Today, the majority of people (60%) injured in auto accidents use an attorney to help them receive fair compensation. That means that 40% still face the insurance company alone. You wouldn’t be your own roofer, plumber or surgeon – why try to be your own attorney?
While handling your injury claim on your own after a car accident may, at first glance, seem like a good idea that will save you money – usually, quite the opposite is true, and having an attorney will net you substantially more money without all the headache of fighting the insurance company on your own. In this post, I will explain exactly why it’s like this, and I’ll back it up with actual insurance industry injury claim payout data.
Insurance Companies Pay 4.4 Times More Money to People with an Attorney
According to a study by Martindale-Nolo Research, people represented by an attorney after their car accident received 4.4 times more money for their injury than people dealing with insurance on their own.
Even after subtracting the average attorney contingency fee of 32%, claimants with attorneys still netted 3 times more money than those without.
Why Do Insurance Companies Pay Out So Much Less to People without an Attorney?
No threat of a lawsuit
The simple answer to this question is because they can. Insurance companies know that without an attorney they can make a lowball offer or even deny the claim altogether, and the claimant won’t be able to take their claim to court without an attorney. In other words, a personal injury claimant without an attorney has no leverage against unfair treatment by the insurance company, and the company is able to deal with the claimant on a “take it or leave it” basis. This is why so often claimants without an attorney are not taken seriously by insurance.
Attorneys know how to maximize claim value
Another reason is that attorneys know how to maximize claim payouts. A regular person may think they’re only entitled to their medical costs, but an attorney will also incorporate other elements into the claim such as pain and suffering, loss of wages, loss of use and others. Incorporating damages in addition to the medical costs increases claim value tremendously. Pain and suffering alone can be up to five times the amount of medical costs, depending on the severity of the injuries. A non-lawyer does not know how to properly calculate the amount of damages for pain and suffering – in fact, most people don’t even realize they may be entitled to it.
Attorneys Know All the Insurance Company Tricks
An average insurance adjuster handles about 100 claims per day. An average car accident claimant has an accident every 19 years. Who will have the upper hand in any claim negotiation? Hands down, the adjuster. A personal injury attorney has seen hundreds if not thousands of claims and knows every insurance company trick in the book. Having an attorney help you with negotiation levels the playing field for the claimant.
Attorneys Know Where to Locate the Funds for You
An attorney knows how to navigate a plethora of thorny payout issues such as liability policy limits and uninsured or underinsured motorists. An attorney knows exactly how the system works and where to locate the funds for your compensation, even if the most obvious place did not have enough for full compensation.
Attorneys Know How to Prove Your Claim
Insurance companies are not going to pay the full amount of your claim without proper proof, and it’s your responsibility to present it. Attorneys know exactly what kind of proof is required to substantiate each element of your claim, how to properly document your injuries, treatment and all the negative consequences of the injury in your life.
Insurance Company Knows a Couple of Things About You
- You may expect them to treat you fairly and reasonably
- You don’t know your rights
- You don’t know what types of damages you’re entitled to or the fair amounts
- You don’t know how to prove your damages
- You have bills to pay and may need to settle quickly for a lowball amount
But Aren’t Attorneys Expensive?
This is the question that stops many people from seeking help from an attorney. Unlike other types of attorneys, personal injury attorneys operate on a contingency fee basis – they charge nothing upfront and only get paid a percentage of the settlement if and only if they win for you. This removes any risk of doing business with them, and since they get paid a share of the settlement that aligns their interests with yours. Personal injury attorneys are motivated to recover the maximum amount possible for you.
The standard contingency fee is 32%. Is that expensive? We can only answer that question by looking at how much additional value attorneys bring to the table. Things can only be cheap or expensive in relation to the value they provide to the buyer. As we mentioned earlier, claimants with attorneys on average recover 4.4 times more money than those without. So if someone helps you recover 4.4 times more and takes a 32% cut – is their cut too much? Even after their cut, you’re still getting three times more than you would without an attorney. While attorneys have a stereotype of being expensive, personal injury attorneys, specifically, deliver tremendous value to clients. Once we realize that an attorney can, on average, get you triple the money, the question changes from “can I afford an attorney?” to “can I afford not having one?”
An Attorney Takes Care of Everything
Yes, there are people who truly enjoy dealing with insurance companies and pursuing their claims on their own. To my knowledge, they are few and far between. The rest of us just want all of it taken care of as soon as possible, we want to get it out of our head and to move on with our lives. Meticulously preparing documentation to properly prove every aspect of your claim and damages, the constant back and forth with the insurance company, holding your own against aggressive adjusters trying to take advantage of you, calls, emails, letters – all of that is something most people would rather avoid.
In addition to the effort and the mental energy involved in handling your own claim, what about your time? How much time are you prepared to spend on your claim? Hours, days, weeks or months? Wouldn’t you rather be doing something else? Spending time with family and friends, working on things you truly care about or enjoying a hobby? A personal injury attorney lets you forget about your claim and move on with your life. Other than getting a few critical updates about the claim’s progress, the next time you will hear from the attorney is when your check is ready.
