Do You Need a Personal Injury Attorney After an Accident?

Is a personal injury attorney necessary after an accident? People with insurance often think that attorneys are unnecessary after an accident because “my insurance company will handle it.”  They believe that because they pay an insurance company monthly that company works for them.  It seems a waste to involve an attorney.  The only problem with this is that insurance companies work for stockholders, not the people who pay them premiums.  To the insurance company they are being paid for a service.  Their real goal is profit.  When an insurance company goes to settle on your behalf they are not looking to maximize what you receive, but to settle quickly.  This is why most people who have been in an accident could use at least a consultation with and have a need for a well qualified personal injury attorney.

Car accidents usually result in some type of injury, although most-commonly it is whiplash.  The effects of whiplash may take months to recover from and there may be issues that are unforeseen at the time of the accident.  Most insurance companies are not looking down the road for their clients, they are looking for internal efficiency.  An attorney will be the person who not only looks out for their client’s best interest at the time but it is also their job to look to the future and those repercussions that may arise due to the accident.

If you did not hire a personal injury attorney in the beginning because you wanted to see how well your insurance company handled the case, and have come to realize that they are not looking out for you it is still possible to hire an attorney.  While it is certainly best to bring an attorney on in the beginning, you still may utilize legal services at any point in the process to speed things up or reboot a less than ideal settlement process.