It has been said that the average person will be involved in three or four car accidents over the course of his or her lifetime. In most cases, the accidents will be minor. But any car crash causing serious injury or death will change your life and your family’s lives forever. The damage of a serious car accident involves more than physical injury. It has financial impacts caused by medical bills and lost income afterward.
People who have been in serious car accidents often require legal assistance to overcome the financial setback their injuries cause. Auto insurance companies frequently refuse to pay claims as they should, leaving innocent people facing insurmountable medical bills and losses. Our personal injury attorneys at Morgan, Collins, Yeast & Salyer, help car accident victims seek the full amount of compensation they are due from the at-fault driver’s insurance company.
Not every car accident claim requires an attorney. But if your Kentucky car accident is serious enough to require legal help, call Morgan, Collins, Yeast & Salyer first. Our attorneys understand how insurance companies work and think. We have the knowledge, the resources, and the Kentucky Courage to fight the big insurance companies for the compensation you need.
Contact Morgan, Collins, Yeast & Salyer for a free, no-obligation legal consultation about a potential car accident claim anywhere in Kentucky. Call (877) 809-5352 or contact us online. We’ll give you straight answers. If there’s any way forward, we will move aggressively to help you. If you become a car wreck injury client, we can also handle your property damage claims for free. Find us in Kentucky at Lexington, Somerset, Manchester, North & South London, Hazard, Paducah, Paintsville, Prestonsburg and Princeton.
Signs That You Should Get a Lawyer After a Car Accident
A Morgan, Collins, Yeast & Salyer car accident attorney in Kentucky can help you obtain compensation for significant losses suffered in a car accident that another person or business caused. We would like to review your claim and your legal options with you if your accident involved:
- Death. If you are the survivor of a fatal car accident victim, you may be eligible to file a wrongful death lawsuit and seek compensation to replace lost income as well as the direct expenses of a death, funeral and burial.
- Serious injury. Medical expenses that result from a serious physical injury can be catastrophic. If you suffer a permanently disabling injury, the costs may be lifelong. Our attorneys can help you calculate and seek the full costs of a personal injury, including the costs of medical bills, lost income suffered since the accident and medical expenses you’ll face the future related the accident.
- Unclear Responsibility. If it is not clear who caused a car accident, you could soon find that you are being blamed. Part or our service is to investigate car accidents to determine who was at fault and is therefore liable for the other party’s losses. If you have a valid personal injury claim, we will stand up for your rights.
- Multiple parties involved. We typically think of accidents as involving collisions between two cars and two drivers. But when an accident involves three or more vehicles, or a non-family passenger is injured in either vehicle, there is more opportunity for finger pointing and blame-shifting to avoid a proper claim settlement.
- Commercial motor vehicle driver or business owner involved. If you have been in an accident that involved a commercial truck, passenger bus, delivery van or another business vehicle, the company that owns the vehicle or employs the driver may be responsible for what happened. A claim involving a trucking company or bus company has complicating factors, not the least of which is the potential for facing a corporate legal team with a bottom line to protect. You will need the guidance of a lawyer who has experience handling commercial truck accident claims.
- Uninsured driver involved. If you find that the driver at fault for your accident is not insured, then you may make a claim against your own uninsured motorist (UM) policy, which Kentucky law requires you to have. We can assist with that claim and/or an investigation to identify and pursue other sources of compensation, such as insurance held by a family member of the driver.
- Disputed claim. As soon as an insurance adjustor hedges about paying your claim, you should speak to an attorney. An adjustor has a fiduciary duty to his or her employer to approve as little as possible in payment for an insurance claim. Once the adjuster has found a reason to deny or short-change your claim, then you need legal help. If your claim has been denied or you already have a settlement offer that you think is too low, don’t sign anything. Have an attorney at Morgan, Collins, Yeast & Salyer review the offer and discuss whether it reasonable. An experienced personal injury attorney may be able to negotiate a substantially larger financial settlement than the insurer’s initial offer.
First Reason to Get a Car Crash Attorney: A Quick Settlement Offer
As you deal with insurers after a car accident, remember that insurance companies are for-profit businesses. Their objective is to take in more money in premiums than they pay out after accidents.
It is not unusual after serious accidents for insurers to make quick settlement offers that look like reasonable amounts of money.
But there are two facts you must keep in mind in the early days and weeks following a serious car accident injury:
- The insurance company knows what they want to pay for a car accident like yours.
- It may be too soon to predict accurately what your actual medical costs and losses from the car accident will be if you have a serious injury.
It is a mistake to accept a car accident settlement unless you know every cent the accident has and will cost you.
An insurance company typically bases a settlement offer on previous payouts to people with similar injuries as well as a calculation of what you may accept. The offer is unlikely to be an accurate reflection of your total costs and losses. You probably deserve more.
In cases of serious injury, your medical recovery is likely to be lengthy and may include setbacks along the way. The only way to ensure you recover a full and proper financial settlement is to calculate the full costs of your accident once you have reached your maximum medical recovery.
Compensation available in a personal injury claim in Kentucky may include money for:
- Medical expenses from the date of the accident, as well as those likely to be incurred in the future, such as for delayed treatment or ongoing care if permanently disabled
- Physical pain and suffering and mental anguish since the accident
- Lost income since the accident and likely to be incurred in the future
- Loss from reduced earning capacity
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Loss of consortium with a spouse
- Loss of services if injury is to a child.
You should never accept an insurance settlement offer or sign anything presented by an insurance company representative after a serious car crash unless an experienced car accident lawyer has reviewed it. Once you accept an insurance settlement, your case is closed. If you have additional expenses afterward, you may not be able to do anything to obtain more compensation, regardless of your medical condition or other losses.
How Our Kentucky Car Accident Attorneys Can Help You?
The objective of a car accident claim is to make you financially whole. Put another way, you should suffer no financial costs or losses from a car accident that someone else caused. Under Kentucky law, this includes losses attributed to the pain and suffering you have been unjustly put through.
Let Morgan, Collins, Yeast & Salyer review the circumstances of your car accident and injuries in a free legal consultation before you accept anything from an insurance company. If you have already received a settlement offer, we’ll review it and tell you whether we think we can do better for you.
You don’t always need a lawyer’s help to be made financially whole after a car accident. An attorney is not necessary in all cases. But if you have serious injuries, you should consult a lawyer. We can pledge to take your claim as far as we can without charging you unless we recover money for you. Once we have recovered either a negotiated settlement or a jury award, we will deduct a previously agreed-upon percentage as our legal fee. No money ever comes out of your pocket.
A contingency-fee arrangement protects our clients and incentivizes us to work to recover the maximum amount of compensation for our clients. Such an arrangement also necessitates that, when we do not believe we can recover enough money to make you financially whole and pay our fees, we will tell you so.
When we can pursue a case for a deserving client like you, you can be assured that we will fight for the justice you deserve with total dedication. We know the courage it takes to make a stand against uncaring insurers following a devastating auto accident. At Morgan, Collins, Yeast & Salyer, we’ll add the Kentucky Courage of our team to help you get through this tough time.
Please contact us online now to schedule your free, no-obligation legal consultation about a car accident claim.
