St. Louis is a bustling town and the hub of cargo and freight movement. In recent years, the increase in the volume of trucks on the highways has resulted in several accidents. In the majority of instances, a crash involving a truck is severe.
The impact of an 80,000-pound semi-truck colliding with a car weighing approximately 5,000 pounds will, more often than not, result in extensive destruction and risk to lives. If you or your loved ones have ever been caught in an accident, you will know that such incidents can leave the victim entangled in a web of physical and emotional consequences.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can linger on for years at end. Moreover, claiming compensation for your loss can also be a daunting ask.
Personal injury claims (PIC) can serve as a beacon of hope in such dire scenarios. They exist to offer you rightful compensation for the harm suffered. However, despite their importance and increasing presence, they remain shrouded in a veil of misconceptions.
This knowledge gap can significantly hinder you from exercising your legal rights and making informed decisions concerning claims. In this blog post, we will shed light on dispelling four major misconceptions regarding PICs and help you navigate the legal landscape with clarity and confidence.
I Don’t Need a Lawyer for Minor Injuries
Your initial thought about an injury might lead you to believe it’s right to skip immediate legal assistance. You might dismiss it, thinking it’s not a big deal. However, this perspective, while it may seem obvious initially, carries the risk of leading to long-term legal and financial complications.
In accidents involving fast-moving vehicles, no injury should be brushed off as minor. What appears to be a simple bruise or sprain could evolve into a chronic condition, possibly requiring surgical intervention over time.
Getting legal help from the start allows for a thorough medical evaluation, preventing hidden complications from becoming significant and costly issues.
If your condition seems not too serious and can be addressed in the early stages, why wait? Why make things more complicated and incur additional costs in the future?
While the idea of handling what seems like a minor injury on your own might be tempting, seeking legal guidance provides both security and potential relief. St. Louis personal injury lawyers can help you navigate the complexities of insurance coverage, maximizing compensation to cover both current and potential future expenses.
Expecting a Financial Gain from Every Accident
Many people pursue settlement claims expecting quick financial compensation. However, this is a flawed perspective, in the sense that it fosters the belief that accidents guarantee financial gain.
Engaging in the legal complexities of personal injury claims is no joke. By no means does it guarantee your victory. You have to, to begin with, establish the other party’s negligence and mistake, for the case to be in your favor. This, however, is more often than not, a challenging task in Missouri as the state follows a comparative fault system.
According to TorHoerman Law, to claim rightful compensation, you need to be thorough in assessing the full extent of your injuries. Your assessment needs to encompass your physical injuries, emotional condition, and financial losses.
This requires accurate and exhaustive documentation. Details regarding all your medical bills, your lost wages, and anticipated future medical bills, everything will get scrutinized in a court of law. This process can be lengthy and intricate, demanding patience.
Even when armed with indisputable evidence, the outcome of a case does not lie in your hands and will be influenced by various factors. Unforeseen events and legal complexities can change the fate of your lawsuit in a jiffy!
My Car Insurance Will Cover Everything Anyway
Most people believe that car insurance is an inviolable barrier in cases of collisions. Although it provides valuable protection, this is a dangerous myth. Understanding its limitations is crucial.
Limited Coverage: Car insurance has fixed limits of coverage for different costs. Surpassing them such as the situation when you get $50,00 in medical bills while having a bodily injury limit of only $25, 000 would put your finances at risk.
Beyond the Policy: Lost wages, emotional distress, and long-term care are not covered by the car insurance policy. Moreover, intricate cases may include several insurance firms that have complicated policies making it hard to navigate compensation without a lawyer.
Investing in Expertise: A seasoned personal injury attorney could be priceless, particularly with the limits of car insurance. They can:
- Analyze your policy: Lawyers can pinpoint coverage gaps and provide recommendations on how to get the most out of benefits.
- Negotiate with insurers: Attorneys can argue for fair compensation, safeguarding your rights.
- Explore additional avenues: They can look into other avenues for recovering damages such as uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage.
When it comes to uninsured/underinsured motorist cases, the role of a lawyer becomes even more vital since their knowledge can play an important part in providing adequate compensation and fair justice despite insufficient car insurance.
Taking the First Offer from the Insurance Company is the Quickest Path to Recovery
The first settlement that an insurance company may propose after an accident might appear to be favoring. Nonetheless, it would be a quick admission that can result in under-compensation. So, let us discuss why accepting the first offer can be risky:
Hidden Costs and Undervaluation: The insurance companies use many strategies to ensure a quick settlement of the case, but they tend not to value your pain and suffering as well as future medical needs. They may only concentrate on current medical bills, forgetting other potential long-term effects, such as lost income depression and continued care.
Pressure Tactics: Insurance adjusters could use strategies such as time constraints, asserting that you must settle before the “evidence disappears” or your memory fails. They may also create the impression of litigation being a very long and costly process to force you into accepting their unfair offer.
To conclude, the aftermath of an accident can be overwhelming. Understanding and clarifying some of these popular myths about personal injury claims will help you get through this difficult time with a clear mind.
Mild or low initial settlements should never be accepted without legal consultation. Always consult a lawyer when in doubt. These individuals are trained to safeguard your rights and fight for your compensation.
