When do I need a personal injury attorney?

I have said to potential clients many times that the decision to hire an attorney should be thought of in the way that Mr. Miyagi characterized the use of his karate: “Either you karate do ‘yes’, or you karate do ‘no’; You karate do ‘guess so’ … squished like grape.”

People wonder when they need to hire an attorney for their injury claim.  In short, the answer is as soon as possible. But why is that?

The moment your accident occurred, forces were set in motion that will govern the outcome of your claim.  There are many moving parts in this drama, and if all of them are not directed to your advantage, then they will be directed to your disadvantage.  Insurance companies have one goal, and that is to make money.  Your desire for compensation is counter to that goal and you better believe that they will be working to minimize the value of your claim.

Every second that goes by during which you have no attorney directing your claim is a second that the insurance company is stacking the odds against you.  Even worse is that you are very likely doing damage on top of the work the insurance company is putting in; you could be apologizing, making statements, failing to document certain things, failing to ask the right questions while answering the wrong ones.  Attorneys help you avoid those pitfalls while working to increase the chances that your claim will be successful.

So if you’re in an accident and you are injured, then you need an attorney at that moment, immediately, right freakin’ now! 

There are, and sadly will continue to be, many people who for whatever reason want to handle their claim on their own.  They think, “Well, I’ll just manage things for now and if I don’t like how they’re going I’ll hire an attorney then.”  Many times the insurance adjuster will tell them just that!  Why would you take their advice?

Don’t fall into that trap.

What I do as a personal injury attorney is work on your claim from the very beginning to the very end to maximize value and minimize difficulty.  If you don’t let me work on it from the beginning, you are working counter to that goal and you are very likely minimizing value and maximizing difficulty.  It’s sort of like trying to clean your floors with maple syrup, then calling a maid to come and clean things up.  Wouldn’t it have been better to just let the maid clean the floor from the beginning?

This brings us back to Mr. Miyagi.  If you have an auto accident, trucking accident, slip and fall, dog bite, or whatever, and you are injured as a result, you need an attorney.  At that point you should hire one.  Right then.  Immediately.

Either you attorney hire “yes” or you attorney hire “no.”  Either hire one or don’t.  If you think, “maybe I’ll hire one later” then you’re pretty much setting yourself up for a devalued claim and/or a necessary lawsuit.  Why set yourself up for failure?

Call me.  919-929-2992