Car Accidents - January 15, 2025

How Can an Accident Lawyer Help Maximize Your Settlement?

If you are bringing a personal injury lawsuit here in Georgia, it’s important to work with an accident lawyer in Atlanta who has experience with our laws and the local courts. An experienced lawyer will be able to help you maximize your settlement.

How Can an Accident Lawyer in Atlanta Help Maximize Your Settlement?

Keeping You to Deadlines

The statute of limitations in Georgia is usually two years for most personal injury claims, but there are plenty of exceptions. For example, if you are suing for property damage, you have four years to bring a lawsuit. If someone involved in the accident was working for the government at the time, this complicates matters and your time limit becomes shorter. They’re also exceptions when a victim is under 18 or when you can show that the other party committed fraud. Be sure to talk to a lawyer as soon as possible so you don’t lose compensation because you missed a deadline.

Keeping You From Accidentally Minimizing Your Claim

If you’re bringing a personal injury claim, you can expect to be contacted by the insurance company, who will want to ask you questions about the incident that caused your injuries or losses. These insurers are very well-trained in how to ask questions in just the right way to put you off guard and get you to say something that can be used against you. They might use what you say to them to minimize your injuries or to cast doubt on the facts of what happened. They might also use what you say to try to put more blame on you than you actually should have for the incident.

Your attorney is a powerful protection in this situation. Once you have an accident lawyer in Atlanta working on your case, then you can always refer your communication from the insurer over to them. When you do have to make a statement, your attorney can help you understand what to say and prepare you for the sorts of questions you might be asked.

By Bringing Negotiating Experience to Your Side

Insurance companies have lots of experience with negotiations. They also have lots of legal resources they can turn to. If you try to go up against them without that kind of experience or those resources, you’re almost always going to come out the loser. The negotiators at the insurance company know how to box you into a corner and make you feel as if there’s nothing you can do and you should just accept whatever offer they’re making.

When you work with a lawyer, your lawyer brings experience in negotiation and an understanding of the law to your side of the table. This erases some of the huge advantage that the insurance company has over you, and as soon as you get a lawyer, you’re communicating to the insurance company that you’re serious about being properly compensated and are even willing to go to court if necessary.

Through Making All the Calculations Correctly

You won’t be able to maximize your settlement unless you know exactly what you should be asking for. While it may seem simple to calculate your losses by just tallying up the bills, there could be a lot of things you’re forgetting. Take your medical bills, for example. Not only do you need to include all bills for treatment, hospitalization, transportation, medication, and physical therapy that you’ve already had, but you may also need to calculate future medical costs. These can be complicated and can require medical experts to explain your injuries to the other side and give a good idea of what it’s going to cost for your treatment to continue.

Then you have lost wages. Here, it’s not just a matter of how many days of work you’ve missed and your base salary or hourly wage. If you had to take sick days or vacation days that had accrued to you, you should be compensated for these losses. If you missed out on a chance for a promotion, this needs to be taken into consideration. If your bonus every year depends on working a certain number of days, and you were not able to reach those days because of the injury, you shouldn’t miss out on the bonus because of somebody else’s negligence.

Then there are all those expenses that you might not even think to add on. If you had to take taxis or Ubers to and from your medical appointments because your injuries prevented you from driving, these should be included in your final settlement. If you had to hire a home healthcare worker to help you get around or do your regular errands, this should also be covered.

And then there are what’s known as “non-economic damages.” These are most commonly known by terms like pain and suffering, but they cover all the non-tangible damages that you’re owed. This is to compensate you for your physical and mental suffering. Only an experience lawyer can help you to properly calculate everything so that nothing important is missed.

By Protecting You From Fault Accusations

Georgia allows anyone who is 49% or less responsible for an accident to recover damages, so long as they are not equally at fault with everyone else involved (in which case, no one gets damages). However, the percentage of your fault will affect your final compensation. Your compensation gets reduced by the same percentage as your fault, so the more fault the other side can put on you, the less they have to pay. If they can get your fault determination over 49%, they won’t have to pay you anything at all.

Your lawyer will work hard to put all the evidence together into a clear and cohesive defense that shows exactly who is at fault for the accident. Your lawyer will also protect you from any attempt to push more fault onto you to minimize someone else’s liability.

Keeping You From a Bad Settlement

The insurance company may approach you quite early in the process with the offer of a settlement. This settlement is often less than your actual damages. In some cases, the insurance company is hoping that you don’t know the full extent of your damages or are so desperate for money that you will accept even an insufficient payment. In other cases, the insurance company is just making an opening bid in the negotiations and fully expects you to reject that settlement and counter with something higher.

But whatever the intent, if you sign on the dotted line, that is usually all you will ever be able to get. An important way that your lawyer will protect you is by keeping you from signing anything that’s not in your best interests. Your lawyer will review all settlement offers and help you to understand what to ask for, when is the time to compromise, and when you need to push for more.

There’s a lot that a lawyer can do to help you maximize your settlement if you’re bringing a personal injury claim. To find out how to maximize your claim, contact us now at T. Madden & Associates, P.C. in Atlanta, GA. We also serve all major cities of Georgia and most surrounding counties.