Nothing can ruin your day quite like a car accident.
Even if the accident is minor, there are inevitable delays resulting from a minor dust-up: exchanging insurance information, waiting for police to arrive, assessing whether your car is still drivable or needs a tow. Even if you drive away you’re sure to be late to wherever you’re going, and if you need your car to be towed you can say goodbye to a few hours of your valuable time.
More serious car accidents, however, create even more difficult problems. It can be a tough decision whether to repair or replace your vehicle, and sometimes mechanical problems caused by the crash do not become apparent right away. Even with no injuries you may still be dealing with repercussions months later, and if you or a loved one were injured the consequences become even more complex.
Determining the at-fault driver is equally complicated. Everyone makes mistakes, but some are more dangerous than others, leading to more culpability. Being designated as the at fault party in a car accident can raise your insurance rates for years to come, and lead to your having to deal with a lengthy lawsuit.
If you ever find yourself wondering what to do after a car accident, what are your first steps? How should you proceed when you are already flustered, stressed and worried?
One of the best places to begin is by finding the right car accident lawyer.
Who Do Car Accident Lawyers Represent?
Whether you are the victim or the at-fault party, a car accident lawyer can be crucial for your way forward. A lawyer can find and present evidence to help someone who is wrongly designated as the at fault party to have that determination reversed. Even the driver who legitimately is the at-fault party can use a lawyer to help make sure their insurance company will honor their liability coverage.
But where a car accident lawyer really shines is when a car accident victim needs help getting fully compensated for an accident. Sometimes the dollar amount that the insurance company decides upon just isn’t enough to make up for the hardship, pain and suffering endured by the accident victim.
If you think that you have been short changed by insurance companies and your injuries impact you beyond repair and medical bills, a car accident attorney may be exactly who you need to talk to.
How Can I Find a Good Car Accident Lawyer?
The internet is an amazing source of guidance for finding all kinds of goods and services. Auto accident attorneys are no exception; there are hundreds of sites to peruse–so many, in fact, that it can turn into information overload very quickly when trying to choose the right one for your case.
Fortunately there are many ways to narrow your search for a car accident lawyer. Once you have the right legal help you will find that you can rest easier knowing that you have excellent legal representation on your side.
Car Accident Attorney Databases
There are several sites dedicated to providing a comprehensive list of lawyers with different specialties, and car accident attorneys are no exception. Some databases are more useful than others, however. In this section I will examine some of the top sites intended to help you find a lawyer after car accidents and show what the differences are among them.
Lawyers.com
With lists of car accident lawyers arranged by location, this site could be helpful in finding one or more car accident lawyers that are nearby. The site has a few helpful articles, and also cross references other lists on the same site, like wrongful death and license suspension.
Forbes.com
Forbes Advisor picked the top car accident lawyers in a few dozen major cities, and consolidated lists and contact information for your convenience.
Avvo.com
Avvo is similar to Lawyers.com in that it makes it easy to browse a list of car accident lawyers local to the area. An added benefit is that their lists of local lawyers have an easy-to-use set of filters like years of experience and whether the lawyer offers a free consultation, letting you quickly narrow your search. Many people are flustered and out of sorts after car accidents so any tool that makes the process of finding a car accident attorney easier is a real advantage.
Lawyer Match Tools
There are also sites that allow you to input your zip code and put you in touch with a car accident lawyer for a free consultation. Using a few of these services will get you different perspectives on the merits of your case and what you might expect to be compensated, and let you interact a bit with the firm you are considering for the case.
LegalMatch.com
After filling out a questionnaire about the details of your case, you will be put in touch with an auto accident lawyer who can help you with your case. Filling out the questionnaire accurately will help you get the most out of the free consultation, and help the attorney to represent you to the best of their ability should you hire them.
CarAccidentAuthority.com
This site operates in a similar fashion to LegalMatch, but instead of a single page questionnaire it presents you with a series of multiple choice questions about your case. At the end of the series of questions you opt to send your information to a lawyer who will call you to discuss your case in more detail.
I preferred LegalMatch over CarAccidentAuthority because the questionnaire process was more transparent and you could opt out of answering some questions if you preferred. But if you want to get multiple consultations about your car accident claim before choosing a legal team, try both.
Calculators: Estimate Your Maximum Compensation
If you have been injured in a car accident, you should be able to expect financial compensation. Sometimes the auto insurance comes up with an acceptable amount, precluding the need for a lawyer; but what if the insurance company only covers repairs and medical bills, not lost time at work or pain and suffering?
There are online tools that will help you determine how much compensation to expect for a car accident claim. Like the lawyer databases above, these consist of a brief questionnaire, followed by a (generally free) conversation with a lawyer. The goal of this conversation is to discuss how much compensation you might expect to recover, with an auto accident attorney who has handled many similar car accident cases.
So if the money offered by the insurance company isn’t enough, it’s time to consider establishing your expectation for fair compensation. Here are some tools to help give you an idea of what to expect.
InjuryCompensation.com
At injurycompensation.com, you will begin by choosing what sort of accident has caused your injury. Then there will be other multiple choice questions to answer, allowing the service to choose the correct lawyer for your case.
Upon completing the survey, you will give over your contact information and a lawyer will be in touch with some more questions. These will help the lawyer to come up with a good estimate of how much to expect when you recover compensation.
You can then choose to hire this lawyer to take on your case. If possible the lawyer will deal directly with the insurance company, doing their best to reach a fair settlement. If the insurance company is reluctant to pay what you are owed, however, the lawyer may take them to court.
Forbes Advisor: Pain and Suffering Calculator
Once again Forbes.com has a helpful tool for finding out what you might expect from a car accident case, this time in the form of an easy calculator for pain and suffering compensation.
This calculator can help you by giving you some idea of whether it is worth pursuing legal representation for your case. Of course, its results are not guaranteed and tort cases can vary broadly in their outcomes.
Other Online Tools to Help Victims of Car Accidents
MyAccident.org
This site is devoted to helping those involved in car accidents to find their accident reports. This can be a very useful thing when it comes to consultations; having the accident report in front of you during these calls makes a big difference in your ability to confidently answer questions and engage fully in the discussion.
You will start by entering your state in the box provided. After that you will be told how to go about requesting a copy of your accident report, complete with links to the appropriate pages.
SmartDraw.com
This site has lots of drawing tools, but one can be particularly interesting for someone trying to describe what happened in a car accident. This tool has templates of roads and intersections where you can place vehicles, allowing you to visually process the details of the accident.
Telling the car accident lawyer “a car came out of nowhere and hit me” is nowhere near as helpful as having an image showing exactly what happened. This kind of visualization can be helpful for both the car accident lawyer and for you.
The Right Car Accident Lawyer Can Make All the Difference
Getting full compensation for a car accident is a complex task. There are lots of things to remember. Fortunately, an experienced car accident attorney will be able to help you put all the necessary information together.
As you are choosing your car accident lawyer, it’s important to remember that they need to be local to the area where the accident took place, as any court case will be handled in the jurisdiction where the accident occurred. So if the accident took place away from home you might not be able to use the local lawyer whose ads you hear on the radio every day on your way to work.
Remember, too, that there are multiple types of lawyers who handle car accidents.
A Personal Injury Lawyer
If your car accident involved injuries to you or a loved one, you may need a specific personal injury lawyer to make sure you receive fair compensation. He will be especially interested in seeing medical records, the better to work a personal injury claim into your car accident settlement.
A Pedestrian Accident Lawyer
Depending on the type of car accident you have experienced, you may find that a pedestrian accident lawyer is more appropriate for your case. Try to consult with a couple of different attorneys before making your choice.
A Ride Service Lawyer
If your accident involved a car that was working with Uber or Lyft there are stringent laws and large amounts of insurance money involved in the management of those companies, so car accident attorneys who know how to navigate these car accident cases are peculiarly qualified to handle your case.
An Important Decision
Choosing a lawyer may be the last thing most people think of after motor vehicle accidents, but it can mean the difference between an inadequate settlement and maximum compensation. The best car accident attorney will work hard to be thorough and precise, making the claims process smooth and fair.