Missouri Auto Attorney Blog – Car Accident Lawyer St. Louis

What to Do When the Other Driver Doesn’t Have Insurance

July 29, 2018 By Christopher Hoffmann Leave a Comment

It is a good idea to speak with an experienced attorney as soon as possible after a car accident to ensure your legal right to compensation is protected right from the start.

Imagine you’re in a car accident where your vehicle, and possibly your health, sustain significant damages. Now imagine that the other driver was and fault and does not have car insurance. Because this is such a lousy situation, legislation has been passed to lessen the likelihood of it happening. That legislation requires drivers to have a car insurance plan that covers damages that they cause. Unfortunately, there are still some people in St. Louis that drive without it. The good news is that this issue is not as frustrating as it seems, and is even easier if you speak with a St. Louis car accident attorney.

First Steps

The first steps you must take are the same as any other car accident. First, make sure your health is in a manageable state. If you need to go to the hospital, then do so. If you are well enough to delay medical treatment, then move on to gathering evidence and information. This will entail taking pictures of the scene, writing down license plates, exchanging contact information, and documenting damages to all vehicles involved. Even if you do not go to the hospital, it is a good idea to see your doctor soon after the accident.

Call the Police

You should call the police after any auto accident, but especially if the other driver does not have insurance. A driver without insurance can be tough to get a hold of after your accident. They can even be scared on the scene and try to falsify their contact information. For this reason, it is important to get the police involved. They will find out who the other driver is and have a report of the incident on file for you to later use.

Will I Be Covered?

The good news about these types of situations is that in all likelihood, your insurance company will completely cover your damages. These events are so common that there is even a name for the coverage of them. It is called uninsured motorist coverage (UIM). Given the nature of Missouri state law, your insurance company must provide UIM coverage. If you’d like, this is something that you can confirm with your provider by calling them.

Filing a Lawsuit

Sometimes the compensation you receive from your insurance company doesn’t entirely cover the damages you sustained. In this case, you can pursue a lawsuit against the other driver. If you have not obtained a lawyer at this point, it is now a good idea to do so. Once you do, your attorney can tell you what goes into a lawsuit like this, your chances of winning, and how to proceed.

Getting into an accident with a driver that doesn’t have insurance seems like a disaster, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be. Once you finish getting medical treatment, gathering evidence, obtaining contact information, and calling the police, you can move on the legal and financial aspect. It is a good idea to speak with an experienced attorney as soon as possible after a car accident to ensure your legal right to compensation is protected right from the start.

How to Choose a St. Louis Auto Accident Attorney

July 16, 2018 By Christopher Hoffmann Leave a Comment

Choosing the right car accident attorney can end up paying off many times over in the long run.

There are a variety of reasons why you might want to hire a St. Louis car accident attorney. You could have suffered an injury in a crash, face significant medical bills, or any number of other tough situations related to an accident. When you hire the right lawyer, you are gaining an experienced source of knowledge, a negotiator, and a person who has your best interest at heart. Determining which attorney is best for your case is important.

Finding Them

There are two primary ways to find your service provider. First, you can ask around for personal references. Though they are somewhat limited, getting a reference from a real person is very valuable. Whether you get a recommendation or not, the next step is to go to the internet. You can look up individual law firms or search broad terms and see what comes up. Make sure to read online reviews to determine if past clients were satisfied with the legal services provided to them.

Consider Location

In many cases it is best to have your lawyer close by. Depending on the case, you may need to meet many times throughout the legal process, so choosing a provider that lives far away is not desirable.

Focus of Practice

While law firms often have services in many types of law, they usually have a specific focus that they are best at. If you are in an auto accident, it is best to seek a professional that handles a significant amount of similar cases. This way, you can hire a lawyer that has seen scores of cases just like yours and has the experience to get you the compensation you deserve.

Reputation and Experience

When a new restaurant opens up in your town, you may want to check it out due to its novelty. When you’re making an auto accident claim, this is not the case. You should not trust something so important to a law firm with very little reputation and experience. Instead, seek one that has been practicing this type of law for a long time and has many happy customers. Proof of this can be found on review sites and through testimonials.

Schedule a Consultation

Some things can be comfortably purchased online or over the phone. Legal services are not one of them. Before hiring your St. Louis car accident attorney, you will want to schedule a consultation. Personal injury law firms generally offer free consultations and work on a contingency fee. Consultations are important because they offer you an opportunity to get an idea of who they are and how well they can serve you. You don’t want to work with someone who you don’t like or someone that seems incompetent.

Once you have found a St. Louis car accident lawyer that is nearby, has a notable reputation, and impresses you in an initial consultation, you are ready to choose your service provider. Your lawyer will be able to fight on your behalf and get you the best deal possible. In most situations, this ends up paying off many times over in the long run.

Call today to schedule a FREE consultation

(314) 361-4242

How Long Will It Take to Settle My Car Accident Case?

July 12, 2018 By Christopher Hoffmann Leave a Comment

If you are in a car accident where you are injured, you might be wondering how long it will take to settle your case and receive the compensation that you need.

If you have mounting medical bills, knowing when you can expect to be compensated, can cause a lot of anxiety in your daily life. The good news is that usually, settling your case is under your control.

What Will Expedite Your Case?

One of the best ways to not only settle your case quickly, but also ensure that you get all that you deserve, is to hire a St. Louis car accident lawyer. An experienced car accident lawyer can help to negotiate a settlement amount in a timely manner.

The negotiation phase is the time before a case has to go to court to be decided on. If your lawyer and the insurance company can reach a fair settlement price, then you may be able to settle your case relatively quickly.

Other Factors That Might Be in Play

If your injuries require extensive rehabilitation or ongoing medical treatment, there is a chance that it can take longer for your case to be settled. If you try to rush a settlement, then you might risk not foreseeing all that can come from your car accident injuries. If you don’t exactly know the extent of what your injuries can amount to, there is really no way to know how much you will need to be compensated for in the future.

What Are You Entitled To?

When you are injured in a car accident you are entitled to receive compensation in the form of both non economic and economic damages. If you are still in the process of receiving ongoing medical care, it can be difficult to know the extent of how much you will need to recoup for economic and non economic damages.

Non economic damages are things like emotional distress and pain and suffering. If you are still in pain and your injuries are not better, than trying to settle too early can leave you without receiving all that you deserve.

What If You Can’t Afford an Attorney?

One of the biggest hardships of any injury due to a car accident is that it often costs a lot up front. Since most people might not have the resources to pay for things like lost time from work or other economic hardships, they might be quick to settle because they can quickly run out of money.

The good news is that a St. Louis car accident attorney will not only work on a contingency basis, they can help you find the resources to get you through the economic hardships that come with a car accident, and help you figure a way to pay your bills until your car accident can be resolved.

If you are injured in a car accident, it might be tempting to take a settlement quickly to pay your bills and to put it behind you. However, settling might not always be the smartest or most economically beneficial way to settle your case. Give us a call 24/7 at (314) 361-4242 for a FREE and private case evaluation.

Pain and Suffering Calculator – How Damages Are Calculated

July 2, 2018 By Christopher Hoffmann Leave a Comment

Pain and suffering is a phrase that a lot of people have heard about, but very few understand.

Most even have a negative perception of pain and suffering damages, thinking that they are only what scammers use to sue for exorbitant fees. While that is the case in many eye-catching news stories, pain and suffering damages are actually quite common and often very fair. If you are involved in a car accident, it is best to understand what these damages are, how you can prove them, how they are calculated, and the value of having a St. Louis car accident lawyer at your side through the process.

Definition

Pain and suffering is often described as the combination of the physical pain and emotional distress that a person feels after an accident. The emotional portion is often broken down into individual symptoms like anxiety, sleep loss, depression, and other mental ailments.

Proving It

To prove the extent of your pain and suffering, you and your lawyer must show that your life has been significantly altered. Typical examples include limitation of day to day tasks, decreased work performance, suffering personal relationships, and long-term impact of injuries.

How It Is Calculated

If you’re seeking payment for a specific medical procedure, it is straightforward. You can claim the amount of money that the procedure costs and be done with it. Pain and suffering damages are not so easy. Because they are inherently vague, it is hard to put an exact number on them. There two primary methods for calculation:

Multiplier – When using the multiplier method, you and your attorney will first compile your economic losses due to the accident. Once you have the number, you will choose a number to multiply those expenses by that you think is appropriate. In general, an insurance company will pitch a low multiplying number to save money, while the victim will pitch a higher number. This discrepancy will be negotiated.

Per Diem – This method is a bit more straightforward. Rather than agreeing on a multiplying number, attorneys and insurance companies will decide on a daily damages fee. Then, it will be estimated how many days it will be until you are sufficiently better. The daily fee will be multiplied by the number of days, and that is the total of your damages.

What an Attorney Can Do to Help

As you might imagine, navigating this process on your own would be very difficult for someone without knowledge of the law. An experienced St. Louis auto accident lawyer can use their knowledge, expertise, and negotiating skill to make the entire process easier on you and get you a fair deal.

If you get into a car accident, you may have a solid case for pain and suffering damages. The best way to find out is by speaking with an experienced attorney. Give us a call 24/7 at (314) 361-4242 for a FREE case evaluation.

Why You Shouldn’t Post Anything Related to Your Car Accident on Social Media

June 29, 2018 By Christopher Hoffmann Leave a Comment

If you have been involved in a Missouri auto accident, the insurance company will likely begin looking through your social media profiles.

If you are injured in a car accident, it can affect your entire world. In fact, it is not uncommon for people to want to tell the everyone in their life that they have been hurt and reach out to others for support. The first place that many people turn to is social media, but be careful as this might come back to hurt you.

If you are going to post to social media sites, it is important to avoid posting anything related to your car accident claim. Doing so can severely harm your case. If you are not careful, you could end up losing out on the compensation you are legally entitled to.

Why You Shouldn’t Post to Social Media

Many people assume that their social media account is private and that only a select few can see their posts. The problem is that regardless of your privacy settings, anything you post online can and will be used against you.

It is therefore important to avoid making any statements or comments about the accident on your social media. For example, expressing your opinion or making any personal remarks about what you “think” or “guess,” might be used against you. Any statement that you make could be misinterpreted or give the wrong impression and thus come back to hurt your claim.

If you make contradictory statements along the way, the opposition can use that as a tool to indicate that either you are unsure of what happened or you aren’t truthful.

Additionally, it is a good idea to avoid posting any pictures of video from the accident until your claim has been settled.

Get Legal Help

If you have been involved in a Missouri auto accident, the insurance company will likely begin looking through your social media profiles to see what you have been posting and try to use your posts to build a case against you. Do yourself a favor by not posting or mentioning anything related to your accident online. Instead, get in touch with an experienced St. Louis car accident attorney who can protect your legal rights and begin building a strong case for you.

Call The Hoffmann Law Firm, L.L.C. 24/7 for FREE legal advice.

Call (314) 361-4242

Car Accident Deposition – 4 Things to Know

June 28, 2018 By Christopher Hoffmann Leave a Comment

If you are injured in a car accident in Missouri, you might become involved in a personal injury lawsuit. If that should happen, there will be a phase to the process called the “discovery” phase.

This is the time when each party will try to gather as much evidence as possible to prove their case. The evidence that is collected during the discovery phase will be used to present at trial.

What Is the Plaintiff’s Deposition?

The plaintiff is the party that is initiating the lawsuit against a defendant. The plaintiff’s deposition is a time when counsel will question the plaintiff about the facts related to the case, and to try to prove that the plaintiff either isn’t telling the truth or that events didn’t happen the way that the plaintiff claims.

The deposition is a time when the plaintiff is under oath, and, therefore, required to tell the truth under fear of perjury.

The car accident deposition is a very critical part of a personal injury lawsuit where one wrong statement or contradicting phrase can ruin an entire case. It is therefore essential that the plaintiff know precisely what they should and should not say and stick to the facts.

Here Are Four Things You Should Know Before Your Deposition

1 – State Just the Facts and No More

During the deposition, you will want to minimize what you say. State the facts and nothing more. Keeping what you say limited will make it less likely that you will say something to jeopardize yourself.

2 – Be Ready and Prepared

Before going to your deposition, you will want to reread all the statements that you have made in the police report and when talking with anyone else regarding the accident. Since it is possible for memories to fade or things to be forgotten, make sure to go over what you said, so you don’t make accidentally any contradictory statements.

3 – Beware of Tricks

The deposition is a time when the defendant’s attorney will try to poke holes in your telling of events. They do so by trying to give a different narrative than what you claim. Make sure not to be led into saying anything that isn’t true. Just because the attorney continues to say one thing, that doesn’t make it true. Stick to what you know and say nothing more.

4 – Know That the Defendant’s Attorney Has Done Their Research

It is very possible that the defendant’s attorney may possess things that you might not know about, like any statements that you posted to social media or said to someone. Try to maintain your composure and be ready to think on your feet.

You might not be ready for surprises, but if you simply stick to your story and the facts, then it is possible to avoid being tripped up while being questioned.

The deposition is the phase of a trial where the defendant’s attorney will attempt to get you to say things that will contradict your own words. To make sure you don’t say anything to jeopardize your case, go over the deposition details thoroughly before the deposition happens with your St. Louis car accident lawyer.

If you have been injured in a St. Louis, MO car accident get in touch with an experienced attorney at The Hoffmann Law Firm, L.L.C. 24/7 for free legal advice. Call (314) 361-4242.