If you are injured due to the negligence of someone or something else, you might be wondering if it is worth it to hire a personal injury attorney, or if it’s better to let it go and deal with your injuries on your own. Since most personal injury lawyers work on a contingency basis, you typically don’t have to pay to hire them. Most of them only take money for a case if they can collect.

Depending on the type and severity of your injury, there are times when a personal injury suit is worth pursuing and other times when it is not. The biggest problem is that there are instances where it may initially feel like the injury is nothing major, but it turns very serious as time goes on. Since there are statutes of limitation to file a personal injury suit, if you miss that time window, then you can be left with no recourse should you need extensive medical care or various surgeries or medical procedures in the future.

If you hire a personal injury lawyer, they can ensure that you get the necessary treatment and have the tests you need to rule out things that can crop up in the future that you might not otherwise anticipate. Even if you don’t want to go through the testing or think that it isn’t necessary, if you don’t you will have no way of knowing the extent of your injuries and whether they can become debilitating over time.

What is a contingency basis?

Most personal injury lawyers operate on a contingency basis. This means that they don’t collect any money from you unless they can collect damages from the negligent party in your case. If you don’t have medical insurance, there are times when a lawyer will help with the immediate costs and then recoup after the lawsuit. Because they take the case on contingency, they will usually create a contractual agreement to take a percentage of what you recover once the trial is over.

Why is it important to at least consult a personal injury lawyer for your injuries?

It is imperative that you at least consult a personal injury lawyer. They won’t charge you for the consultation, but they can advise you on how to best protect yourself for the future. Since they take cases contingent upon winning them, that means that they won’t take your case if they think that they can’t win either through a settlement or a court trial. If they won’t take your case, then there is a good likelihood that you don’t have one. However, if they will, then you lose nothing by letting them represent you.

If you are offered a settlement through the insurance company and are wondering if you should accept it, the only way to know for sure whether it is a fair settlement offer is by having an attorney look it over. Since you are entitled to both economic and noneconomic damages for personal injury, if you aren’t sure what damages and injuries you are entitled to, there is no way to accurately calculate how much you deserve. It is no secret that the insurance company does not set out to compensate people in a fair manner – their goal is to minimize their bottom line.

That means that even in a settlement offer, there is almost always room for negotiation. But if you don’t know what your injury is worth, then there is no way of knowing if their offer will get you the care you need or if you will be given money just to make the case go away.

Of course no one wants to go through a lengthy trial and it can be appealing to take a settlement when someone is offering you money. But unless you consult the best personal injury attorney in houston you won’t know what economic and noneconomic damages you are entitled to. Even if you don’t have the resources to hire an attorney, personal injury lawyers don’t accept money unless you do. So the reality is that if you don’t get money out of your injury, then they won’t either. That means they either won’t take the case or they will only take a fraction of the money they can recover for your injuries.