Lakeland Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Claims in Florida
There are several types of personal injury cases. Dismuke Law focuses its practice on handling cases involving injury due to the negligence of others. Whether you’ve been involved in a car crash or slip and fall accident, understanding the types of accidents and what to expect from the aftermath can help you get back on your feet again.
Recovering emotionally, physically, and financially from an accident takes time, and an experienced attorney can help you get the compensation you need to get back to your normal life again. David C. Dismuke is a Florida Bar Board Certified Civil Trial Lawyer and focuses his practice on personal injury cases throughout Central Florida.
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What Constitutes Personal Injury?
In the United States, injuries fall under tort law, which involves one party (the plaintiff), bringing another party (the defendant) to court over harm caused to body or mind, each with the representation of a personal injury attorney. There are four necessary conditions to prove in a case.
- The offending party had a responsibility to the other person. To use an example, imagine Steve is driving in Lakeland, and another driver rear-ends him. Assuming Steve had a right to be on the road, the second driver had a responsibility to drive safely and obey traffic rules.
- The offending party failed in their duty. If the second driver knew Steve was in front of him, yet failed to brake properly, then there is a clear breach of duty. The driver should have stopped, kept a safe driving distance, and practiced defensive driving. However, even if the other driver did not know about Steve being in front of him, if he reasonably should have, there may still be a liability on his part. The other driver may still be held liable for negligence.
- The plaintiff suffered harm as a result of the negligence. If Steve needed hospitalization as a result of the crash, there might have been a host of social, emotional, and financial problems that followed. This misfortune may lead him to seek a personal injury attorney to pursue the other Lakeland driver in court.
- The injured party suffered monetary damage of some sort. More often than not, injuries cause a loss of money, which is a necessary component for personal injury suits. More severe injuries tend to lead to higher settlements.
Call Our Lakeland Personal Injury Attorneys
If you are ready to find out how Dismuke Law can assist you, please do not hesitate to call our offices. We believe in standing up against large corporations and insurance companies, helping regular people – good people – recover fair compensation for the injuries they have experienced. Our Lakeland personal injury attorneys aren’t afraid to face any opponent in these cases, if it is in the best interests of our clients.
Contact our team today by calling (863) 292-6922.
Why You Should Never Speak with an Insurance Adjuster without a Personal Injury Attorney
If you’ve been the victim in an accident, it is important that you receive fair compensation for any injuries or damages you incurred. One thing that could stand in the way of this is speaking to insurance adjusters without an attorney.
It’s no secret that insurance companies will try to do everything in their power to pay out the least amount possible for your injuries, which is why you need a lawyer on your side who will fight to make sure you receive every dollar you’re entitled to.
Tricks Used by Insurance Adjusters
Of course insurance companies want to pay the least amount possible for any claims their customers file. Insurance is a business, after all, and maximizing profits means collecting as much money as possible and paying out the least.
These are some of the tactics that insurance adjusters use to avoid paying you the full amount you deserve:
Contacting you after your accident
Insurance companies will contact you immediately following your accident and try to get you to agree to a settlement. This offer is almost always a mere fraction of the full amount you are entitled to. By trying to get to you early, insurers hope that you will accept whatever amount they offer to save yourself the “hassle”, possibly without even knowing the full extent of your injuries. Don’t fall for this. In a survey conducted by Nolo, it was found that people whose cases were handled without lawyers received an average payout of $77,600, while those who did not hire legal representation received an average of $17,600. That’s a sixty thousand dollar difference! Don’t let an insurance adjuster cheat you out of this money.
Trying to deter you from hiring a lawyer
Insurance adjusters will also try to tell you that the settlement they are offering is superior than what you could get with an attorney. They will tell you that the amount of contingency fees you would owe your lawyer would leave you with even less than the amount they offered. This is just not the case. Even after these costs, you will still be much better off than if you had gone through the process without representation. In fact, the aforementioned survey also found that, even after deducting contingency fees, people who hired attorneys received payouts that were an average of three times larger than those without representation.
Convincing you to sign restricting documents
Another trick insurance adjusters use is trying to get you to sign documents that will strip you of your rights to negotiate for a higher settlement amount. By signing these kinds of documents, you have limited your potential settlement amount to whatever the insurance company is willing to offer. Don’t fall for this. You should never sign anything from an insurance company without reviewing the documents with your attorney.
Misleading you into giving a statement
Insurance adjusters will sometimes try to record you during a phone call or conversation. They may try to say that calls are recorded for “quality assurance” or something similar. Don’t let them. They will do everything in their power to use statements you make against you. Even just one accidentally misspoken detail could be enough to drastically hurt your settlement. If the insurance company tries this, you should say that you won’t make a statement without your attorney present.
This is not to say that insurance is not important. If you drive a vehicle, auto insurance is an essential that you simply must have. However, it is something of a necessary evil. Try as they might, insurance companies can not get away with paying you less than you deserve unless you allow them to. Don’t let them cheat you out of the compensation you rightfully deserve.
Trust a Qualified Attorney at Dismuke Law
The best defense against these deceitful tactics is to have a personal injury lawyer on your side who will fight for the best possible outcome on your behalf. Dismuke Law is home to a team of highly qualified professionals who specialize in handling car accident cases.
If you’ve been involved in an accident in central Florida, give us a call at 1-800-ASK-DAVE for your free, no-obligation consultation. We’re here to help!
