If you’ve been the victim of a car accident, your injuries may be widespread. Perhaps you’ve had minor head trauma or a serious concussion. Perhaps you’ve suffered broken bones, or your car is totaled and you’ll need to replace it. You may be facing months of lost work because you’ll need to go through rehabilitation to recover from your injuries, or you may be permanently disabled to an extent that you cannot work anymore.

Unless your injuries are exceedingly minor, it’s almost always true that hiring a New York personal injury lawyer to represent you is the best way to go as you seek to recover monetary damages for the pain and suffering you’ve been put through, for the lost wages you’re now facing, and for medical expenses you’re saddled with.

What an accident attorney can do for you

Your attorney is very versed in the intricacies of personal injury law, and will be able to look at your case and investigate it so that he or she knows all the facts. He/She will interview you and the police if applicable, look at all the facts of your case, investigate the severity of injuries, and determine the length of recovery you are now facing.

Once your case has been thoroughly investigated, your attorney will decide whether or not it has merit, in that you can receive compensation for your pain and suffering, lost wages, medical expenses, and so on by either a jury award or settlement out of court with the insurance company of the offending party. If either is true, your lawyer may decide to take your case on contingency; with this, you pay no money up front, but will share a portion of the proceeds from your award or settlement with your lawyer at the end of your case.

Sharing your award?

You may think that sharing your award or settlement with your attorney (usually, you’ll give him or her about 30%), is not the best deal, and that you would do better on your own. However, be careful here. Your attorney is a seasoned professional who knows his or her way around the courtroom and who knows how to deal with the insurance company. If you try to settle your case on your own by dealing with the insurance company, it’s true that you won’t have to share your settlement with anyone. However, if you let your New York injury lawyer help guide you through the process so that you have a fair settlement or can go to court if necessary and litigate the case in front of a jury, you’re likely to come out ahead financially even if you do have to share your final settlement.

Your lawyer doesn’t win anything unless you do, so you can see that he will fight vigorously for everything you’ve got coming to you. The larger your award or settlement, the more he or she gets paid, too. Don’t make the mistake of simply trying to settle out of court by yourself with the insurance company if you have truly got a case that could garner you financial resources for settlement or award. Check with a personal injury attorney in NYC first, and then decide.

If you or someone you love has been injured in a serious car accident, the Law Office of Cohen & Jaffe handles car accident claims throughout Nassau, Queens, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Suffolk.  We have collected millions for our clients and we can do the same for you.  We invite you to contact us at (516) 358-6900 so that we can evaluate your car accident claim and provide an estimate of the value of your claim.