Don’t Shoot Yourself in the Foot, Know Before You Wreck

When you get into a car accident, there’s sort of a dance to follow.  Insurance companies are looking for anything they can to deny your claim, so knowing what to do beforehand is important so you don’t forget immediately following a wreck.  In fact, you might even put a note in your glove box next to your insurance card that says,

“Got in a wreck?  Call Herbert Law Group – 214-414-3808”

In the meantime, here are five tips from the Car Crash Captain on how you can help ensure your claim goes as smoothly as possible.

1. Don’t Delay Medical Treatment – If you’re injured, you need to get treated.  If you’re not injured, you don’t get treated.  If you don’t go to the hospital and receive treatment for an injury sustained in the wreck, it looks like you weren’t injured in the wreck.  Even if you think the injuries are minor, irrational, non-existent, or otherwise not that important, still go to the hospital so you can get checked out.  There are often times when adrenaline is flowing that you don’t feel the injury until later.  Starting that documentation is essential.
2. Don’t Admit Fault at the Scene – If you’re a genuinely kind person, you probably want to make sure the other person doesn’t feel bad after the wreck.  Even something like, “Don’t worry about it.” Or, “It’s okay.” Or, “I didn’t see you there!”  Can be interpreted as though you’re taking liability for the wreck.  Instead, just stick to the facts, especially when you’re going on the record (with police or anyone else recording a conversation of what happened).
3. Don’t Forget to Gather Evidence – There are times when you’re too injured to gather evidence, if that’s the case hopefully someone else is helping you out.  If you aren’t debilitated, though, it’s imperative to take plenty of photos, videos (even “reconstruct” what happened verbally and video where the vehicles were coming from), get witness statements, make sure you have access to police reports, and anything else you can gather.  If witnesses are present get contact information, not just their statement.
4. Don’t Speak to the Insurance Company – Insurance companies are in the business of making money.  They don’t make money if they pay out large claims.  That means they will do whatever they can to minimize your claim, or even deny it completely.  You will have to speak to them a little, but here’s an important sentence to remember, “I’m working with Herbert Law Group, all questions can be addressed to them.”
5. Don’t Accept the First Settlement Offer – The first settlement offer is going to be the lowest amount the insurance company will think they can get away with.  Their goal is to settle quickly, clear it off the books, and move on.  They know that if you accept the settlement, then you can’t come back later if it’s not enough.  When you work with an attorney from Herbert Law Group, you’ll get expert guidance on what your claim is actually worth.

DO Talk to Herbert Law Group

Not following the above advice leads to the five most common mistakes that can hurt your car accident claim.  Do you know what will help it?  Yep, you guessed it, working with an expert car wreck lawyer in Texas like Herbert Law Group.

Let’s talk about what happened.  Call our offices at 214-414-3808, or fill out the contact form on our site and we’ll reach out to you.  After our free initial conversation, we can figure out how we can help and what the next steps are.