The Best Way to Handle A Car Accident Claim in Denver Colorado without a Lawyer
Introduction
So you have just been in a car accident and are looking for ways to handle a car accident claim without hiring an attorney. Well you’ve come to the right place.
If you are looking to do this, in legal speak it is called “Pro Se”. That is Latin for on one’s own behalf. And it means you get to advocate for yourself in ways that will save you thousands of dollars. If you follow the right steps and your claim is the right type, you will actually earn more money than if a lawyer handled your case. I know it sounds crazy because you think these folks went to law school and learned how to win big money… but here’s the reason why I know this to be false.
It is because I am a car accident lawyer and have handled hundreds of claims both before and after filing a lawsuit, settling in the millions of dollars for clients over a 15 year career.
Most of this success happened before ever filing a lawsuit. And many firms don’t actually have lawyers doing the work, they have high school degree case managers handling your claims, while the lawyers “oversee” all these case managers (or, most likely, oversee smoking cigars on the golf course).
This is called pre-litigation (before filing). And this is where you will be highly likely to earn more money without a lawyer in most instances. Why? Well Here it is…the data shows that on average in the United States a car accident settles for $19,000. That’s all! Not the hundreds of thousands of dollars you see on billboards that law firms are selling to you as what is possible. Remember getting struck by lightning is possible, but how many people do you know have been struck by lightning?
Personal injury claims are like that too. Only very very few get into that six figure range. And it is not only because of the lawyer arguing the claim. It is because there is enough car insurance available to PAY for that big check. Let me walk you through why this is the case.
We are taught to believe from a young age that lawyers fight for justice. This is not untrue, we do. However, we also have businesses to run. And in the end if a lawyer is putting up the money for every car accident claim that comes through her door, it is important that there is enough money on every claim to pay her the fees.
In reality, most people don’t have that kind of insurance. Since living is expensive and good paying jobs are hard to come by, people just don’t have the personal assets (houses, cars, goods, cash) that need that much insurance. They also have likely not been in a car accident when they first start buying insurance. So most people, like 95% of people are driving with minimum policy limits (the lowest levels of insurance available) or don’t even have insurance.
So, our good old lawyer is not going to have a big enough gold filled pot to go after even if she proves that her client was severely injured in the accident. She will not sue the individual who did not buy enough insurance to cover her client’s medical bills. She will only typically ask for the maximum amount available on the policy of insurance the driver who hit her client. And in most states that is between $15,000 – $30,000. If you’ve ever received a hospital bill, you know that it isn’t much.
So why are folks like you hiring lawyers when they will take upto 50% (in some cases) of your claim’s value, leaving you with very little on the average claim. I’ll tell you why…it’s because you have never been told what to do and every time you look on television or drive down your interstate you have an attorney advertising to you how they can get you paid millions.
So you eventually believe that could be you. But more than likely, it’s not going to be. So what can you do? Well you can follow a simple plan for the first 3 months to see if your claim is actually worth more than the minimum policy limits all while you are working up your case accurately so that if you do have more insurance than the average person then you know you did all the right things, saw all the right things and said all the right things to the insurance company before you ultimately hire a personal injury lawyer to litigate your claim in court.
In the end, for filing of lawsuits I do recommend a lawyer because there is more to know than can be taught outside of law school. But for Pre-Litigation your claim is typically handled by someone who graduated high school (and that is all their level of education is). This is not hard to do, you just need to know WHAT to do and in what steps. And I’m going to tell you over a series of articles. I am only getting started…
0 Comments