While driving is one of the most relaxing and exciting things you could do, it’s also one of the most dangerous. Hundreds of thousands of accidents happen every year on the roads, and it is something that many people dread, as they should. Unfortunately, even if you are the safest of drivers, you could still get into an accident because of someone else’s reckless driving. In such cases, it is crucial that you demand compensation for all your troubles.
If you live in the British Columbia area, and your car is auto insured, then you might be entitled to ICBC compensation. Still, things don’t always work as smoothly as they should, which is why you should enlist the help of a personal injury lawyer. Here is how they can help your ICBC claim.
Collecting the Evidence
If you want to win your ICBC claim, then you need to gather the evidence before you leave the accident scene. If you called your lawyer right after the accident, they will tell you to take photographs and videos of the cars and any injuries, collect witness contact information, and get a copy of the accident report. Later on, they will work on acquiring any other evidence you might have forgotten, and more importantly, they will know how to leverage that evidence in your claim for compensation.
Handling Negotiations
ICBC claims, like most insurance claims, are never easy and things can get quite tricky. This is why it is imperative that you enlist the help of a personal injury lawyer who can help you get fair compensation. As these ICBC lawyers explain, getting the right legal help means you will do everything by the book and proceed with caution with every step, which is exactly what you need in an ICBC claim. The insurance company will try to settle for the least amount of money possible because they are for-profit at the end of the day. Your only chance of getting a higher amount is with the help of a personal injury lawyer.
Legal Counsel
The legal counsel that your personal injury lawyer will provide you throughout the claim is imperative. Insurance companies often follow a shady playbook that includes a lot of tricks to try and get claimants to sign off on something without fully understanding what it is they’re signing. This is why you need to have a personal injury lawyer by your side at all times during the case. They will advise you to avoid signing any documents without their presence because these documents often include an admission of fault or waiving your rights in one way or the other. With a lawyer helping you at each step, you won’t have to worry about getting blindsided by the insurance company.
Network of Connections
When you hire a personal injury lawyer, you also get their vast network of connections, which proves quite useful for claimants. For starters, they can guide you on where to get the best medical treatment possible, whether it is for further testing or physiotherapy. They also can point you in the right direction to get your car repaired properly or assessed for all of this will play into the eventual compensation you will ask for.
Settlement Estimation
After going through a car accident, a claimant can be emotional and angry, demanding illogical numbers as compensation. Yet, sometimes, they might just be logical. The deciding factor here will be your lawyer’s insights. Personal injury lawyers deal with such cases regularly, so they will know what fair compensation would look like depending on the case and its various angles. Their insight is quite valuable here because they will tell you to either settle for what the insurance company is offering or ask for much more.
Legal Representation
Sometimes, ICBC claims don’t go as planned, and the insurance company refuses to pay additional money than the initial amount they offered. In such cases, your personal injury lawyer can escalate and eventually take the case to court, where they would represent you in the proceedings. Their legal experience and court experience is invaluable here because it will help you win the claim and get the compensation you deserve.
Simply put, trying to go about an ICBC claim without the help of an experienced personal injury lawyer is the biggest mistake you could ever make. You might easily end up getting no money, and you might find yourself even paying money if the insurance company turned the tables and made you out to be the at-fault driver. So, always get help from personal injury attorneys who do this for a living, and it will prove to be the best decision you ever made after going through a car accident.