Any accident can be traumatic and overwhelming, especially when you sustain injuries. What you do after you have suffered a personal injury matters to your health and your legal case's success. If you do everything in your power, you will have a better chance of fully recovering and getting all the compensation you deserve. Further, you also need to avoid making critical mistakes that can damage your legal case before you even file it. Your primary responsibility should be taking care of your health and getting the necessary medical treatment. In many cases, this is a full-time job, and you do not have the capacity for a legal fight. From a legal standpoint, the best thing that you can do is hire a personal injury lawyer to represent you. They handle the day-to-day details of your case, giving you tactical legal advice that can ensure you avoid any mistakes that can make the insurance company’s life easier. They are also not afraid to go to bat for you when an insurance company tries to compromise your legal rights. When you hire a personal injury attorney, you do not have to worry about the details, and you know that you have a fighter on your side every step of the way. Here is what you must do when you have suffered an injury in an accident that was someone else’s fault.
Schedule Your Free Consultation
Get Medical Help

Document Your Case to the Fullest Extent Possible
In a best-case scenario, you did something at the accident scene to begin to get evidence that can prove liability in your case, and you may have had the opportunity to take pictures of yourself. However, it may be unlikely and difficult to do so when you were receiving treatment for the physical injuries that are now the basis of your claim or lawsuit. Hopefully, someone else took pictures for you at the time of the accident. If you have any physical evidence from the accident scene, you need to make copies and keep them safe so you can give them to your personal injury attorney. Then, it is best to do whatever you can to document the damages you have suffered since the accident. When you eventually file a claim or lawsuit, you will have the affirmative obligation to prove your damages before you can get paid. You can count on encountering skeptical insurance companies who will reflexively try to deny and minimize your damages in the hopes that they can avoid paying you everything that they owe. Your damages will break down into the broad categories of economic and non-economic. Of course, you will need extensive documentation of your economic damages because these represent your actual financial losses from the accident. Economic damages include things like medical expenses and lost earnings. Save any medical bills and earnings information to give to your personal injury lawyer. They will use this documentation to calculate the amount of money you seek in a claim or lawsuit. You will also need documentation of your non-economic injuries, and this is where your claim can get challenging. Non-economic damages include things like pain and suffering and emotional distress. These are subjective damages by nature, and insurance companies may not believe what you are reporting because it means that they will need to pay you more. You should keep a journal of your experiences since the accident, and you can also use treatment notes from a mental health provider if you are claiming that you suffer from depression or emotional distress. The more you have done on paper, the better a personal injury attorney can tell your story.Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer Immediately

Do Not Talk to the Insurance Company or Say Anything Publicly
The responsible party will likely have representation from an insurance company (unless they are large enough to self-insure). Insurance companies handle cases differently, but there is one consistent rule: never trust them in any capacity, no matter which ones you deal with. Anything that goes into your pocket comes out of their accounts, an outcome they want to avoid. Therefore, insurance companies are not above underhanded tactics to undermine your case, and one of their favorite tricks is to try to talk to you when you do not have a lawyer to protect you. They may not even ask you to give a formal recorded statement (which you should never do). The adjuster may try to call you to “check to see how you are doing.” In reality, the adjuster does not care how you are doing and wants to get you on the record, saying something that may contradict what you may say in your claim. Accordingly, you should never speak to insurance companies. If they call you, politely decline to talk to them and direct them to contact your lawyer. The other thing that you should refrain from doing is posting about your accident or your life afterward on social media. Never assume that insurance companies cannot access or see your posts because they may use your words against you. If they see cheerful posts that detail your activities, they can use them to contradict your claims of pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life.Hold Out Until You Get the Money You Deserve
Try not to focus on getting a quick settlement from the insurance company. This mindset is wishful thinking because that is not how insurance companies operate. They know how to drag out the process for as long as it takes to wear you down and break your resolve. It is up to you not to let them do that to you. When you hire a personal injury lawyer, they will tell you exactly how low the insurance company’s settlement offer is, and this is where you need some toughness and aggressiveness on your side. You can negotiate with insurance companies to get them to raise their settlement offer, but you may only know that fact if you have a personal injury attorney. Even if you try to negotiate a settlement on your own, you may have little credibility with the insurance company. If the insurance company is not offering you enough money, you can and should say no to its proposed settlement. You only get one chance to settle a personal injury claim and suppose you do not receive enough money on that one occasion. In that case, you cannot return to the insurance company for more money because you have released it from any further liability concerning your claim.You Must Fight the Entire Way with the Help of Your Personal Injury Attorney
