Mistakes to Avoid in Prince William County Car Accident Cases
If you or someone you know has been involved in a car accident in Prince William County the following is information on the various mistakes they should seek to avoid in order to refrain from damaging their injury case. To learn more or begin your road to recovery, call and schedule a consultation with a car accident lawyer in Prince William County today.
Not Seeking Medical Treatment
One of the most common mistake that many people make after an accident is not seeking medical treatment or not continuing medical treatment when advised to by a physician. Often people have a tough guy attitude or a tough girl attitude, and they want to recover on their own. However, those that have suffered a serious injury as a result of another party should seek medical treatment right away, because gaps in treatments are prime fodder for defense attorneys and insurance adjusters to minimize claims and say that they weren’t really injured.
Not Involving Insurance
Another common mistake is not involving the insurance company in the accident claim. Some people get in situations where there’s minor property damage and one person will say, “I know someone who can fix the damage for cheaper than the insurance company.” Usually, this is because the person doesn’t want to get the insurance company involved in order to avoid a rate increase after the accident. This is a mistake because if the work is not done properly, then you’re often left with no recourse and you’ll probably never see that person again. So if you’re in an accident, it’s best just to let the insurance company know.
Don’t be fooled by a person who says that he or she can take care of everything because usually that person is a stranger and doesn’t have your best interest at heart. It’s always better to watch out for yourself and protect yourself from people who might try to take advantage of you.
Giving Insurance a Recorded Statement
An individual involved in a car accident is under no obligation to give a recorded statement to the other driver’s insurance company, and it can be a huge mistake to do so. The insurance company will likely try to get a statement from you that minimizes your injuries or creates causes for the injuries aside from the accident itself, such as preexisting injuries. Another thing they’ll try to do is pin liability on the injured driver. To achieve this, insurance agents might ask questions in vague or misleading ways, and you can end up saying something that isn’t true or gets taken out of context. Then that can end up hurting your case because they’ll have a recorded statement from you where you’re contradicting your own claim against liability.
Cashing An Insurance Check
There are generally two kinds of checks that someone might receive from the other person’s insurance company: a property damage check and a bodily injury check. The checks come with some kind of settlement agreement.
If it’s a bodily injury check and they give you $2,000 to settle your injury claim, but your claim is worth more than that, by cashing the check, you’re agreeing to a settlement of $2,000, which precludes you from pursuing your claim any further. You don’t want to do that if you haven’t properly valued the extent of your case since you may be eligible to recover much more. That’s why it can be a mistake, you only get one bite at the apple.
Alternatively, if it’s a property damage check, then that should be fine to cash because it has no implications on your bodily injury claim. It will be clearly marked as a check for compensation for property damage.
Waiting to Contact An Attorney
Failing to contact an attorney can hurt your case because you’re likely to make mistakes in the process of contacting the insurance company and giving a recorded statement. You might say things out of context that you can’t take back. Not having an attorney can also hurt you if you don’t know to avoid mistakes like getting your car repaired without taking photographs of it, not calling the police, not getting any medical treatment and not getting the driver’s insurance and other information. It’s really helpful to have a lawyer there to help you and make sure that you avoid these common pitfalls.
