After being injured in a car accident and seeing how quickly your medical expenses accumulate, and how each day that you miss work adds to your financial burden. It is only natural for a victim of a serious car accident to want to understand how they can get the most money that is reasonable and equitable for their situation, and this is where working with an experienced car accident attorney comes into play. While it is generally a fairly simple process to work directly with an insurance company and get a check in the mail within a few months, it is important to understand that this amount is nowhere near the amount that you, as a victim of someone’s reckless, negligent, or malicious behavior, are truly entitled to.
1800-Injured helps victims of car accidents and other personal injury situations to connect with an attorney who is experienced with the situation and is ready to help them fight for the money that they not only deserve but what they need to move forward from this traumatic and disruptive experience comfortably.
Read more below to get a general idea of how a personal injury attorney can help you get the most amount of money possible out of your car accident settlement or lawsuit, and contact us now for an initial consultation and an opportunity to begin working with the right lawyer for your case as soon as possible.
Seeking Damages From a Car Insurance Company in Florida
One of the most immediate actions that you will take after addressing your health is to contact both your insurance company and the insurance company of the other driver who caused the accident. When you begin to work with the other driver’s insurance company, you will be in direct contact with a claims adjuster who will go through each detail of your accident in order to figure out how much money that will offer you. The offer that they will ultimately make is NEVER the amount that you are actually entitled to. In reality, this offer is simply the amount that the insurance company has determined is the minimum that they can pay while additionally avoiding any future legal action against them or their client for this accident. They will compel you to waive your rights for any future action in exchange for this payment.
Instead of accepting this amount and suffering the financial burden on your own, working with a personal injury attorney will give you an advantage that will be extremely helpful. An attorney uses this initial offer as a starting point for negotiations, which will hopefully end in you getting a settlement offer that is fair and substantial. Because a settlement agreement means that neither you nor the insurance company will need to deal with a case in the Broward County Court system, settlements are generally less than the amount you would win in a lawsuit. However, you will also not have to pay court fees and other associated costs.
Seeking Damages Through a Lawsuit In Florida
If negotiations fail and you are unable to reach a fair number with the insurance company, then the next option is to seek full compensation through a lawsuit. You and your attorney will discuss the pros and cons of a lawsuit in great detail while trying to determine what is a fair settlement amount versus the amount you will fight for in a full case, and when you decide to move forward with the lawsuit you will have to go through more legal processes than were required in the negotiations.
Your attorney will calculate the amount that you are owed by totaling your economic damages such as lost wages and medical bills, and then quantifying your non-economic damages such as pain and suffering before presenting all of the information to a judge and jury. It is important that you do not present the courts with an outrageous or unnecessary amount of damages that you are seeking, because this will just indicate that you and your attorney are being predatory and unreasonable. This is not something you will need to worry about with a reputable attorney who understands the system well.
In addition to the compensatory damages that you and your attorney will be seeking, there is a possibility that the jury will award a victim punitive damages to punish the responsible party for their egregious actions or behavior. However, there is no mechanism for requesting these damages and therefore you will not calculate this amount into the target amount of money you are seeking in court.