After a minor car accident, you may not think there is any reason to hire an attorney. However, having an Indiana car accident lawyer by your side is crucial if you’ve been injured and need compensation.
Even minor car accidents can result in serious injuries, like whiplash. If you’ve sustained an injury in a minor car accident, you should certainly contact an Indiana car accident lawyer. An attorney can help you choose the best path to compensation, whether through a lawsuit or an insurance claim. It is especially crucial to contact an attorney when dealing with insurance companies. Insurance companies are known to offer low settlement amounts to victims that do not adequately cover damages. Consulting with an Indiana car accident lawyer is worth it, so you can get the compensatory damages you’re entitled to after a collision.
Wruck Paupore’s Indiana car accident lawyers are dedicated to helping victims get the justice they deserve. Our attorneys can help you file a lawsuit or navigate settlement negotiations with an insurance company. For a free case evaluation, call the Indiana car accident lawyers at Wruck Paupore today at (219) 322-1166.
First, we should define what is meant by a so-called “minor” accident. In reality, very few car accidents are “minor” if they impact your life. Generally, when insurance companies refer to a minor accident, they are really referring to an accident that either involved a low impact or small amount of property damage. We will use that definition when referring to a minor accident while recognizing that these situations can have a major impact on your well-being.
If you’ve been in what’s described as a minor car accident in Indiana, you may not think about contacting an attorney. At first, you may not believe you’ve even been injured. The truth is, even supposedly minor car accidents can result in injuries to victims that require compensation. For that, you should contact an Indiana car accident lawyer.
If you’ve been injured in a car accident of any kind in Indiana, you should contact an attorney. In minor car accidents, like rear-enders, victims can still sustain debilitating injuries that require compensation. For example, minor car accidents can result in soft tissue injuries like whiplash or concussions, which can require expensive medical treatment and have long-term consequences. If a car accident seems minor at first, and you don’t think you’ve sustained an injury, visit a medical professional anyway. A doctor can assess your injuries and identify any underlying issues that may worsen, like whiplash, concussion or other closed-head traumatic brain injuries.
Being injured by a negligent driver can be very damaging for car accident victims. If you do not consult an attorney, you may not consider getting the medical attention you need to identify potential issues. Should that happen, you may incur more expensive medical fees and have a greater impact on your life if untreated injuries do get worse.
Any car accident injury that impacts your life by causing personal injury should be evaluated by a qualified professional. If you’ve been injured in a car accident caused by a negligent driver, you should consult an Indianapolis car accident lawyer immediately to discuss potential paths to compensation.
After a minor car accident in Indiana, you may seek recovery directly as part of the insurance claim process before filing a lawsuit. However, insurance adjusters are very skilled at what they do and their goal is primarily to pay you as little as possible. It is crucial to have an experienced professional by your side when dealing with insurance companies in Indiana, as there are many tactics used by insurers to try and minimize payment of money you are entitled to. This is especially true in low impact or small property damage cases which nevertheless resulted in significant injuries to passengers.
Indiana is a fault state, meaning negligent drivers and their insurance carriers can be held financially responsible for a victim’s injuries. That being said, insurance companies are notorious for underpaying claims to car accident victims or denying them entirely. One study found that insurers will often first delay before properly evaluating your case and will often deny these claims and then defend them in court. These tactics are known by auto accident lawyers as the “Three D” or “Delay, Deny, Defend” strategy. Insurers use these tactics in many types of cases, but especially where they term the incident as a minor car accident.
It is crucial to contact an Indiana car accident lawyer and have representation from an experienced legal team to maximize your recovery in these cases. Many people that proceed without the help of Indiana car accident lawyers fail to recover the full amount they are owed. One study funded by the largest insurance companies found that accident victims represented by lawyers recovered 3 times more money than those without, even after legal fees were paid.
In our experience, insurance companies almost always propose the lowest settlement possible to injured victims. While the insurance company likely knows that your case is worth in the hands of a skilled lawyer, they won’t tell you this information and you are unlikely to have the experience to know what your case is really worth. Over decades we have developed our methods to determine your “True Case Value” which includes many factors that the insurance adjuster is unlikely to tell you about. Please contact an Indiana car accident lawyer at Wruck Paupore before you engage in discussions with an insurance company and we can discuss the likely value of your case under the unique circumstances you face, and also explain what the insurance adjuster isn’t telling you.
Remember, even seemingly minor car accidents can damage vehicle occupants, resulting in high medical bills, lost wages, and ruining your quality of life. If an insurance company refuses to pay the full amount you are owed, or you don’t know what that amount is, a Hammond car accident lawyer can help you.
Consulting an Indiana car accident lawyer, even after a minor collision, can help you get the compensation you deserve. Suppose you do not contact an attorney quickly, and your injuries worsen, or you accept a low-ball settlement amount from an insurance company. In that case, you may lose access to sufficient compensatory damages and once you sign the wrong document with an insurance company, you may lose your rights forever.
Contacting an Indiana car accident lawyer after a minor car accident has many benefits. For example, contacting an attorney can prevent you from accepting a settlement offer from an insurance company that doesn’t pay your True Case Value. Once you accept compensation from an insurance company, you may no longer be able to file a lawsuit against a negligent driver. By failing to contact an attorney beforehand, you may not be aware of the ramifications of what you have signed and you may lose compensation you should have received.
Another reason contacting an Indiana car accident lawyer is worth it is to ensure any lawsuit or notice of claim is filed on time. If you’ve been injured in a car accident in Indiana, you only have two years to file a lawsuit for compensation against a negligent driver, although there are frequently notice requirements that are much sooner than two years. A South Bend car accident lawyer can help you make sure your legal rights are fully protected, all deadlines are met, and work zealously to recover every cent you’re owed.
If you’ve been injured in a minor car accident in Indiana, you should contact an attorney immediately if you’ve been injured. For a free case evaluation from the Fort Wayne car accident lawyers at Wruck Paupore, call today at (219) 322-1166.
Don is a founding partner and one of the nation’s top-ranked personal injury litigators. He is a member of the Multi-million Dollar Advocates Forum, which includes less than 1% of the nation’s trial lawyers, and awarded the highest ranking given by Martindale Hubbel and AVVO.
More importantly, Don understands representing personal injury victims is about more than recovering the best settlement: it’s about helping clients get back on their feet and supporting them in every aspect of their recovery.
In nearly all cases, our clients seek compensation from the wrongdoer’s insurance company. Before forming Wruck Paupore, Jason worked for a prominent law firm representing some of the world’s largest insurers. This experience gives Jason a deep understanding of the insurance industry and the strategies it uses to pay injury victims as little as possible.
Jason -- and our entire team -- put this inside knowledge to work to force insurance companies to pay what is actually owed. Often, we use the insurance company’s own tactics against them as we fight for the full compensation our client deserves.
For more than four decades, Keith has been fighting for injury victims. During that time, he’s watched the insurance industry change, with insurers now more interested in protecting their stock price than treating injury victims fairly.
Since the beginning, Keith has put people first. From his childhood in Gary, Indiana during the 1960’s and working his way through law school, Keith has risen to become one of the Midwest’s most respected trial lawyers. He has never forgotten that being a lawyer is about helping people -- and seeing injury victims through struggles in a way that could change their lives forever.
Over the decades, Keith, Don and Jason have fought relentlessly for clients, even when other lawyers have said the case was impossible to win.
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