You will need a lawyer after a car accident in Michigan if you are injured or if a family member was killed. Severe penalties exist if the law is not followed. An experienced attorney can add significant value to your settlement and protect you against insurance companies trying to take advantage of you.
You don’t always need a lawyer after a car accident in Michigan. In fact, in most cases you won’t ever need to hire one. But when a serious injury occurs, or when an insurance company is trying to take advantage of you – as many are doing today with overly broad release language – a lawyer can protect you and add significant value to your settlement. Having a free consultation with an experienced lawyer after a car accident in Michigan will help you understand what you are entitled to and help you get the medical care and wage loss you need.
Why do I need a lawyer after a car accident?
You need a lawyer after a car accident in Michigan to protect your legal rights to No-Fault insurance benefits, pain and suffering compensation and other economic damages. A lawyer can also significantly increase the value of your settlement.
The insurance industry’s own data shows that a victim’s case will settle for 3 to 4 times more when they have hired an experience lawyer after a car accident in Michigan. That’s why many insurance companies attempt to contact a driver right away after a crash – they know it will cost them considerably more money if that victim hires an attorney.
Why does a lawyer after a car accident in Michigan add value to a claim? Insurance companies operate on risk and exposure. An experienced attorney increases risk and exposure. Instead of a quick, often very “low-ball” settlement in the days immediately following a crash when a person does not and cannot fully know the full extent and seriousness of his or her injuries, an attorney can help protect against an insurance company taking advantage of this uneven playing field when a person is hurting but has not yet been referred to medical specialists and had the appropriate diagnostic testing to fully appreciate how serious an injury will be.
Just hiring the right lawyer after a car accident in Michigan can also significantly increase settlement. Because insurance companies evaluate a claim based on risk and exposure, who the lawyer is who represents you is one of the biggest factors a claims adjuster is evaluating. An attorney who has a record of proven settlements and taking cases to trial considerably increases risk and exposure over an attorney who does not specialize in car accidents, has no track record, and hasn’t taken a case to trial in years.
Take our own law firm, as an example. Our attorneys specialize in motor vehicle crash litigation. We also have a track record that every insurance company knows about, including more million-dollar settlements, trial verdicts, and judgments on behalf of our clients than any other attorney or law firm in the entire state. These settlements and verdicts also include several record-breaking settlements, including the largest ever settlement by a Michigan attorney or law firm for an auto accident, the top verdict or settlement for a car or truck crash nearly every year for the past two decades, and our attorneys have recovered the highest ever verdict in several different counties in the state. Auto insurance companies know of our attorneys’ track-record and reputation, which in turn increases the risk and exposure on the claims they are adjusting. This in turn leads to adjusters putting more money on these cases to settle them, and because this is the only area of law we practice, adjusters know that it often costs them more money as these cases go on, so we often can settle these cases faster as well for the people we help. All of this is part of the claims process that helps our attorneys get better settlements.
To learn more about what the settlement value of your case may be, please check out our “Car Accident Settlement Calculator.”
Hiring an experienced lawyer after a car accident in Michigan will also help you protect your legal rights under the auto No-Fault insurance law to collect lost wages (if your related injuries prevent you from returning to work) and to have your related medical bills paid by your auto insurance company.
Getting the insurance benefits you are entitled to after a crash may sound simple, but Michigan’s auto No-Fault law is very complex and presents many traps for the unwary. For instance, if you don’t file your Application for No-Fault benefits within the required time frame with your own insurance company after a collision, then you will lose all of your rights to collect wage loss and get medical bills paid forever.
Similarly, if you don’t give proper “notice” as required under many insurance contracts of a possible uninsured motorist (many policies have arbitrary 30-day notice requirements), then all of your coverage may be voided – which means that you will have no source to turn to to pay for your injuries, pain and suffering compensation and other losses. Worse yet, you may be forced to pay out-of-pocket for your “excess” medical expenses and lost wages.
Finally, be aware that the state courts have said it’s essentially okay for the claims adjuster from your own auto insurance company to refuse to fully disclose and explain ALL of your legal rights to you. The state courts have reasoned that a person should be consulting with an attorney, and it is not unreasonable to expect their own insurance company to be fully honest and transparent with them in regards to everything they are entitled to. This is very dangerous and sadly becoming much more common as insurance companies are taking advantage of people’s financial distress following the recent economic crash to try to get people to sign overly broad releases that release the insurance company from far more than they are telling people. In essence, you may be signing away your rights to future compensation.
So why do you really need a lawyer after a car accident in Michigan? If protecting your legal rights and maximizing your settlement isn’t enough, an experienced attorney who specializes in these types of cases will know how to protect you from the tricks and scams that many auto insurance companies are using right now to try to trick people who are in pain, stressed out and under extreme financial pressure into unknowingly “settling” their cases for far less than they’re worth (pennies on the dollar, really) and forfeiting all of their future rights to No-Fault benefits and pain and suffering compensation. A lawyer can help you make sure that you do not fall prey to these deceptive, misleading insurance “settlement” offers.
How much does an attorney cost?
A lot of people who need a lawyer after a car accident in Michigan want to know how much is it going to cost them? With us, you don’t pay unless we win. Our nationally recognized attorneys work on a contingency fee, so we only get paid if we win your case and you receive a settlement. You don’t need to pay anything up front or any out-of-pocket unless and until a legal recovery is made for you. Your attorney will then be paid a percentage of the settlement amount. And you always get our 100% client satisfaction guarantee.
When should I get an attorney for a car accident?
You should get an attorney for a car accident when: (1) a family member or loved one was killed; (2) you suffered an injury; (3) you’re not getting the medical care you need; (4) you’re not being reimbursed for your lost wages; (5) your claim was denied; or (6) the auto insurance company isn’t treating you fairly.
Should I hire a lawyer for a minor car accident?
You should hire a lawyer for a minor car accident if you suffered an injury in the crash. No emergency room in America asks to look at pictures of car damage before giving medical care and treatment, because pictures of damage to a car fender don’t always reflect damage to the human body.
In fact, doctors are trained that forces of impact based on things like whether a head was turned or not, seat position, age, gender, susceptibility, pre-existing conditions, etc. matter a lot more than damage to a bumper. Medical school books have many examples of people who are permanently disabled, even killed, in what could be considered a minor accident.
Remember, just because the at-fault driver’s auto insurance company calls this a minor accident doesn’t make it so. The truth is that major injuries are caused by so-called minor accidents every day. There’s a reason you open up the egg carton to look at the eggs inside when you go shopping. How a vehicle looks doesn’t always reflect the damage done to the occupant inside.
The only people who don’t want you to talk to a lawyer after a minor car accident are at the insurance company that insures the driver who rear-ended you. They use this as a tactic to minimize and to avoid having to pay out compensation and damages because their insured’s negligence has hurt someone.
Injured and need a lawyer after a car accident in Michigan?
If you have been injured and need a lawyer after a car accident in Michigan you can call toll free anytime 24/7 at (248) 353-7575 for a free consultation with one of our experienced attorneys. There is absolutely no cost or obligation.
You can also get help from an experienced accident attorney by visiting our contact page or you can use the chat feature on our website.
You made a good point that an auto accident attorney service would help a lot in determining whether one is eligible to use the no-fault insurance law to their advantage. A friend of mine is currently being sued by his fellow driver after a collision at an intersection caused him to sustain a lot of damage on the left side of his car. I hope that even if my friend turns out to be guilty in the end, a good lawyer would still help him minimize the penalties he will get.