Car Accident Lawyer Alamo Heights, TX
There is never a good time to have a car accident. But, if you have one, right after you call the authorities, and seek medical attention for your injuries, the very next thing that you should do is contact a car accident lawyer Alamo Heights, TX residents recommend. Lawyer John W. Shaw, at the Law Office of John W. Shaw, PLLC is the lawyer you should call. Located on Broadway Street, John concentrates his practice solely on personal injuries, including car accidents.
There are several important reasons that contacting a lawyer should be among one of the first things that you do.
You don’t want to deal with the insurance companies alone
At a minimum there are normally two insurance companies involved when you’re in a car accident. The insurance company for the person who hit you and caused your injuries (we’ll call them “Bad Guy”), and your insurance company. Sometimes, your insurance company does not play a very big role. In some situations, they can, however. This is especially true if the Bad Guy didn’t have insurance, or, they did not have enough insurance to cover your damages (we’ll talk about what damages your entitled to a little bit later).
Dealing with insurance companies, whether they are the Bad Guy’s insurance or yours can be a nightmare. They are large companies, driven by large profits, and often they employ people who view you as a number and not as a person. Getting in touch with them can be time-consuming. When you do get in touch with them, you never know if the information that they are seeking from you is for your benefit or to use against you. Oftentimes they will ask you to give them a recorded statement where they will ask you questions that are not relevant to the claims process and are only asked to confuse you and to get you to say things that they can twist to their benefit. You should avoid having this conversation until you have had an opportunity to consult with a car accident lawyer.
In short, you need a lawyer to deal with the insurance companies and their shenanigans so that you can concentrate on getting better physically.
The insurance company’s claim process can be confusing and distract from you getting better
Your job as an injured person should be to concentrate on seeking medical treatment so that you can recover from the injuries that you sustained through Bad Guy’s negligence. As you see your doctors and get treatment, they will keep a medical record. Our job as your lawyer will be to collect those records and bills and appropriately package those records and bills and send them to the insurance company with a request to pay your damages. If you don’t give them the right information, at the right time, you may not get compensated for your damages. And, if an insurance company evaluates your claim and places a dollar amount on it, it is very hard to change that dollar amount down the road.
There are several different types of damages that you suffer when you’re involved in a car accident
Generally speaking, there are two types of damages that you suffer when Bad Guy hits you and injures you: economic damages; and non-economic damages.
Economic Damages include, but are not necessarily limited to, the following:
- Past medical expenses;
- Future medical expenses;
- Past lost wages;
- Future lost wages; and
- Funeral expenses.
Non-Economic Damages include, but are not necessarily limited to:
- Pain and suffering;
- Impairment;
- Loss of companionship;
- Loss of consortium;
- Inconvenience;
- Physical disfigurement; and
- Loss of use of a body part or function of a body part.
I like to explain it this way. Economic damages are damages that you can prove by showing a jury or insurance company a receipt. Non-Economic damages are incapable of being proven with a receipt or other proof of payment or expense, but they are still recoverable losses when you are injured through no fault of your own. You need a good car accident lawyer to help you determine the amount of these damages. Insurance companies will do everything that they can to not pay you the full amount of your economic and non-economic damages. It is the job of your lawyer to ensure that you are appropriately and fairly compensated for the damages that you sustained as a result of the negligence of Bad Guy.
If Bad Guy’s insurance company decides they do not want to pay you appropriately and fairly, you are going to have to sue Bad Guy
If, after all the information about your damages is properly presented to Bad Guy’s insurance company and they do not want to pay you appropriately and fairly, you are going to have to sue Bad Guy. You do not get to sue Bad Guy’s insurance company. Properly filing a lawsuit, serving the defendant, conducting written discovery, taking depositions, picking a jury, and presenting a case to that jury for final judgment is no easy task. It is also not a task that you want to take on without the assistance of a car accident lawyer. While details of how a lawsuit for a car accident are not appropriate for this article, you should know that the quicker you get a lawyer involved in this process, the better the results will be for you and your claim.
Hiring a car accident lawyer in Alamo Heights, Texas
John W. Shaw, a car accident lawyer in Alamo Heights, Texas wants to be with you from the very beginning of this process to ensure that you can concentrate on what you need to concentrate on after being injured in a car accident, getting better. Let us deal with Bad Guy and his insurance company for you. We have successfully recovered damages on our clients’ behalf in multiple car accident cases throughout the State of Texas. Contact an experienced car accident lawyer in Alamo, Heights, Texas today by calling John W. Shaw at the Law Office of John W. Shaw, PLLC at (210) 272-7075 and let us do the same for you.