Do I need to hire an attorney after a car accident?
There is no legal requirement that you need an attorney for a car accident in Nevada. However, the benefits of having an attorney represent you during the process outweigh any negatives. In fact, not having an attorney could prove fatal to the outcome of your case if you do not familiarize yourself with the requirements of a personal injury claim. Despite all this, it is definitely possible to represent yourself during a car accident case. Still, if you find yourself wondering, “do I need an attorney for an auto accident,” we will provide you with some of the ways a Las Vegas car accident attorney can help you to achieve the best possible result.
Medical treatment
Attorneys are not doctors. They cannot diagnose your injuries. However, the best car accident attorneys can set you up with the best doctors and even aid you in finding available treatment if you do not have health insurance. Attorneys will also be able to counsel you as to how your medical treatment will increase the value of your case. The manner in which attorneys can accomplish these tasks is explained below.
An experienced personal injury attorney knows what doctors testify well at trial. They will also know which doctors have historically had the best outcomes with their clients from a medical standpoint. So even though attorneys should not become heavily involved in the course of a client’s medical treatment, they can certainly inform their clients, from a legal perspective, how their treatment can affect their personal injury case. For instance, if a client has been recommended for a costly medical procedure, an experienced car accident attorney can inform their client how the procedure will affect their personal injury case. Certainly, the attorney would discuss how the procedure would increase the economic damages of their case. They would also discuss options in regard to a cost estimate alternative to obtaining those damages without having the procedure done by using the client’s doctor’s surgical recommendation.
Medical treatment without insurance
Now let’s talk about how an attorney can help you obtain medical treatment if you do not have health insurance. If you do not have health insurance, you need an attorney to sign an attorney lien on your behalf, which gives allows you to treat with a healthcare provider without health insurance and with the added benefit of not having to pay copays. The way that it works is your attorney will sign an agreement with the doctor, which gives the doctor’s office interest in your car accident case. So they will simply be paid at the resolution of your car accident claim. Your attorney will still negotiate the medical bills down as low as possible to maximize the amount of money you are left with at the end of your case.
Great personal injury attorneys know how medical treatment can increase the value of a car accident case. Your medical treatment dictates how much money you are entitled to recover from both an economic and non-economic perspective. Your medical bills dictate a large portion of your economic damages in a car accident case. In Nevada, you are entitled to your full medical bills, regardless of whether or not they were paid by health insurance. The other way that medical treatment can increase your damages is from a non-economic damages perspective. Every time that you go to a doctor, the doctor asks you how you feel on a 1-10 pain
scale. That pain scale can be very helpful in substantiating your pain and suffering claim. It will help the jury understand how much pain you were in on every particular date that you saw a doctor.
Assisting with property damage
Property damage claims are a portion of car accident claims that involve repairing or replacing your car or other physical property that was damaged in the accident. The best attorneys will assist their clients with the property damage portion of their car accident claim. Although some attorneys in Nevada refuse to assist their clients with their property damage claims, Brian Boyer Injury Firm prides itself on helping their clients resolve their property damage claim free of charge, as a courtesy. This means that Brian Boyer Injury Firm will not take a portion of the property damage claim. All the money that is paid by the insurance company for a diminished value claim will go into your own pocket.
There are many intricacies involved with property damage claims that a well-versed attorney is aware that laypersons may not know about. For instance, if a car is involved in a car accident, the value of the car could be permanently affected, even if the vehicle is repaired perfectly. The reason for this is due to the development of vehicle report services, such as Carfax. A bad Carfax report will result in your vehicle is worth less than it was before the accident. This loss in the value of your vehicle is known as a diminished value claim. If you have this type of claim available to you, you need an attorney to direct you on what needs to be done to establish the diminished value claim. Your attorney will be able to direct you to an expert that will be able to draft a report to support the claim. A layperson would have a difficult time successfully securing a diminished value claim.
Litigating your car accident case
If you are not able to resolve your car accident claim by negotiating with the insurance adjuster, then filing a lawsuit could be your only option. Although you can represent yourself “pro se” in a car accident lawsuit, it is highly discouraged to the point where Brian Boyer Injury Firm would be confident in saying that you NEED an attorney to litigate a personal injury case involving a car accident. This is due to the many procedural rules and laws that need to be followed to a “T” in order to be successful during the litigation process. For instance, you need to properly disclose evidence, respond to discovery, conduct depositions, and produce expert reports. These are things that only the most skillful and experienced attorneys know how to properly accomplish. A layperson would have a very difficult time complying with the Nevada Rules of Civil Procedure. It is common that individuals who try to represent themselves, pro se, have their cases thrown out of court for failure to follow the rules of civil procedure.
The drawbacks of hiring a personal injury attorney
The only real drawback to hiring a personal injury attorney is that they do not work for free. However, Brian Boyer Injury Firm Las Vegas represents their client on a contingency fee basis, which means that Brian Boyer Injury Firm does not take money out of their client’s pockets directly. The only way we get paid is if we are successful in obtaining compensation on your behalf. Under this method of payment, there is really no risk to you. For the foregoing reasons, Brian Boyer Injury Firm is confident in saying that if you are involved in a car accident, you need an attorney. Contact Brian Boyer Injury Firm to speak directly to attorney Brian Boyer. He will answer any questions that you have and will promptly arrange an in-person meeting to discuss the merits of your case.
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