How Much Does a Car Accident Lawyer Cost?

If you have been injured in a car accident, you have undoubtedly had to deal with pain, multiple doctor’s appointments, and financial loss. You might have filed a personal injury claim only to be offered a paltry amount of money.

Before you accept an insurance settlement, you should talk to an attorney. If you click this, you will see that an attorney can negotiate with the insurance company on your behalf. An attorney can also represent you in court if you need to file a lawsuit as a result of your accident.

Although you know it is not a good idea to represent yourself, you may wonder if you can afford a lawyer. After all, you do not want to get stiffed by the insurance company and owe money to an attorney.

How Personal Injury Attorneys Charge Their Clients

The majority of personal injury firms do not charge their clients by the hour or job; instead, they will charge you a contingency fee. This means they will take a percentage of the settlement or judgment they are able to get for you. If they are unable to get you a settlement, then you generally won’t pay anything.

An attorney will normally take a contingency fee that is between 30% and 40%. This may seem like a lot of money. However, you should understand that an attorney will have many years of experience getting insurance settlements for their clients.

Expenses

Although lawyers work on a contingency basis, there are some cases in which they will need money for expenses. In some cases, these fees may be nominal for things like copies and court records.

If your lawyer is unable to reach an agreeable settlement with an insurance company, you may have to consider a lawsuit. You should never go into court without an attorney.

Although your attorney will still represent you on a contingency basis, expenses may be significant if you go to court. You will have to pay court costs, expert witness fees, and deposition fees.

It costs around $450 to file a lawsuit in California, and expert witnesses make around $60 an hour. WItness fees in a deposition are currently $35 an hour. Some attorneys may also charge you research fees.

Fortunately, it is very rare for a personal injury case to go to court. Your attorney should be able to get you a fair settlement without ever having to file a lawsuit.

Why You Need a Lawyer

California is a fault state when it comes to auto insurance. This means that the person responsible for an accident is responsible for its associated bills.

In most states, a driver can only file a claim if they are less than 50% responsible for an accident. This is not true in California because it is a pure comparative state. This means that if one person is 90% responsible for an accident, they can still attempt to recover 10% of their bills from the other driver’s insurance company. Insurance companies do not like this law because they often have to pay out more money than they would in other states.

An insurance company will do what it can to pay a claimant as little as possible. They may try to make it look as though their client was not responsible for an accident, or they may try to make it look as though the claimant is exaggerating their injuries. They may even ask leading questions to confuse you. They will ask you if they can tape-record their phone calls with you, but most attorneys will tell you that it is not a good idea to let them do that.

A trained attorney will be well versed in the methods insurance companies use to get out of paying claimants what they are owed. And they will have years of experience in evaluating traffic accident evidence.

A personal injury lawyer will keep up with any changes to the law that might affect your case because they regularly read legal publications detailing similar cases.

Lawyers are Trained To Read Legal Documents

An insurance policy is a legal document that no one will understand quite as well as a lawyer. An attorney will go over the policy line by line and will be able to find the portions of the policy that will benefit you.

If there is ambiguous language in an insurance policy, a lawyer will be able to use that ambiguity to your advantage. They will know laws pertaining to insurance policies, and they will know if the policy is written in a way that is legal and enforceable.

Law Firms Employ Researchers

Google has made amateur sleuths of us all, and we have come to equate Google searches with research. However, true research involves studying every detail of a case. Legal research in a personal injury case involves knowledge of mathematics and physics. Researchers will look at the position of the cars involved in an accident as well as the rate of speed at which the vehicles were traveling.

Not only will a personal injury lawyer interview witnesses who saw the accident and any parties involved in the accident, but they will also call on the help of expert witnesses. They will research your injuries and determine how long they should take to recover. They will also look at what kind of treatment may be necessary.

You Can Get Compensation for Pain and Suffering

Injuries from an accident can have a devastating effect on your life. You may not be able to enjoy many of the things that you did before the collision. An insurance company is unlikely to offer you money for your pain and suffering on its own. An attorney will have years of experience with accidents and injuries that are similar to yours and will know if you are entitled to non-monetary damages and how much those damages should be worth.

Getting hurt in an accident is one of life’s most difficult experiences, but a lawyer can get you a better settlement than you would be able to get on your own.