Can I Do This Alone?
I get asked this question from time to time: "What are the chances of an injured person successfully handling an insurance claim on their own?" That's a good question. Usually the scenario goes something like this: a person is injured and they say, "I don't want to have to hire an attorney" or "I don't want to use the resources of a personal injury attorney," or "I don't want to split the money with an expensive attorney, I want to go and fight for the claim myself."
What Are The Obstacles Of Fighting An Insurance Company Alone (Without An Attorney)
Allow me to be frank. The obstacles are probably too many to even itemize on one single page. But what might be helpful is the following example about brain surgery...
Your Friendly Neighborhood Brain Surgeon
Suppose you had a brain tumor and you needed surgery to remove that brain tumor, what would you do? You'd go to a brain surgeon. You wouldn't go to your next door neighbor -- your friendly neighborhood amateur brain surgeon -- who has kitchen knives or some power tools in his garage who says that he's learned to remove brain tumors in a class and he can help you with your brain tumor. That type of an example, although admittedly ridiculous, it's only ridiculous because nobody would dream of going to their next-door neighbor to help them with brain surgery.
And the same is true with regard to an injury attorney.
The reason you'd go to a brain surgeon is because they were trained over many years to deal with brain surgery; they have experience; they've done it many, many times before. And they know what types of problems to anticipate, what to do, what not to do. And the same situation applies to the personal injury attorney because the claims process and the litigation process, the process of preserving evidence, the process of really demonstrating the true nature of someone's injury to somebody who has the ability to make things right is a complex . Both legally and factually, handling your claim is an extremely complex process, one that shouldn't be left to the inexperienced.
In conclusion, only hire a personal injury attorney if you intend to win your case.
Contact my office TODAY to talk about your case.
Stephen D. Counts: personal injury attorney proudly serving injury victims in Orange County, Riverside, and Los Angeles.
