3 Steps To Prepare For Your Consultation With An Accident Attorney

When you get into a car accident, you may think that you can easily pass off insurance information and everything will be covered through insurance. In some cases, this is accurate, but there are other cases where it isn't that simple. You may have an insurance company say you are fault when you aren't, or you may have an incident where insurance doesn't cover the accident, or even where one of the parties doesn't have insurance. In these cases, you may find yourself scheduling a consultation with an accident attorney. Before your appointment, consider the steps you need to take in order to prepare yourself and the attorney for the case.

Get an Accident Report

An official accident report will detail the accident and show what the police or state troopers found during the accident. This will also list who was at fault, if any charges are pending, and what insurance information was available at the time of the incident. You may think your attorney already has access to this information, but in most cases they won't. This is especially true if you are just going in for a consultation. This means you need to take the steps to contact your local law enforcement agency and obtain a certified copy of the accident report to give to your attorney. This will help them view the case from both your words and those of the responders.

Insurance Statements

If your insurance company states they will not pay for certain fees or if they state you are at fault and will not pay, then you need to get that statement. Make sure it lists what the outcome of their judgement is and how they arrived at that outcome. This will let the lawyer know what your insurance is willing to do, what it will cover, and what some possible legal issues may be with your accident case. If you can, you should also get a statement showing if other insurance is available for the other driver or drivers, and if not, some form that states there is no insurance from other drivers. Keep in mind, you can obtain a statement from law enforcement related to the accident that will show who had valid insurance at the time.

Witness Information

Simply telling your attorney that you have witnesses may not be enough. In fact, in most cases it isn't. You need to get statements from any witness that include what they saw, their name, and a contact method. The contact should be a phone number of some kind. You may have to bring them up in the case and you need to be able to reach them. The witness statements can change some aspects of the case and the attorney will need to see that information.

These three steps will prepare you for your consultation and result in the accident attorney giving you a better evaluation for your case. They can also give you a better idea of what your options are, price for their retainer, and the steps they will need to take to settle out of court if that is possible.

Contact a legal office like Littman & Babiarz Law Office for more information.


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