Video Transcript
Speakers: Kevin L. Edwards and Pedro “Peter” de la Cerda
Top 4 Car Accident Myths Busted By A Lawyer
Peter: Here’s a myth, Kevin, about car wrecks: “If you only suffer minor injuries, you don’t need to follow all the steps that you typically would after a car wreck.”
Kevin: Couldn’t disagree more. Minor injuries, [or something] you might perceive as a minor injury, could be a very serious issue down the road. And so, what you really wanna do after a car wreck — even though you may think it’s a minor injury, even though the other insurance company may be telling you [that] you’ve only suffered minor injuries — you need to go to a medical provider and you need to get checked out, whether that be an X-ray, an MRI, a CT scan, whatever sort of treatment that you need. [This way], [omitted] you know before you sign off on any sort of settlement that you are fully cleared medically, and so you don’t have a sustained problem from those injuries throughout the rest of your [life].
The second myth of a personal injury case is: “You do not need to get checked out by a medical provider after the accident.”
Peter: Well, that is absolutely a myth and here’s why that’s busted: you need to go get checked out by a medical provider because only an expert trained in medicine can tell whether you’ve truly sustained an injury after an accident. And even then, that medical provider may see you and need to refer you to another medical provider [who’s] a specialist in another area. The point is, we sitting here, us as the lawyers, you as a lay person after an accident, we’re not medical professionals, we’re not experts. You need to go to a medical provider that can tell you they can look at you and determine whether you’ve actually suffered an injury. Only then can we know whether there needs to be further treatment or if you’re cleared and you’re okay.
Next myth that’s up, Kevin, is: “All attorneys are the same, they charge the same, and any of them can handle a personal injury case.”
Kevin: Well, you and I know, we’ve been in this industry for a long time, [that] there is a wide array of personal injury lawyers out there. And, there are big differences and questions that need to be asked as someone who has been injured in an accident looking for a lawyer. [One] of the things that I think is very important is: A lot of the lawyers that you see on TV or here or the radio or on billboards, will take cases in volume and if they cannot handle those cases or if they cannot settle those cases quickly, they will then refer those cases out to another lawyer or they will drop you altogether. [But] at DFW Injury Lawyers, we take the case from start to finish. We’re not going to refer you out to another lawyer.
Second, there may be a mom-and-pop shop out there that handles personal injury cases. And those mom-and-pop shops are great solo practitioners, but they may not have the staff or the resources to take your case from start all the way through trial. So you need to ask those difficult questions [from] a potential lawyer before you hire them to make sure that when you hire a lawyer, you know that lawyer’s gonna be with you for the entire fight, whether that be through settlement or all the way through trial.
Myth number four: “You will automatically be compensated if the other party who caused the accident has insurance.”
Peter: Well, absolutely not. So again, the goal of [an] insurer is to either deny or reduce their risk in a particular car wreck claim. So just because the person that hit you has car insurance, the insurance adjuster for that car insurance company is gonna review the case and try to limit their exposure as much as possible, including denying the claim completely. They may say, “Oh no, actually, you were at fault for the accident, not our insured,” — even if it looks like their insured was obviously at fault. They might say, “Oh, well, you didn’t get medical care for more than 30 days. Well, so you must not be injured. There’s no injury claim there.” The point is, you need to get with a lawyer as soon as possible in the process so that that lawyer can represent you against that insurance company and get you the just compensation you deserve.
Kevin: And believe it or not, even if you carry UM/UIM coverage, (uninsured/underinsured motorists coverage) through your own insurance company, that’s often a fight as well. And so, sometimes you [may] find yourself fighting with your own insurance company to provide that UM/UIM coverage that you’ve been paying for many, many, many years. What you need to do is contact a lawyer like us at DFW Injury Lawyers and let us get that process started to see what insurance proceeds are available. And then, we will take on the fight with the insurance company to make sure that you’re fairly compensated.
