Getting injured is something scary and unpleasant. The injuries might be more disturbing if they occurred due to someone’s negligence or deliberate acts. If you want to pursue damages from the liable person in St. Augustine Beach, you need to consult with a legal professional. At Jacksonville Personal Injury Attorney, we understand that people don’t know when they need an attorney for their injury claim; thus, the reason we have highlighted the following information.

Getting Legal Help with a Personal Injury

In case you are a victim of an accident, then you understand that it can be a stressful and overwhelming experience. Regardless of the kind of injuries you sustain from an accident, it is your constitutional right to seek compensation from the person responsible for the accident. The responsible individual may be a business, individual, or company.

When recovering the monetary damages, a St. Augustine beach Personal injury Attorney will be of great assistance to assess your case and ensure your legal rights are protected. The advantage of working with an attorney is that they will walk you through every step of the claim.

Additionally, an attorney will research the Florida Statutes relating to your case, interview eyewitnesses, gather records, evaluate evidence, hire private investigators, and consult with experts to ensure you receive maximum compensation. An Injury Attorney will also develop an excellent legal strategy and negotiate with your insurer or that of the opposing party and their counsel to ensure you get maximum recovery.

Take note that unless you are a personal injury attorney or law student, you may not be familiar with Florida's personal injury laws. For this reason, it may be wise to hire a St. Augustine Beach Personal Injury Attorney, someone with an understanding of the laws and experience in dealing with claims like yours. Because most claimants don’t know what monetary compensation they are entitled to, insurance adjusters may exploit the opportunity resulting in an unfair recovery. But with an attorney, you will get what is rightfully yours.

Situations where you May Consider Employing an Injury Attorney 

As stated earlier, not many people know when they need an attorney after an accident or injury. Below are scenarios that may require a St. Augustine BeachPersonal Injury Attorney:

  • If the attorney from the other party involved in the tragedy contacts you with an offer for settlement.
  • When you have to deal with an insurance company, the majority of people assume that dealing with insurers is a piece of cake as it appears on the surface. However, things are not as easy as they appear, even when you are dealing with your insurer. Therefore, instead of negotiating with them, your injury attorney can do the negotiations on your behalf.
  • When you sustain severe or catastrophic injuries like TBI, spinal cord injuries, or any other injury that might require long term treatment or cause permanent disability, you will need an attorney.
  • In case an accident results in injuries that cause you to miss work for an extended time, legal guidance from an attorney will be necessary.
  • If an injury causes you to depend on others for daily activities like bathing, dressing, or feeding, you will need legal guidance.

Reasons a Profound and Experienced Personal Injury Attorney Will Prove Useful

There are several reasons why an attorney will prove instrumental to your injury case. These include:

  1. Attorneys have Experience Dealing with Cases Like yours

Through evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the case, an attorney will give you a genuine and honest opinion on whether you should go ahead with the case. Their opinion is usually honest because injury attorneys are paid on a contingency basis. If he or she pursues a weak case, the claim will be lost, and there will be no payment. But if the case is strong, an attorney will give a sincere opinion to go ahead with it.

  1. Provide Objective Opinions

The majority of the decisions made by people who have been in an accident are never objective. The reason being emotions prevent you from seeing the facts of the case. However, with St. Augustine Personal Injury Attorney, you will be able to see facts clearly because he or she will see things from a different perspective. Your attorney will stay objective throughout the case, such that even if you are offered a settlement and want to take it, the attorney will advise you to turn it down if there is a possibility of a better offer.

  1. Knowledge of Legal Procedures and Paperwork

Having an experienced attorney by your side means that you don’t have to worry about the complicated legal procedures, pleadings, or even medical terms. Attorneys who have been in the industry for decades have worked closely with medical providers thus have an understanding of legal terms that might be confusing. An excellent attorney will explain the terms and legal procedures in a layman’s language that will be easy to understand. Additionally, an attorney who has been in the market for long has a team of experts like investigators, accident reconstruction professionals, and other support staff that help in the preparations of a strong case. With such a team working on your case, it will be easier to get back to the life you had before the injuries or accidents.

  1. Experience Working with Other Attorneys and Insurers

The liable or opposing party will have a legal representative. If you don’t have one, the attorney will use legal tactics to put you on the disadvantage even though it’s an unethical practice. It means you might recover unfair monetary damages or end up with nothing. But if you hired an attorney, he or she understands the tactics lawyers and insurers use during settlement. No insurer or opposing lawyer will take advantage of you, meaning your legal rights will be protected.

Last but not least is that an attorney who has been practicing personal injury law for a long time will know how to interpret and apply different laws in the case to get a favorable outcome.

Personal Injury Forms

During preparations for the case, you will be required to fill in many forms. In these forms, you will provide personal information, your medical history, the injuries suffered, and how the injuries changed your life. The intake form is the first form you will receive after a visit to your St. Augustine Beach Personal Injury Attorney. The form contains questionnaires intended to collect information necessary to aid your attorney in deciding if to continue with the case.

After the attorney decides to proceed with the case, you will be offered a billing contract to fill. It’s advisable to begin the process early so that your attorney can have ample time to prepare. Being informed about the various accident and injury law forms before walking into your attorney’s office is a good thing. For this reason, we have discussed some essential materials that will aid you in getting organized.

Documents for Your Attorney

When you are going to see your St. Augustine Personal Injury Attorney to discuss your claim, you may be required to have the following documents with you:

  • Your medical records because they will speak louder than words when explaining your illness and hospitalization.
  • Your mental health records if you ever visited a mental health expert in the past
  • Prescription medicine information of a disease or have been hospitalized. Your attorney will need the names of these drugs, and because medical terms are challenging, you can show the attorney the medications.
  • A copy of your health or disability insurance or a certificate of coverage to help the attorney understand the scope of your medical insurance coverage.
  • Proof of lost wages if the disease or injuries made you miss work for a significant period. Providing an injury attorney with your wage records means he or she will have proof you suffered wage loss at the time of recovery from the accident.
  • Any documents received from the accountable person or defendant should be shared with the attorney too.

Any document that seems relevant to the case must be shared with your attorney based on its nature.

Injury Checklist

When going for an appointment with your attorney, there are documents and information that you should bring. The information you must provide should include the name and address of:

  • The ambulance service that took you to hospital
  • The emergency room you were taken to. You may mention the date you were admitted and the hospital.
  • The doctors and chiropractors you consulted
  • The parties involved in the accident
  • The people you talked to about the tragedy

After an accident, you are encouraged to stay at the scene and collect information. Doing so will help provide your attorney with:

  • The police report
  • Copies of written statements from witnesses
  • Copies of your insurance coverage certificates
  • Receipts for things bought or fixed due to the accident or injuries
  • Correspondence obtained from insurers

When presenting the paperwork and information to your injury attorney, you should ask some questions. Your questions should be tailored towards the timeline for the case, resources the attorney has, legal fees, the number of cases like yours handled, years of practice, and challenges you are likely to encounter in the process. These questions will assist in determining whether the attorney you are meeting is right for you.

Medical Record Release

When building a case, an attorney needs the medical records of the client. For the documents to be released to your attorney, you must file a medical release form. You will be asked to fill this form when registering for a medical malpractice case.

Retainer and Contingency Contract

Take note that after evaluating all the information and documents relating to the case, you may be requested to file a retainer and contingency agreement. In the agreement, the attorney states the percentage share he or she will get once you receive monetary compensation. The contract also contains information regarding what to expect during the time you will be working with the attorney.

Damage Estimate

Before a meeting with your lawyer, download the damage estimate worksheet. It will help you list and tabulate the damages recoverable from the claim. Be sure to note down immediate medical expenses, future medical expenses, and any other losses suffered due to the accident or injuries.

Questionnaire

In case your injuries have been caused by a defective product, the attorney needs to know when the injuries happened. Tracing the specific date when the injuries occurred because of the defective products is an uphill task. If the injuries or illness cannot be linked to a particular accident and date, filling out a questionnaire will assist your attorney in finding clear facts about the claim. Because Florida has a statute of limitations for these cases, your attorney must pin down the exact date of the injury to find out if it is too late to seek compensation. Knowing right away if the time limit for filing the claim affects your case will help you seek other options or drop the case.

Other forms that you may want to fill during an injury claim include:

  • Emotional distress quiz
  • Illness and hospitalization intake form
  • Airline personal injury intake forms if deaths or injuries occur in an airplane

The emotional distress quiz helps many people understand if they underwent emotional distress after the accident or injuries. Remember, when seeking damages, you may want to recover emotional distress damages. Still, the challenge is that your St. Augustine Beach Personal Injury Attorney must prove that there was a physical manifestation of your emotional distress. By taking the quiz, you get to learn a lot about the liability standpoint of emotional distress.

Illness and hospitalization intake forms, on the other hand, will aid your attorney when preparing a medical claim.

The personal injury forms highlighted above may help you know when you pursue a case and provide your attorney with crucial evidence that will help you get a fair recovery or compensation.

Find an Injury Attorney Near Me

When thinking about filing a personal injury claim, you may consider getting help from the Jacksonville Personal Injury Attorney. Our attorneys specialize in injury cases and will explain the law and how it applies to your specific case. Call us today at 904-800-7557 to discuss your case.