In most cases, the insurance provider is the one who covers the costs of your damages in a personal injury settlement when someone else is to blame for your injuries in a mishap. It’s crucial to keep in mind throughout your case that the insurance company’s top priority is to maximize profits, which means giving you a lower settlement than you deserve in the hopes that you’ll take it rather than battling for more.
The insurance business makes an effort to appear to be on your side as a result of this role. At first, they might behave sympathetically toward you and speak to you as if they were there to aid in your recovery. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Insurance companies profit by purposefully undervaluing your West Palm Beach personal injury claim in an effort to give you the smallest amount of money possible for your losses, damages, and injuries.
Insurance companies all too frequently depend on the fact that you don’t have a thorough understanding of personal injury law. They lowball your settlement offer in an effort to take advantage of your ignorance, denying you the money you need to recoup.
For these reasons, it’s extremely important to hire the best personal injury lawyers in West Palm Beach to fight the insurance company for you.
Helping Your West Palm Beach Personal Injury Lawyer Maximize Your Compensation
Once you’ve made the decision to submit a personal injury claim, you want to take every step possible to increase your potential payout. Making sure you receive sufficient compensation to cover your expenses is essential to recovering fully.
What you do following your accident is crucial, and there are specific things you can do to maximize your claim. Knowing which elements of your injury case are within your power can help you obtain the highest award feasible. Being a team player when working with a personal injury attorney on your case can increase your odds of receiving fair compensation. In other words, there are many actions you can take to support your lawyer’s case-building efforts. These steps include:
- Think holistically about your losses:
Never make up or exaggerate the damage you’ve sustained. For the same reason, you must never minimize them. Don’t conceal from your attorney, for instance, the fact that you experience sudden, severe panic attacks while driving or that you have been unable to get a good night’s sleep since your injury. Never be concerned about coming across as “weak” or feel ashamed of the challenges and hardships you have faced since your injury.
Your lawyer won’t know to look into and seek compensation for that specific loss if you downplay your struggles and difficulties or deny feeling any pain or anguish. Similarly, if you don’t completely disclose the extent of your injuries to your lawyer, he or she won’t know to pursue future medical costs, home health care costs, or loss of future income.
- Keep and share thorough records with your lawyer: You have a specific and limited amount of time to file your personal injury case in the state of Florida. The evidence used to calculate the compensation you will receive will be the evidence you submit during settlement discussions or at trial. Proactively exchange information and documents with your lawyer to make the most of the limited time you have to prepare your case.
Share these documents with your attorney as soon as you receive them. Make copies as well. These documents include the following:
- Police accident report
- Medical bills
- Paystub and wage statements
- Job attendance reports
- Statements from your insurance company
- Medical records
- Repair estimates
- Help your personal injury lawyer identify witnesses: Any witnesses who saw you get into an accident and sustain injuries should have their identities and contact information on hand for your attorney. They might be people in your vehicle, other drivers who stopped at the scene of the collision, your coworkers, store employees, or others.
Additionally, you should give your lawyer a list of people who have seen you since the accident and can attest to how your injuries have affected your everyday activities if you are seeking non-economic damages like pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life.
You should concentrate on witnesses who might appear to be less prejudiced in addition to family members. An employer, for instance, could offer input into your ability to carry out the same job you did prior to the accident.
- Get off of and stay off of social media until your case is complete: In recent years, insurance companies have started mining social media sites to find information about personal injury claimants. For this reason, you should never discuss your accident, your injuries, or your legal case on Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media site.
Additionally, an insurance company may take anything you post on social media and take it out of context. For instance, if you post a photo of yourself at a party or at a ballgame, the insurance company may use it to argue that your injuries have not affected you as badly as you claim. This is why South Florida personal injury lawyers often encourage their clients to simply stay away from social media while a case is pending.
After a personal injury, let the team at Adolphe Law help you get the compensation you deserve. We are experts at dealing with insurance companies and maximizing payouts for your recovery.