Car Accident Lawyer Gainesville FL

A car accident is a painful, traumatic, and scary experience, and can be especially difficult to handle if you were obeying traffic laws and driving like an upstanding citizen, only to be hurt by someone else choosing to disregard traffic laws entirely. Fortunately, there is justice for those who are injured in car accidents that other people have caused, typically in the form of an insurance claim to get proper compensation for the damages caused by the other driver’s recklessness or negligence. 

Filing an insurance claim is a fairly simple process, but getting the money that you actually deserve is a different story entirely. Insurance companies focus on saving as much money as possible for any given claim in order to protect their own financial interests, meaning that paying the money that you actually deserve is not the main focus of the claims investigation. In fact, the claims adjuster assigned to your case will be looking at the accident from the perspective of identifying every possible reason to limit your claim amount, which they will then use against you to push back on any attempt to negotiate a larger settlement.

Hire an Attorney To Get The Money You Deserve After a Car Accident

After your accident, you have a lot on your mind: your injuries, your work, your personal life, and your insurance claim, just to name a few. Taking on the additional burden of trying to find a Gainesville car accident attorney who is available to take your case can be beneficial, but it might seem like an overwhelming additional task to take on – leading many people to just go through the claims process alone and walk away with a much lower settlement than they deserve.

Instead of taking on the process of finding an attorney, use 1-800-Injured to be connected with a diligent, experienced car accident lawyer in Gainesville with ease. 1-800-Injured is an attorney and medical referral service. When you use our service, you can save yourself the time that is better used taking care of your personal needs while getting connected with a lawyer who is ready and willing to take your case today. 

Read more below about what you can expect from the claims process and why hiring an attorney is the right move to make. Contact us now to connect with the attorney who will help bring you through this process and to the final settlement that you deserve.

What To Do After a Car Accident That Someone Else Caused

Once you have left the scene of the accident and are able to try to make sense of what comes next, there are a few major steps to take right away. The following is a brief overview of some of the most important steps but is not intended to provide you with a comprehensive guide of what to do after an accident. Once you are working with an attorney, you will be able to defer to their experience and knowledge in order to know exactly what to do next.

Visit Your Primary Care Physician

Whether or not you received emergency care at the scene of the accident unless you took an ambulance to the emergency room you need to see your doctor as soon as possible. The primary reason for this visit is, of course, out of concern for your personal health and safety, but there is a secondary, and very important, benefit: establishing an official record of your injuries. You and your Gainesville FL car accident lawyer will submit documentation about each injury that you have suffered, and if the insurance company does not have proof of each injury, then they will be unwilling to pay damages for them.

At The Scene: In the moments after an accident, you will likely be overrun by adrenaline and excitement, which can both be major distractions and even mask the pain of your injuries. Oftentimes people claim to be uninjured at the accident, only to realize over the following days that they have suffered enormous soft tissue damage that had a delayed onset, or that they have other injuries that they just didn’t notice. Keep quiet about your condition to anyone except the EMTs at the accident.

Get a Copy Of the Accident Report

Before speaking with an attorney for an initial consultation, it helps to have as much preliminary information as possible. This is not absolutely necessary, especially if it causes you to wait to contact an attorney, but the more information that you have during your consultation, the better. 

The accident report will have your statement, the other driver’s statement, any statements from eyewitnesses (as well as their contact information), and the police officer’s observations and notes on what they believe happened. If you and your attorney see anything on the report that is incorrect, reaching out to the police officer soon after the accident is the best way to make sure that their memory of the incident is clear. The longer you wait, the more difficult it may be to get an officer to amend the report as their memory fades.

Contact an Attorney BEFORE Filing a Claim

As soon as you file your insurance claim, the claims adjuster on your case will be looking for every possible reason to pin fault on you or limit your settlement amount, including simple technical misstatements that you may make due to inexperience that could ultimately come back to haunt you. Instead of needing to police yourself on every single statement that you make, you can sit back and focus on your recovery while your attorney handles all communications.

There may be times where your participation is required, like submitting to an independent medical examination, but your lawyer will be able to advise you on the do’s and don’ts of this exam to make sure that you do not hamper your case. Remember that although the exam is called “independent,” the doctor you will be working with is a hired contractor working on behalf of the insurance company, meaning that they will be working to limit your claims by downplaying your injuries.