When should you hire a personal injury lawyer? That’s a great question, but it doesn’t always have a clear-cut answer. It depends on what’s happening.
One thing is for sure: Don’t call us before you call 911! Call for emergency assistance if you have injuries or anyone else was injured in the accident. Accept medical treatment and make your health a priority.
Next, speak with the police, gather contact information for the other people who are involved, and talk to any nearby witnesses. Look around for any video cameras and take photos of the scene while everything is still fresh.
Have you already taken care of these steps? Are the police investigating the situation? Are you on the path to healing from your injuries? Great! Now you’re ready to talk to a personal injury lawyer. Assuming you are still receiving treatment for your injuries, a logical next step is calling an injury lawyer to learn your rights and find out if you have a personal injury claim. If you are done with all of your medical treatment, gather up your medical bills and other documentation and give us a call.
Take Action Before Vital Evidence is Lost Forever
Of course, you don’t want to wait too long to contact a personal injury lawyer because you could lose precious evidence that fades away with every moment that passes. Witnesses forget details, videos are erased, and the scene of your injury could change significantly due to construction, weather, and a million other things.
Here’s something you might not realize about personal injury attorneys: We’re not just lawyers. We’re investigators too. We have experience with tracking down witnesses, talking to local business owners, securing traffic camera footage, requesting police bodycam videos, and much more.
At Sally Morin Personal Injury Lawyers, we’re great at brainstorming ideas for recovering evidence you may have thought was lost forever. Give us a challenge, and we’ll start digging. The fresher your case is, the easier it is to gather the evidence you need and put together a compelling argument for compensation.
You May Need a Personal Injury Lawyer If …
Here are some circumstances where people typically need a personal injury lawyer. Do any of these situations seem similar to yours?
- You were injured in a car accident where someone else was clearly at fault.
- You were left with severe injuries due to a truck driver’s negligence.
- An Uber driver was distracted and caused the accident.
- You were hit while bicycling, walking as a pedestrian, or using a scooter.
- You accepted medical help after the accident, but now you have a pile of medical bills.
- You’re pretty sure the other person has insurance.
- You had a pre-existing condition and/or your injuries are getting worse after the accident.
- You’d really like to negotiate a settlement that’s fair and valuable.
If the circumstances above sound familiar, or if you were severely injured in another way, it’s worth at least contacting a personal injury traffic accident attorney to discuss your options.
Show Them You’re Serious and Your Case is Strong
When you hire a lawyer, you can finally breathe a sigh of relief. Now you can stop dealing directly with the other person, their insurance company, and their lawyer. Your lawyer can handle all that.
Plus, you can stop worrying about accidentally doing or saying something that would harm your case. Your lawyer can advise you about requests from the other side, like when they ask for your social security number or toss out an insultingly low offer.
Ultimately, you win a personal injury case by building a mountain of convincing documentation and showing the other side that you’re in it to win it. As they see you’re not going to back down and go away, they’re forced to either negotiate – which is usually in both parties’ best interests – or take it as far as court, which is relatively rare.
And here’s one last thing: Any good personal injury attorney should give you a free consultation. That makes it pretty painless to start the process. In fact, to ensure your bank account isn’t a barrier, we offer all kinds of free resources and we don’t take a contingency fee until the conclusion of your case.
Wondering if now is the right time to call a personal injury lawyer? At Sally Morin Personal Injury Lawyers, we dedicate ourselves to helping California people just like you. Let’s talk!
“A driver changed lanes into me while riding my motorcycle and ground me into the center median. Annie was a huge help and offered a lot of free advice which allowed me be sure I was making the right moves after the accident. Unfortunately the driver was under-insured and we were unable to find any secondary coverage that might pay damages. He also had no money or property. You can’t squeeze blood from a stone. Regardless, Annie put in a good amount of time and continued to offer advice even after it became apparent there would be no payday for either of us. Sally Morin Law was easy to work with and they obviously aren’t driven solely be money. I would strongly recommend this firm to anyone injured in a motor vehicle accident.” – Paul C.
Experience a serious personal injury accident in California?
Check out our Personal Injury FAQ Page to learn more about how the process works.
We Handle Your Accident Claim So You Can Focus on Your Life
After an accident, contact the attorneys at Sally Morin Personal Injury Lawyers. We handle many types of personal injury claims. We believe you should be able to focus on recovering from your accident while we handle the legal details.
We truly care about the people of California. Contact us today for a free online case evaluation.
Video Transcript
When should I hire a personal injury attorney? That’s a great question because it’s not always the same answer. Definitely you don’t want to hire a personal … That’s not the first person you want to call when you’re in an accident. You want to call 911, you want to get medical help, you want to make sure the police show up, get witnesses, things like that. So do not even think about an attorney until you’ve got the police investigating the accident and you’re taking care of your injuries with medical professionals. But the best time to hire a lawyer after doing that is pretty much as soon as possible once you know that you definitely have injuries that were caused by the accident. The reason you want to hire an attorney sooner rather than later is because attorneys are experts at tracking down witnesses, gathering evidence, getting surveillance footage that might be relevant to the accident, local businesses or traffic cameras, police bodycam footage, all that stuff. I mean, some of that stuff gets recorded over or witnesses sort of disappear or forget the facts of the accident, so you want to preserve the evidence so you can prove the case. The fresher it is, the stronger your case is. Also, having a lawyer get involved with the insurance companies or the defense attorneys more quickly helps you establish a strong case. Instead of letting them think maybe you’re not even going to bring a claim, or you make some calls and maybe not know exactly what to say or disclose some information that maybe you shouldn’t like social security numbers, things like that. Having a lawyer to advise you right away is probably the best course of action. The good thing about it is pretty much every personal injury attorney gives you a free consultation. It doesn’t hurt to even just reach out to a personal injury lawyer to see what they can do for you and if now is the right time for you to hire one.
