Car Accident Law Firms

A Short Guide to Car Accident Law Firms

What is a car accident law firm?

Car accident law firms specialize in those areas of tort law related to gaining compensation for personal and material injuries stemming from car accidents. Besides drafting petitions, car accident law firms must specialize in litigative work and negotiations with insurance companies.

Do I need a car accident law firm?

Most states require drivers to have car insurance that can provide for them in case of accident, which ideally means that there is little to gain from a lawsuit. Unfortunately, that is an idealized worldview. Provided that you are injured in a car accident by someone with insurance, that insurance may not pay for the full extent of your injuries. $15,000 policies, for instance, are not uncommon, and injuries can certainly cost much more than that. The only way you’ll see enough money to fully compensate you is by seeking the assistance of a car accident law firm.

Only some car accidents are usually associated with the types of accidents that result in lawsuits. Here are few typical ones:

• Accidents resulting in a fatal injury or a life-threatening injury;

• Accidents from improper attention paid to the road—ignoring road directions and traffic lights, texting while driving, etc.;

• Driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol;

• Hit and run accidents;

• Injuries resulting from car part malfunctioning, such as airbag failure or tire failure.

How will I research my car accident law firm?

You might find a car accident law firm through a personal recommendation or a bus ad. Either way can lead you to a wonderful attorney, but also to one who is not suited for your needs. You will only know for sure if you attempt to research them before signing a contract. Here a few popular methods of research:

• Search for any appearances in news items: Newspapers and television channels have extensive databases available online where you can search to see if the car accident law firm that you are considering has ever appeared as part of a news story. They might have gotten a big award for a case similar to your own, or the lawyer assigned to your case may have just narrowly beaten a corruption indictment.

• Look for online customer reviews: Reviews may appear on informal sites such as message boards or more formally in online magazines. You should take the source into consideration but pay heed to any warnings if they sound reasonable.

• Check for a disciplinary record: Disciplinary databases are held in most states by either the state’s supreme court or the state’s bar association. Check with both, and see if there’s any record of action taken against a lawyer you are considering. If so, don’t necessarily rule the car accident law firm out. Ask the lawyer involved about it, and learn about the situation from their point of view first.

How much money can my car accident law firm get me?

Of course, there is no telling how much a car accident law firm will get you, either via an out-of-court settlement or a trial award. If you are awarded money by a judge or jury, the amount will be referred to as a “damages award,” referring to the fact that it serves as compensation for damages done to your person or your personal property.

In general, damages are divided into three categories. You may only be awarded money from one of them, but an understanding of the amount you are entitled requires studying all three groups.

• Economic damages: These are the most important group of damages, since it sets the baseline for the amount awarded under the other categories. These are called “economic damages” since they’re the damages that compensate your for money lost. This money can be lost in a car accident through medical expenses or lost wages. These amounts come from hospital or employer estimates.

• Non-economic damages: These damage awards compensate you not for lost money but for pain that you experienced in light of an injury. The best known of the non-economic damages is pain and suffering, which is compensation for physical pain experienced. Mental anguish is the equivalent of pain and suffering for mental pain. Typical formulas for calculating non-economic damages rely on multiplying the economic damage award by anywhere from two to ten times, which means they can potentially be a much greater part of your award.

• Punitive damages: These damages aren’t meant as compensatory but rather explicitly to punish a defendant who has acted with notable negligence toward the car accident victim and the court. They’re most commonly inflicted upon large corporations, which can more easily pay them, so punitive damages are most likely to appear if you are filing suit for a vehicle malfunctioning. Punitive damages can run into the millions of dollars, and some states have limited or even banned the amount to which they can grow.

How will I pay my car accident law firm?

Car accident law firms mostly charge their clients using a contingency plan, meaning that their own paychecks will be contingent upon whether or not they get you a final settlement or damages award. If they do, they will be entitled to a percentage of it. Some states limit the percent that a lawyer is entitled to take from a damage award, but for the most part it varies from 20%-40%, depending somewhat on what the size of the actual award is. (The bigger the award, the smaller the percentage.)

Be aware as well that other auxiliary charges may be made to your account. Those can include by-hour charges for paralegal or legal researcher services, flat fees for the drafting of legal documents by the car accident law firm, raised hourly rates for trial appearances, and retainer fees at the commencement of service. Any such fees should be discussed and agreed upon before you sign any contracts with your car accident law firm.