Had a new client in late last week. He had been hit by a State Farm insured in a car accident. He has a mild brain injury and suffered orthopedic injuries.

Know why he called a lawyer?

He tells me that’s it is because, just after his accident, he was contacted by a State Farm adjuster who told him that ‘its lots better just to deal with me [the adjuster] directly, that way we can just cut out the lawyer’s fee altogether.

Client was smart enough to smell a rat. He had not even thought that he might need a lawyer till the claims rep told him to avoid seeing one!

You may be able to settle you case without a lawyer. Its usually not very smart (I was going to write “it’s usually pretty dumb”) to settle you case without at least speaking to a lawyer and becoming as educated as you can about the claims process.

Is the insurance company outright lying to you (such as “if you don’t send us your form we are closing your file and you won’t be able to claim anything”) or are they “forgetting” to tell you things you may be entitled to [an insurance company will never tell you that Virginia law says that you may be entitle to punitive damages if the person who hit you was drunk.]

Do yourself a favor. If you’ve been hurt in Virginia while in a car accident, at the very least  read The Ultimate Guide to Virginia Car Accident Cases.