Take Action Immediately After You Are Injured in an Accident

People frequently ask me how soon after an accident they should consult with and possibly hire an attorney. My response is always “as soon as possible.”

The reason for this is simple. Immediately after you have an accident and are injured as a result of that accident the company/person at fault and their insurance company immediately start to build up their defenses in order to reduce the amount of money they’re going to pay to you for your claim. There is nothing wrong with that because it’s their job.

But you need to be aware of this fact and act with the same urgency in order to build your case by doing things such as: 1) Preserve evidence that will be necessary in order to prove your case should it be necessary to present the case to an adjuster for possibly a jury. The more time that passes the more likely it is that critical evidence in your case could get worn down/weathered, lost, altered or even destroyed; and 2) Collect statements from witnesses because the more time that passes the harder it will be to find the witnesses and even if you are able to find them the cloudier their memory of the events will be.

As a practicing attorney in Florida for almost 20 years I can tell you that the first thing any experienced Insurance adjuster or attorney usually will do after an accident is to secure the evidence and gather witness statements. I’ve even had a case where the adjuster was on the seen of a construction death case before the victim’s body was even be removed.

So please keep in mind that if you wait to hire an attorney after an accident the amount of money you will get for your injuries will probably go down (sometimes significantly) and will most certainly not go up. So act fast and consult with a personal injury attorney as soon as possible after your accident in order to get the maximum amount of money for your injuries!