Mistakes to Avoid After a St Petersburg Car Accident
One of the biggest mistakes to avoid after a St Petersburgh car accident is making statements to law enforcement. Apologizing may be deemed as an expression of fault. An experienced car accident attorney’s presence could be critical to avoiding any admission of guilt or self-incrimination. It may be critical to discuss your collision case with someone familiar with that area of personal injury law.
Role of Insurance Companies
Speaking to another person’s insurance company without consulting their attorney could be considered as one of the potential mistakes to avoid after a St Petersburgh car accident. Speaking with another’s insurance company is potentially dangerous because it is the job of the other insurance company to minimize the exposure that that insurance company has to pay claims. That is their job and they try to make the case less valuable.
How Does Someone Typically Contact an Insurance Company?
Typically, insurance carriers will call people on the phone through whatever phone number is given to the law enforcement officer as their contact number. There are few insurance companies that actually do go out to the scene, but those are few and far between.
Dealing with the Other Driver’s Insurance
People make the mistake because they are under the impression that the insurance company is there to honor their obligation and make them whole again. Sometimes, the insurance companies will write a check for a portion of the damages and that may indicate that that is the complete amount of compensation that the insurance company is willing to give. Therefore, if a person negotiates that check, meaning they cash it, that person may be cutting themselves off from future full compensation for their injuries.
When to Contact a Lawyer
Mistakes to avoid after a St Petersburgh car accident could include not taking the opportunity to make sure that those involved in the crash are not still in harms way. It also could be critical to seek medical attention as soon as possible. Lawyers that specialize in personal injury know how to submit claims. They know how to start claims with various insurance companies.
They can identify what policies are available and make sure that they all get submitted to the right insurance carriers when there is insurance to get those bills paid. Those lawyers have relationships in order to help them to keep the doctors from filing liens and collections against people that are involved in car accidents until the insurance companies can catch up with their payment schedule.
They also have an understanding of how car accidents happen and they are in the better position to be able to gather evidence, take witness statements and actually document how an accident happened so that information can used for their benefit in the future.