After an accident, you may find yourself considering whether to hire an attorney to handle your personal injury case. There are some definite benefits to hiring a personal injury attorney to represent your case if you were injured in the accident. Our team here at Cavanaugh & Thickens understands that you may not know when it’s in your best interest to hire a personal injury attorney or if you even want to hire an attorney at all. The following article will go into depth on 10 signs we believe may indicate that hiring an attorney is likely in your best interest, based on experience.

In addition, if you are debating hiring a personal injury attorney for an accident that occurred in South Carolina, please feel free to give our office a call at (803) 888-2200 to ask any questions or discuss the specifics of your case. We’re happy to assist you however we can. We hope this article helps you make a confident, informed decision on whether to seek legal counsel.

10 Signs That You Should Hire a Personal Injury Attorney:

1. You Suffered Injuries.

After suffering an injury, a personal injury attorney may be able to help maximize the compensation you receive as opposed to proceeding without legal counsel. This is especially true if the accident resulted in:

Permanent disability

Temporary disability

Severe/Catastrophic injury

Pain and suffering

Following an accident resulting in injury in South Carolina, our legal team may be able to help you recover significant compensation to cover medical bills, future medical costs, lost wages, and much more. If someone else’s negligence caused you injury, you deserve to get fair compensation. Hiring an experienced personal injury attorney can help make sure you receive everything you’re entitled to under state law.

2. Liability is Contested.

When it is contested who the at-fault/negligent party is, you should contact a personal injury attorney. Under South Carolina law, the burden of proof rests with the individual who is bringing a claim if liability is not admitted. That means you must be prepared to prove your case in court in front of a jury. An experienced personal injury attorney can help you preserve and collect critical evidence to prove your case. This can involve an in-depth investigation, reviewing police records, interviewing eyewitnesses, analyzing medical records, and much more.

3. The Accident Resulted in Death.

If your loved one was involved in an accident that resulted in an untimely death, we are so sorry. When you’ve experienced a loss due to someone else’s negligence, we are here to help you and your loved ones get justice and closure.

Often, it is crucial to immediately take action to preserve evidence or investigate an accident scene before time and traffic erase critical information. Other times, the key first steps involve capturing witness testimony or requesting medical records and other information to fully evaluate a wrongful death suit. Whatever the circumstances, a qualified personal injury or wrongful death lawyer can help fight to maximize any recovery, highlight steps that can be taken to prevent similar incidents in the future, and help you and your loved ones heal and move forward in peace.

4. The Insurance Company is Not Cooperating With You.

Insurance adjusters are notoriously difficult to work with following an accident. It’s important to keep in mind that often the insurance company’s interests are directly opposite of your own:

  • Your goal is to get as large of a reward as possible to compensate for your injuries, damages, pain, and suffering, and more.
  • The insurance company’s goal is to pay you as little as possible, as quickly as possible.

Signs that the insurance company is acting in bad faith:

  • Failing to investigate your claim
  • Refusing to provide a rental car
  • Drastically low balling your settlement offer
  • Intentionally misleading you about your legal rights

Tactics an insurance company may use to delay your claim in hopes you’ll miss the deadline for filing a lawsuit:

  • Ignoring your calls
  • “Losing” important documents
  • Postponing your claim
  • Denying your claim, and more.

If you’re facing these delay tactics from an insurance company, you should get a lawyer involved as soon as possible.

5. Multiple Parties Are Involved.

Many personal injury cases involve multiple parties, including medical malpractice cases, construction accidents, multi-vehicle collisions, and more. Often, when multiple parties are involved, there will be disputes about who is responsible for your injuries or how to allocate settlement funds. Having a lawyer on your side can help protect you in these circumstances.

6. You Don’t Know the Value of Your Claim.

Without experience and knowledge of state laws associated with your case, it’s difficult to understand how much your claim is worth and what offers you should and should not accept. When this is true, you should speak to an experienced personal injury attorney. They can help you determine a fair value for your case to cover past, present, and future costs and damages associated with your case.

7. The Case Involved a Government Entity.

Cases against governmental entities have additional complexity built-in due to reduced timelines to preserve a claim and caps on recovery, amongst other pitfalls. Injury cases against government entities may include but are not limited to instances wherein the injured party is:

  • Involved in an accident due to road construction
  • Hit by a government-owned vehicle such as a bus or work truck
  • Tripped up by a broken sidewalk
  • Hurt due to dangerous conditions at a public park
  • Involved in an accident due to malfunctioning stoplights, signs, and more.

When your claim involves a government entity, then it’s important to hire a personal injury attorney to make sure the case is handled correctly.

8. You Don’t Have the Time to Dedicate to Your Case.

If you don’t have the time or energy to handle your personal injury case entirely, then a personal injury attorney can certainly help you. Going back and forth with insurance companies, keeping track of important dates and deadlines, getting the medical care you need, and managing your recovery is A LOT, especially following an accident and injury. It is a personal injury attorney’s full-time job to handle these types of cases, and they know how to handle them effectively. You should be focused on recovering, not managing every detail of your personal injury case.

9. You Want Your Case to Be Prepared to Go to Trial.

Every case that is filed has the potential to go to trial, even though the vast majority do settle out of court. The insurance company is going to hire a defense team full of knowledgeable, experienced attorneys for the at-fault party. You also deserve to have your rights fully represented, and that means preparing your case as though it will go to trial even if it is ultimately resolved beforehand. Instead of going it alone, turn to a personal injury attorney with experience talking to a jury. At Cavanaugh & Thickens, our attorneys have over 60 years of combined experience representing clients and tackling insurance companies in the courtroom, so you can trust that we will use this knowledge to best represent you and your case.

10. You’d Like to Get the Maximum Compensation for Your Injuries, Damages, Pain, and Suffering.

If you want to get the entirety of what you’re owed under South Carolina law and nothing less, then hiring a personal injury attorney can help you do so. Injury attorneys are trained negotiators, meaning the right one won’t settle for anything less than you deserve for past, present, and future damages, injuries, pain, and suffering caused by the accident. An attorney can help you assess a value for your case based on past results and the specific facts of your case. Every case is different and must be evaluated on its own merits, and it can be extremely helpful to have the insight of an attorney when determining the value of your case.

Worried About The Cost Of Hiring An Experienced Personal Injury Lawyer?

Don’t be. Cavanaugh & Thickens doesn’t require you to pay anything upfront or out-of-pocket: no retainer fees, no court fees, and you owe us nothing unless we recover a settlement or judgment for your case.

Why Choose Cavanaugh & Thickens, LLC?

When you’ve been injured in an accident, especially if the accident led to permanent disabilities or wrongful death, you need an experienced legal team that will fight for you throughout the entire process. With over 60 years of combined experience, the legal team at Cavanaugh & Thickens has a history of fiercely representing personal injury clients inside and outside of the courtroom, settling for nothing less than what they deserve. We are proud to be named a Best Law Firm in South Carolina by US News and World Report, and our attorneys have been featured in Best Lawyers and Super Lawyers with an A+ Better Business Bureau rating.

Most importantly, we are a local law firm that takes great pride in providing excellent legal representation to South Carolina residents and visitors. We treat each client like family and deeply value our client-attorney relationships. Don’t just take our word for it. To hear what our clients have to say about working with our firm, read our reviews.

How Can I Schedule a Free Consultation?

Our award-winning legal team is available for you 24/7 via phone, email, online form, and online chat for your convenience. To schedule your free consultation directly with an attorney at our office, simply call us at (803) 888-2200, fill out our online form, or begin a chat on our website.

Disclaimer: The opinions and ideas in this article are for informational purposes only and are not intended as legal advice. Each case is different and must be evaluated based on its own particular facts and merits.

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