How Does Having a Personal Injury Attorney Help Me?

August 20, 2013  |  Adriel B. Villarreal

In an ideal world, insurance companies would pay the fair value of an injury claim without any struggle. After all, you’ve paid all of your insurance premiums and you’ve upheld your end of the bargain.
Unfortunately, things rarely go so well after an accident. The insurance company is not your friend. An insurance company is in the business of making money, and typically, they don’t really want to pay the full value of a claim.
Some insurance companies will try to shift responsibility for an accident and the bills the accident comes with onto you. Other insurance companies will try to play pass-the-buck. They’ll try to argue that the bills are some other insurance company’s responsibility.
In most cases, insurance companies may settle eventually, but it’s usually a mere fraction of the amount that it takes to meet your medical bills, replace lost wages, and deal with the suffering caused by a car accident, or someone else’s negligence.
Some insurance companies may even get downright nasty, acting as if you’re trying to defraud them by asking for the money that the law and your insurance policy may rightfully be obligated to pay you. In addition, insurance companies are excellent at trying to manipulate people into saying or doing things that can hurt their case later, all in the name of making a profit.
Personal injury attorneys can be your best defense against these very typical problems. Our goal is to help you get the money you need to get back on your feet again.
Hiring a personal injury lawyer can help you save time and energy fighting with insurance companies, and worse, collection companies looking for payment on medical or other bills your injury may have prevented you from covering.
There are those who don’t like that, so a lot of people have worked very hard to characterize personal injury attorneys as people who profit from other people’s misfortunes. They’ve also tried to demonize accident victims as people who exaggerate the extent of their injuries so they can become millionaires in some big settlement.
In reality, settlements are meant to cover medical bills, legal bills, lost wages and to give some just compensation for pain and suffering. Nobody gets rich from them!
Lawyers do receive compensation for their work when the settlement is paid, but having the help of a personal injury attorney also usually means you could receive a larger settlement in the end than if you’d tried to tackle the insurance companies yourself, even after the lawyer’s fees are accounted for. Typically, you’ll still end up with everything you need to cover your expenses. You might not have had that if you’d tried to settle things on your own.
If you live in the Minneapolis metro area and you have been in an accident, call Barna, Guzy & Steffen. We have over 60 years of combined experience helping accident victims through confusing, stressful legal battles with insurance companies. We’re ready to help you too. Consultation is free, and we’re happy to come to you.