How Attorneys Increase Injury Claim Payments

• Validate the Threat of Trial — Following an accident, victims have no guaranteed payment rights. Rather, they only have a right to sue the at-fault parties. If you handle your claim without counsel, insurance adjusters know immediately that you intend to settle. They know you don’t want a trial, and therefore, they are not motivated to pay what they believe you might win in court.
• Know and Support True Case Value — Adjusters know that unrepresented victims typically have no idea what their case is worth. Trial attorneys who commonly handle and research jury trials know what a jury would give you. Thus, we are prepared to properly price the case and push for full value.
• Control Defense Costs — Adjusters know your lawyer will sue. If suit is filed, their costs skyrocket. If the insurance company refuses to offer a fair settlement and we win that amount at trial, they now must pay the victim and they pay for a lawyer to defend the at-fault driver(s) and they pay 8 percent interest on top of your verdict and they must hire and pay for their own doctors and medical experts and they may also have to pay for your trial costs. Simply put, lawyers show that settlement on your terms is the insurance company’s cheapest way out.
• Control Insurance Communications — Once you hire a lawyer, it is illegal for a claims adjuster to contact you directly by mail, telephone, or personal visit. Attorneys halt adjuster contacts and their efforts to collect information that will later be used against you. Lawyers deny access to your past medical records and unrelated, private information. Your attorney will also collect, interpret, and highlight your medical evidence to prove the full impact and true extent of all injuries.
• Locate Hidden Defendants — Crashes are often caused by multiple factors. If another driver or an outside party contributed to causing your accident, all of these extra parties and their insurance carriers can be legally compelled to contribute toward payment of victim damages.
• Overcome Liability Defenses — Adjusters try to blame you for the accident or for failing to follow medical advice. Attorneys properly oppose these arguments and refuse to allow the insurance company to control case valuation.
• Overcome Medical Causation Arguments — Adjusters argue that injuries are preexisting and not caused by the accident. They also accuse victims of exaggerating symptoms. Through law and advocacy, attorneys defuse these arguments to avoid erosion of case value.
• Master All Medical Issues — The best injury attorneys have considerable medical knowledge and direct access to doctors and medical experts. Injury claims bring full payment only when all medical evidence is highlighted for the patient’s benefit. With medical support, your lawyer will explain the risks involved in your surgery or medical care, the future problems that might arise, the true nature and extent of all injuries, the effect of injury on overall health and life span, lost quality of life due to injury, and the need and cost of future medical care.
• Build and Highlight Admissible Injury Evidence — Experienced injury lawyers help by building and highlighting all of the evidence that a jury would hear in court. Evidence law is commonly used by insurance companies to exclude information that would motivate more generous verdicts. Attorneys easily avoid these pitfalls. Most cases settle, but your adjuster will only offer full value after they are forced to consider all admissible evidence that would motivate a jury to provide the most generous verdict. Personal injury trial lawyers know how to properly present the best evidence to compel higher settlement offers.
• Applying Detailed Law of Damages — Adjusters and insurance companies will not help you find reasons why they should pay you more money. The law of damages is quite complex and constantly changing. Injury lawyers know what can be collected. A detailed demand of everything legally due will vastly increase insurance offers and injury payments.
• Prove and Collect Future Medical Care Costs — Insurance companies never pay for future medical problems without proper proof. Attorneys know how to secure focused medical evidence of prognosis to compel full payment for future medical care costs and for future pain and suffering.
• Build and Present Proper Income Loss Evidence — If injuries cause physical disability, future lost wages are awarded in court only if proper evidence confirms lost future earning ability or likely early retirement. Attorneys know how to retain vocational rehabilitation experts and economic experts to prove the full measure of all past and future lost earnings.
• Coordinate Health Insurance Filings — Proper use of personal health insurance can vastly increase your net share of the injury settlement. Attorneys help to prioritize and time filings for personal health insurance, medical payments insurance, and liability insurance. In many cases, you can legally collect multiple payments for the same medical charges.
• Fight Claims Against Your Settlement — Health insurance companies and other outside parties often have a hidden right to take money from your settlement. Child support liens, VA liens, workers’ compensation, and other payment sources can also take a share of your injury claim and sue you if you fail to pay them. Attorneys help to minimize claims against your injury money. Attorneys should also negotiate unpaid medical bills to reduce what you must pay for medical care not covered by health insurance. Every penny your attorney saves falls directly into your pocket.

Lawyers also have significant advantage handling certain tasks. For example, when requesting medical records and answers to important medical questions, it is best to allow your lawyer to handle all medical inquiries. Doctors are busy, and they typically shy away from lawsuits. If you ask for case-related information during medical appointments, your doctors will document this in your treatment records. Adjusters and insurance defense lawyers look for notations in medical records, such as “patient comes in requesting information for lawsuit” or “possible pecuniary gain motive.” Whenever they find these notes, they use them to suggest that your primary reason for the medical appointment was to inflate the value of your accident claim.

Lawyers make medical requests in a way that protects your privacy, avoids negative impact on your medical file, and minimizes inconvenience on your physician’s schedule. Your lawyer’s medical requests are timely and focused in a way that helps the doctor to provide the best possible evidence and, at the same time, avoid depositions and trials.

Another key benefit of hiring a lawyer is simplicity. You work with doctors toward a full recovery, and your lawyer handles all other aspects of your case. The attorney’s involvement should increase case value and make the insurance claim process much easier for you. Also, if you intend to hire a lawyer, do so as soon as possible so you can enjoy the maximum protection, benefits, and convenience of legal representation.