Accidents can and do happen to millions each year. If you are an accident victim, you may be considering defending yourself in court without a personal injury attorney. However, doing so can result in a ruling that’s far from what you expected. Do you really need an injury lawyer? Here are some reasons for making sure they accompany you to court.
Someone’s Negligence Caused Your Injury
You may have sustained a serious or severe injury that required you to stay in the hospital or caused you to need a personal support worker at home. The injury may have also left you with a permanent disability. The best way to ensure you get the most compensation for your injuries is to have a Portland personal injury attorney on your side.
This is for many reasons. First, your accident may have caused you to lose wages as you recovered, but it may have also resulted in a reduced ability to perform your job in the months following your injury. Both of these can result in compensation, but the at-fault party can use a number of defenses to deny responsibility for your injuries. Unless you’re well-versed in personal injury law, you could receive far less in compensation.
The Insurance Company Refuses To Give You A Fair Settlement
Many injury victims find themselves fighting with their own or the at-fault party’s insurance company for fair compensation. Unfortunately, many times this doesn’t happen. Even worse, in some cases, an insurance company will refuse to offer any settlement at all.
Both of the above are referred to as bad faith tactics. Other examples of these tactics include:
- Threatening you
- Delaying payment
- Refusing to provide documentation, despite your reasonable requests
- Denying and/or delaying claim decisions
- Denying and/or delaying your requests for medical treatment approval
The law demands that insurance companies not only conduct prompt and complete investigations but also pay a fair amount to claimants without delay. An experienced personal injury lawyer will know how to stop in their tracks these attempts at avoiding responsibility.
You Have No Legal Experience
There are many sources online which can offer valuable information about defending yourself in court. However, these sources cannot and should not be considered substitutes for legal experience. The reality is that the at-fault party can try any number of deceptive maneuvers to avoid having to pay you fairly.
Without the experience of a personal injury lawyer on your side, you could be left vulnerable to these maneuvers and end up with a significant loss in compensation.
Aggressively Protecting Your Rights
As an accident victim, you need to focus on your health without the stress of having to figure out how to defend yourself in court. With well over 30 years of experience, the Law Office of Randall J. Wolfe P.C. is dedicated to defending your rights as an accident victim, while you concentrate on taking the time to recover. Call our personal injury firm today to claim your consultation: (503) 598-3500.