If you or a loved one have been seriously injured in a car accident in Southern California, your Los Angeles car accident claim may be resolved through a settlement. This is especially true if there is no dispute about liability, or legal responsibility, for an accident that has harmed you.
The goal should always be to recover the maximum value for your case, and experienced car accident attorneys can help you achieve just that.
This involves more than simply writing down a dollar figure on a piece of paper and handing it to the insurance company. It requires taking steps that will support the amount of compensation you are seeking. It also requires avoiding pitfalls that can harm your case.
As you will see when going through the car accident claims process, the skills, knowledge and resources of an experienced Los Angeles car accident attorney can play an invaluable role.
After you have been involved in a car accident in Los Angeles, you should:
NEVER admit fault for an accident and the injuries you have suffered.
When you are at an accident scene, you may feel the urge to apologize for what has happened or say you are sorry for the trouble that has been caused. However, you have to be careful about what you say. Any spontaneous statement you make could – and likely will – be used against you by the insurance company.
NEVER fail to follow your doctor’s orders.
After any accident, you should seek a medical evaluation. You should do this even if you do not think you are injured. You may be unaware that you have suffered traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury or soft tissue damage. Unlike a fracture, cut or burn, these injuries are not readily apparent – but they can be very serious.
It is equally important that you follow your doctor’s advice and treatment plan. For instance, if your doctor recommends that you take a prescription painkiller two times a day, take that prescription painkiller twice a day. If your doctor recommends that you rest for two weeks before returning to work, do not return to work until two weeks have passed or until your doctor has cleared you to return.
If you fail to follow your doctor’s orders, the insurance company may portray you as careless and contend that your actions have contributed to your injuries and pain and suffering. The insurance company may also use your failure to follow your treatment plan as evidence that the severity of your injuries is not as significant as you claim. In turn, the insurance company would try to minimize your compensation.
NEVER fail to take action on a Los Angeles Car Accident claim.
You have only a limited amount of time after an accident in which to file a Los Angeles car accident claim. The longer you wait to seek out an attorney’s help in pursuing the claim, the less valuable your case could become.
This is because the at-fault party and his or her insurance company will know your time to file your case is running out and will take advantage of it.
NEVER try to resolve your case without the help from an experienced Los Angeles car accident attorney.
Presenting a Los Angeles car accident claim to an insurance company is a matter of telling your side of the story. However, you want to make sure that story is told as professionally as possible.
Without a Los Angeles car accident attorney on your side, you may go into a settlement negotiation without a carefully prepared demand. You may fail to itemize all of the damages you have suffered and provide evidence to support those damages. A Los Angeles car accident lawyer will help you to avoid such a costly mistake.
WHY SHOULD YOU WORK WITH A LOS ANGELES CAR ACCIDENT ATTORNEY?
One of the best steps you can take to properly value your case and give yourself the best opportunity to recover the compensation you need is to hire an experienced Los Angeles car accident attorney to assist you in preparing and presenting your Los Angeles car accident claim.
Reasons to work with an experienced Los Angeles car accident attorney include:
An experienced Los Angeles car accident attorney like the lawyers at C and M Law Corporation have the experience necessary to identify the losses and expenses that can be tied to an accident. With OVER ONE BILLION DOLLARS recovered on behalf of our clients, we know what it takes to WIN MAXIMUM COMPENSATION.
You MUST be able to present evidence in support of your requested damages.
An insurance company would likely reject any claim for a specific amount of damages if you present no evidence in support of that amount.
An experienced Los Angeles car accident attorney has this knowledge and can help you to locate, gather and present the evidence you need to support the damages you are seeking to recover in your Los Angeles car accident claim.
You MUST be ready to take your case to court.
In many cases, a Los Angeles car accident claim can be resolved without the need to file a lawsuit or take a case to court. However, if an insurance company refuses to make a settlement offer that will fully and fairly compensate you for the harm you have suffered, it may be necessary to go forward with litigation.
An experienced Los Angeles car accident attorney will know how to file your lawsuit, or complaint, in the proper court and go through the pre-trial process.
Generally speaking, when an insurance company knows that you are serious about taking a case to court, it will be more likely to agree to a reasonable settlement of your Los Angeles car accident claim.
HOW CAN YOU HELP YOUR LOS ANGELES CAR ACCIDENT ATTORNEY?
When you work with a car accident attorney on your case, you can improve your chances of collecting just compensation by being a team player. In other words, you can take many steps to help your attorney to establish your case. These steps include:
Be completely honest about your losses.
You should never lie or exaggerate about the injuries you have suffered. By that same token, you should never downplay them, either.
If you minimize your struggles and difficulties or do not admit to having any pain or anguish, your attorney won’t know to investigate and pursue compensation for that particular loss.
Similarly, your attorney will not know to seek future medical expenses, home health care costs or loss of future income if you do not fully share the extent of your injuries with him or her.
Share all documents and information with your attorney.
You only have a limited time in which to prepare your Los Angeles car accident claim. The evidence you present at settlement negotiations or at trial will be the evidence used to determine the compensation you will receive.
To get the most out of the short amount of time you have to prepare your case, proactively share information and documents with your attorney. These documents include:
-Police accident report
-Medical bills
-Wage statements
-Attendance reports from your employer
-Statements from your insurance company
-Medical records
-Repair estimates.
-Share these documents with your attorney as soon as you receive them.
Help your lawyer to identify witnesses.
You should provide your lawyer with names and contact information of any persons who witnessed you suffer an accident and injuries. These could be passengers in your car, other motorists who stopped at the crash scene, co-workers, store employees or others.
Stay away from social media.
In recent years, insurance companies have started mining social media sites to find information about personal injury claimants. For this reason, you should never discuss your accident, your injuries or your legal case on Facebook, Twitter or any other social media site.
Additionally, an insurance company may take anything you post on social media and take it out of context. For instance, if you post a photo of yourself at a party or at a ballgame, the insurance company may use it to argue that your injuries have not affected you as badly as you claim.
This is why we often encourage our clients to simply stay away from social media while a case is pending.
GET HELP TODAY FROM AN EXPERIENCED LOS ANGELES CAR ACCIDENT ATTORNEY
Some people fail to hire an attorney to help with their Los Angeles car accident claim because they are concerned about the ability to pay for his or her legal services.
You won’t have this concern when you contact C and M Law Corporation Personal injury Attorneys in Los Angeles.
We will represent you on a contingency fee basis. This means that you will pay ZERO costs or legal fees until we obtain compensation for you.
We will devote our time and resources to understanding the true extent of your pain, your suffering and your expenses so that we can aggressively seek a financial recovery for you.
By hiring Cohen & Marzban to fight for you, you benefit from our extensive experience and expertise:
- We have over 45 years of experience in personal injury cases.
- Our attorneys know the ins and outs of personal injury claims.
- We don’t leave any stone unturned to get you the compensation you’re entitled to receive.
- We have already recovered $2,000,000,000+ in damages for clients!
- Our list of accolades includes winning The Litigator Award™ – an honor awarded to only the top 1% of trial attorneys in the United States.
- All new clients receive a FREE consultation. If we agree to accept your case, we do not get paid unless you get paid!
Call us at (310) 986-3739 to schedule an appointment. Our phone lines are open 24/7.
Please visit our dedicated car accident page for more details.
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