Why should I sue after my car accident?
Should I sue the person who hit my car?
In my professional opinion, yes! For nearly all cases of a car accident, you should seek legal counsel and prepare to sue for damages, even if the other driver is nice and offers to pay, either with their insurance or out-of-pocket.
Have you ever thought about the following:
How might someone scam me after they hit my car in a car accident?
Let’s face it: The world is not always a nice place to drive in. The other driver may seem nice and friendly at the scene of the accident, but there is no guarantee that they will act fairly in your interests.
There’s a number of ways that the other person may try to take advantage of you when you’re in a stressful situation, tending to your injuries, damaged property, or otherwise dealing with issues that may not allow you to think clearly.
They could provide a false name and contact information, so verify their ID if possible.
They could provide a bad phone number, so verify that your calls and texts go through to them.
They could simply block you or ghost all your attempts to contact them after the accident, so be sure that the police arrive to the scene and get both your identifying information.
They could offer to pay, but only a small sum that doesn’t fully cover your medical costs and property damage if you were injured or your car was severely damaged.
They could falsely report their side of the story to the police to claim you were at fault. While the truth may come out in court, it usually takes 1.5 years to 3 years before your personal injury case is finally settled in court.
They may fabricate a story on social media, complete with fake pictures or screenshots of any communication between you and them. This could hurt your reputation and career, especially if they instigate an Internet harassment campaign against you.
Even if they correctly report the incident to their insurance company, their insurance company might deny your claim or offer a small sum that doesn’t cover your damages and injuries fully either.
The worst thing is: They could even hire an attorney of their own to argue that YOU were the one at fault. If the evidence isn’t obviously on your side, the process to recovering from the accident just got more expensive and time-consuming.
Why should I hire a lawyer then?
Even in a case where your injuries and property damage was mild due to the car accident, your damages may cost upwards of $12,500, which is the limit that a person can sue someone else for in small claims court in California.
In California, the average personal injury settlement for mild to moderate injuries ranges from $20,000 to $30,000. Not to mention, by not hiring a lawyer, you give up your main leverage against the other driver’s insurance company: the threat of a lawsuit.
When I worked at CTSC (Callaghan Thompson Sherman & Caudill Law), I got an insider’s perspective on how insurance companies manipulate the legal system to their advantage. Even when your case is obviously in your favor, if the insurance company decides to fight back, your case could be delayed by years before you ever get reimbursed for any of your hospital bills, lost wages, costs of physical therapy, rehab, or chiropractor services, etc..
And believe me, they’ll fight back and tell you that you don’t deserve any money to help recover from your injuries if you do not have a lawyer representing you. Without the threat of a lawsuit coming from an experienced lawyer, they can freely ignore your claims and force you to heal improperly after an accident.
What if I wasn’t injured in my car accident? Can I sue?
Yes! Obviously you may still have to sue for property damage to recover the value of your car. But, there’s also a wide range of injuries you can suffer in a car accident. Without consulting with a legal professional, you may not realize that these injuries do matter, they will have life-changing consequences, and you should be able to recover from them through legal action.
Just because you don’t feel immediately hurt or disabled somehow, doesn’t mean you weren’t injured.
In a car accident, with your adrenaline pumping, it can take days or even weeks for your body to properly settle down and recognize serious injuries that occurred in the crash. You should never make a hasty decision on how much to settle for, since you don’t know the full extent of your injuries until you’ve been examined by medical professionals and you’ve had time to sense your body’s status after settling down from the accident.
Soft tissue damage is commonly seen from car accidents, even if other, more visible injuries like broken bones haven’t occurred. It’s also very commonly denied by insurance companies who think they can fight back and bully you into settling for low amounts that barely cover your car’s damages.
But, make no mistake, soft tissue damage can be proven and it does cause lifelong pain to victims of a car crash, affecting your life in ways you may have never imagined. Subtle nerve damage or physical / emotional trauma that affects your body’s functions may also present itself much later after the accident.
Here’s the most important reason to consult with a lawyer after your car accident:
It’s time.
Time that you could be spending with your family or relaxing after a long day’s work with your hobbies. Time that you could be spending on enjoying life for all it has to offer.
Time that you are instead spending in the hospital, in a physical therapy or rehab center, in your bed suffering from crippling pain, headaches, dizziness, nausea, depression, anxiety, or worse.
Time that you spend out on the road, risking getting into yet another car accident from the millions of uninsured, unsafe drivers in America.
Truth is: The sooner you find legal representation, the sooner you can stop worrying about who’s going to help you recover from this tremendous car accident that you might have thought you could just power through at first. The process to properly recovering and healing your body and your finances is a long one that will take years regardless.
That’s nothing you should just be trying to shrug off.
You deserve to make sure that you are on the right path to making yourself and your family safe, pain-free, and comfortable again.
Don’t spend years of your life gambling on the hope that an insurance company will do right by you when they hire representatives who have every reason to deny your claim, belittle your injuries, and drag out the process of letting you recover properly.
