How to Decide if You Need a Lawyer After a Car Accident or if You Should Handle it Yourself

The following is adapted from my new book, Not a Good Neighbor.

Being involved in a car accident means dealing with a lot of things. Repairs for your car, a visit to the doctor to make sure you’re not injured, and dealing with the insurance company are just a few of the things you’ll be faced with. But there’s something else you need to consider: whether or not you need a lawyer.

Now, you may be thinking that, because I’m a lawyer myself, I’m going to recommend you always retain a lawyer. However, that’s not always the right decision. You can certainly get a fair settlement without legal representation. It takes work, but it’s doable, and in many instances, it’s the better choice.

To help you make the best decision for your particular situation, I’ll share what we do for our clients. If you have the time and knowledge to do this work yourself (and many people do), then skip hiring a lawyer. If it seems like more than you want to take on, however, then you may want to seek legal help.

A Complete Investigation is Vital

When our office does an investigation, we pull computer records on everyone involved. We learn how many insurance claims our client has made and how many claims the other driver has made. 

We send out questionnaires to all the witnesses, and a lot of times, we call them ahead of time and get an interview before they even fill out the questionnaire. If it’s a big case, we’ll hire a court reporter for that interview and videotape it as well.

We get photos of all the property damage. We get detailed repair estimates for all the vehicles involved. We do that because often, insurance companies will downplay damage.

For example, the insurance company will look at a $3,000 repair and say the damage was minor. But we’ll notice that $1,200 of the bill was for straightening the frame of a Ford F-150 pickup, and we’ll use that to show the force of the impact. It takes quite a blow to bend the frame of an F-150—and that amount of force could cause long-term neck injuries.

Develop a Powerful Settlement Letter

We get all of these details because they’re crucial to developing a powerful settlement letter, also called a demand letter, for the insurance company. Some people may not be willing to spend the time and effort to gather all this data. If that’s you, you should consider getting some legal help.

If you’re comfortable drilling down into your own case and doing all the legwork that’s required, you can save yourself a lot of money and resolve your case faster. What I have noticed is that many people are really smart about their case. They know the details better than anyone. 

If that’s true for you, write them down and get ready to use them in the demand letter. Each small point can build on other small points to make a powerful impact on the opposing adjuster.

Avoid Relying on the Police Report

A lot of people mistakenly think the responding police officer will accurately investigate and document the facts of the accident. Some officers who respond are specially trained traffic officers, and if the accident is severe, the police might send out an accident reconstruction specialist or a homicide officer. 

For your garden-variety traffic accident, though, the responding officer is going to ask each party what happened, and if they both claim it was the other guy’s fault, the officer will file a report that says no one is at fault. He’ll let the two drivers go figure it out in civil court. You can’t kick back and expect the officer to do your legwork for you. 

Plus, in many courts, an investigation and accident report can’t be evidence. In some states, the testimony taken by the officer at the scene is considered privileged and can’t be used as evidence. That means if the officer records the other driver admitted to being distracted by their phone before the crash, your attorney can’t confront the other driver about that statement in court. 

Yes, it helps to have any information the police officer gathered, but it’s no guarantee that the facts are now perfectly documented for your use later in your accident claim. You need to be looking out for yourself.

Consider the Fees

The last thing to consider when you think about whether to hire a lawyer is legal fees. Most personal injury lawyers will ask for 33 percent of your settlement if the case doesn’t get put into litigation. They will ask for 40 percent if a lawsuit is filed. 

Low-level injury cases are usually valued in a way that makes hiring an attorney unnecessary—the amount at risk is not significant enough for one. Adjusters are aware of these fees as well, so often they will structure their settlement to be comparable to the amount you would actually receive if you hired an attorney and paid those fees. 

In other words, you may get a lesser total amount because you won’t have a lawyer to maximize the settlement value, but you do save the expense of attorney’s fees. And in many cases, the insurance company will offer you what you would have received in court, less the fees, just to save the expense and trouble of litigation.

Take the Pros and Cons Into Account

The severity of your accident, along with how much time and effort you’re willing to put in, should dictate whether or not you hire an attorney. If you can gather evidence and draft a compelling settlement letter, you may not need a lawyer at all. Similarly, if your accident is relatively minor, paying attorney fees may not make sense when you consider your overall settlement total.

There are certainly situations where it makes sense to hire a lawyer to help you get the best settlement possible. Before you decide, though, weigh the value a lawyer will bring you with what it will cost to hire them.

For more advice on how to get the highest possible settlement after a car accident, you can find Not a Good Neighbor on Amazon.

Brian LaBovick is a lawyer and entrepreneur who has earned more than $400 million for his clients after establishing his injury law practice in 1991. As one of two students selected to the prestigious Order of the Barrister as the outstanding litigator in his class at the University of Miami, Brian was hired by the US Department of Justice Honors Graduate Program after graduation. He is now CEO of the LaBovick Law Group, an advisory board member of Keiser University’s legal education division, a past president of the North Palm Beach County Bar Association, and former director of the Palm Beach County Justice Association.