know what the reasonable compensation for a victim and his or her injury will be, ensuring that a victim obtains compensation that meets or exceeds the going rate of what other similarly situated victims may obtain.
Threat and Power of a Lawsuit
An important factor when handling any type of insurance claim is the fact that the insurance company or insurance adjuster will know that you can and will commence an action. That keeps them playing fair. When you handle a case on your own, there is often no incentive for them to do that. But if you have a car accident lawyer who can put pressure on an insurance company to come to the negotiating table and fairly pay a claim, that can help you and your family recover more compensation.
That’s because the threat of being sued, and therefore having to pay their corporate or retain lawyers to represent the defendant and the insurance company, is sometimes going to be more money than what is being demanded or how far apart the parties are in a negotiation. Said differently, if an insurance company knows that they may have to pay litigation fees and costs to their lawyer, they may be more likely to pay your claim fairly before it gets to that point.
No Upfront Costs or Financial Risks to You
Related to the point above, as a victim of a car accident, you won’t have any upfront costs or disbursements to hire a lawyer. Thus, while a defendant and their insurance carrier will need to start paying for their representation and their filing fees, you don’t. That’s because an experienced car accident lawyer like those at the Noll Law Office will handle your case on a contingency fee agreement. That means that their legal fees are only paid from a percentage of what they recover for you. As a result, there is a no-win, no-fee promise. It also means that the car accident lawyers in Springfield at the Noll Law Office will pay your upfront filing fees, costs, disbursements, and other expenses related to your lawsuit too, which are also only reimbursed after recovery is made.
Still Unsure Why You Need to Hire a Car Accident Lawyer in Springfield, IL? Ask How the Noll Law Office Can Help You During a FREE Consultation
If you or a loved one were seriously injured in a motor vehicle accident occurring in Illinois, contact the experienced car accident lawyers in Springfield at the Noll Law Office to schedule a FREE consultation. Their compassionate and skilled team will answer your questions and explain your legal options. Unlike other law firms that send cases throughout the state, the Noll Law Office handles all cases locally in their office, not referring cases out to newly-graduated lawyers across the state and without your knowledge.
To learn more about how their experienced team of lawyers can help you, contact the Noll Law Offices today.