If you have suffered serious injuries in an accident that was caused by the negligent or wrongful actions of someone else, you may be entitled to recover monetary compensation for your losses. Taking the right steps immediately after the accident is crucial for preserving your recovery rights. When you learn how personal injury claims work and the types of tactics that insurance companies commonly use, you will likely understand the importance of getting help from an experienced personal injury lawyer Palo Alto to protect your rights to compensation.
- Car Accidents
- Uber Accidents
- Truck Accidents
- Motorcycle Accidents
- Bicycle Accidents
- Pedestrian Accidents
- Slip and Fall Accidents
- Dog Bites
- Electric Scooter Accidents
- 18-wheeler Accidents
- Wrongful Death
- Other Accidents
You Can Recover Financial Compensation
Under California law, it is possible to recover financial compensation for past and future pain and suffering, past and future medical expenses, past and future loss of income, and punitive damages.
What is Personal Injury Law
Personal injury law is also known as tort law. It is a broad area of civil law that deals with many different types of injuries that are caused by negligence, wrongful acts, or omissions. When people are seriously injured because of the actions or inactions of others, they have a right to file personal injury lawsuits against the people and entities that are responsible for causing the harm that they have suffered.
No matter what type of accident that you suffered, you may be able to recover damages if your injuries resulted from the actions or omissions of another person or entity. The lawyers at the San Jose Personal Injury Attorneys can review the facts and circumstances of what occurred and explain the merits of your potential claim to you.
Why Companies Try to Settle With Claimants Quickly
Many people who are seriously injured in accidents think that the insurance companies will have their interests in mind and will help to protect them. Unfortunately, this is not always true. Insurance companies are in the business to make profits and often try to minimize the amounts that they will have to pay out in claims.
After you have reported your injury accident to the at-fault party’s insurance company, you should expect to be contacted by an insurance company representative. An insurance adjuster may call you or meet with you in person to investigate your accident and claim. Insurance adjusters often seem compassionate and act as if they truly care about your injuries. However, you should understand that adjusters work for the insurance companies that they represent. This means that their loyalties are to their employers instead of to you.
In situations in which the liability of the insurance company’s insured is clear, the company may try to settle with you quickly. You may be presented with a settlement check and a document to sign. You should never sign a settlement agreement or accept a check without having the offer reviewed by a personal injury lawyer. In many cases, early settlement offers by insurance companies are far too low to adequately compensate the victims for all of their losses, including their noneconomic losses.
Insurance companies may extend lowball offers for a couple of reasons. They might do so to try to convince you that your injury claim is worth much less than it is. Even if you do not accept the initial offer, the insurance company will hope that you will negotiate for a slightly higher amount that is still much less than the amount that you should be entitled to recover. A second reason why an insurance company might present you with an unreasonably low offer is that they hope that you will accept it, allowing them to minimize the amount that the company will have to pay out on your claim. If you are extended an offer by the insurance company, you can politely tell the insurance company representative that you want to have your injury attorney review it before you will agree to accept it.
Insurance company tactics
In addition to making unreasonably low offers, insurance companies may engage in a couple of other common tactics to try to avoid paying claims or to minimize how much money they will have to pay. The insurance company might ask you to submit to a recorded interview. You should never agree to provide a recorded interview without getting an attorney’s help. Insurance companies use recorded interviews to obtain statements from you that they can use against you in your claim. You may also be asked to sign a medical authorization. Insurance companies use these to dig through the entire medical records of injury victims to try to find some other incident on which to blame the victims’ injuries. In short, you should never sign anything that is presented to you by an insurance company without first talking to an experienced personal injury lawyer.
Why you should get help from a personal injury lawyer Palo Alto
Suffering a serious injury in an accident that was caused by the negligence of another person or entity can be overwhelming. When you get help from an experienced personal injury attorney at the San Jose Personal Injury Attorneys, we can handle the negotiations with the insurance company for you while you concentrate on recovering from your injuries. Our attorneys have recovered hundreds of thousands of dollars for our clients and understand how to build strong cases. Contact us today to schedule a free case evaluation by calling (408) 217-1778.