If you or a loved one have suffered a serious injury, deciding whether to hire a personal injury attorney can be a challenging decision. Many people are unsure of whether they have a valid case. However, there are some cases where hiring a personal injury attorney can help you recover significant financial damages that you otherwise would not have received.
Sometimes, hiring an attorney is the smartest thing you can do. Explore the right time to hire a personal injury attorney, and how Nessler & Associates can help you build a solid personal injury case.
Do I Need a Personal Injury Attorney?
Hiring an attorney and filing a personal injury claim is an expensive and time-consuming process. This means that in some situations, filing a claim will cost more time and money than your case is worth.
If your claim is for a relatively low amount, the other party is cooperative, and you have the time and ability to learn how to argue your case, you may be able to take on the case without a lawyer.
However, hiring an attorney for cases involving significant damages is beneficial, so you don’t have to navigate the legal system and its deadlines on your own.
Cases for a Personal Injury Lawyer
A personal injury law firm takes on a wide variety of personal injury and wrongful death cases. Contrary to popular belief, however, personal injury attorneys don’t just take on cases involving physical injuries.
They can also pursue cases where you suffered severe emotional damages like pain and suffering. Here are some common personal injury claims that a personal injury firm will take on.
Injuries Caused by Negligence
Sometimes, one person’s carelessness can cause serious injury to another person visiting their property. For instance, someone visiting an acquaintance’s home could injure themselves on a damaged board on a deck or a loose bathroom tile. Personal injury lawyers can help you recover damages for medical bills and lost wages caused by these injuries.
Motor Vehicle Accidents
Many drivers find themselves battling with a car insurance company after a car accident or fighting with their health insurance to cover their injuries after a trucking accident.
Personal injury attorneys and auto accident attorneys have a strong understanding of personal injury law, motor vehicle law, and property damage statutes that can help you recover damages from the other driver’s car insurance company.
Workplace Accidents
Victims of workplace injuries face more than a long healing process. They may find themselves struggling with workers’ compensation claims and receiving disability benefits.
Personal injury lawyers can pursue appeals of denied workers’ compensation claims so that you can recover the cost of medical treatment and wages you couldn’t earn.
Abuse and Neglect
Many people view abuse or neglect as something that happens to vulnerable populations, like nursing home residents and children who suffer at the hands of the people meant to help them. However, anyone can experience domestic violence, workplace sexual harassment, or abuse by clergy members.
Abuse can leave physical as well as emotional wounds. For example, adult survivors of child sexual abuse may experience significant emotional repercussions even though the physical injuries have long since faded. An attorney can pursue damages against the abuser and anyone who facilitated the abuse.
Product Liability
While many products on the market are safe, manufacturers sometimes sell dangerous or defective products to consumers. For example, someone may be prescribed a medication that is later recalled because it was found to increase cancer rates. Even if the manufacturer unknowingly sold a defective or harmful product, the injured person can still pursue a lawsuit against the manufacturer for their injuries.
Wrongful Death
While losing a loved one always throws your world into disarray, losing a loved one due to someone else’s negligence can be even more disorienting. If a loved one recently died due to fully preventable causes, you may be able to file a wrongful death claim against the party that caused their death.
This claim can help you recover lost unearned wages, funeral expenses, and other damages like loss of consortium (companionship).
How Can a Personal Injury Attorney Help Me?
Personal injury attorneys will help you in different ways depending on your case. For instance, if you’re pursuing compensation for a dog bite injury, your attorney will serve a different role than if you’re filing a wrongful death claim against a drunk driver. Regardless of your case, a personal injury attorney can help you do all of the following.
Review Your Case
The facts and details of your case will influence what compensation you may recover. An attorney can review your claim, determine what damages you can pursue, and discuss how likely you’ll win the case.
Draft a Demand Letter
Writing a demand letter requires you to detail the injuries you suffered, why the other party is at fault, and how much you should be compensated for your damages. This can be difficult to do, especially if your injury was traumatic. Your lawyer can determine how much you can recover and write the demand letter to the other party.
Gather Evidence
Gathering evidence for your case isn’t always an easy process. If someone else possesses key evidence, you may face an uphill battle to access it. In addition, not everyone knows what can or can’t be used as evidence in a case.
Attorneys can determine what evidence can be used, where relevant evidence can be obtained, and subpoena relevant records and testimony from third parties.
File a Claim
Making a personal injury claim with the court requires that plenty of paperwork be filed by requested deadlines. A personal injury attorney can ensure that all required paperwork is filled out and filed with the court on time.
Negotiate with Insurance Companies
In many personal injury cases, you receive your settlement or payments from the other party’s insurance company, like their homeowners or car insurance company. However, insurance companies can be reluctant to pay out what you’re owed, leading them to provide lowball offers or deny your claim entirely.
Additionally, some cases may require that a lienholder from your insurance company receive part of your settlement or judgment money, leaving you with far less than what you deserve.
Attorneys have extensive experience negotiating higher settlements with insurance companies and recognizing lowball offers or bad faith negotiations. They also know how to work with insurance company lienholders and get them to agree to a lower share of the settlement funds so that you can walk away with higher earnings.
Argue Fault or Liability
With a few exceptions (like workplace accident claims), many personal injury claims are won or lost on the concept of fault. What you may think is clear evidence of the other party’s liability could be inadmissible in court or fall into a legal gray area. Even with undeniable proof of the other party’s liability, their attorney could refute your claims on a technicality, leading you to lose the case.
Personal injury attorneys know what qualifies as admissible evidence of liability, how to argue the other party’s responsibility, and can counter any claims that you were at fault for your damages. Even if you are deemed partially at fault for your injuries, the help of an attorney can ensure you still receive a portion of your settlement.
Represent You at Hearings
The majority of lawsuits don’t progress to court, instead ending in a settlement. However, for those that do, your attorney will serve the role of a trial lawyer and lay out your case to the judge.
Additionally, some cases require hearings outside of a formal court setting. For example, in a workers’ compensation claim, your attorney will represent you in hearings with the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission.
How Soon Should I Find an Attorney?
See an attorney immediately if you believe you may have a personal injury claim. Illinois has a two-year statute of limitations, or time limit, to file a personal injury claim. If you try to file a claim more than two years after you were injured or discovered your injury, your case will be dismissed.
Many attorneys offer free consultations so you can discuss your case. Use these consultations to ask the attorney questions about their litigation strategies and assess how you feel about the attorney.
Consult with Nessler & Associates Today
If you’re searching for a personal injury lawyer in Illinois, Nessler & Associates is ready to take on your case. Our attorneys have many years of experience handling a wide variety of personal injury cases and will take your case on contingency, so you won’t owe us anything unless we win your case.
We serve clients throughout the state, with law offices in major cities like Springfield, Rockford, and Chicago, Illinois. We also fight for victims’ rights in Florida, Texas, and Colorado.
Schedule a free consultation by calling (800) 727-8010 or filling out our online form today.