While you don’t strictly need to hire a lawyer to recover compensation, a personal injury attorney’s expertise can be invaluable in navigating complex legalities and formal procedures and ensuring you get the maximum compensation available.

Choosing representation by a personal injury lawyer means you avoid dealing with insurance companies that will try to lowball you with unfair settlement offers that will not adequately cover your expenses (let alone compensate you for your pain and suffering) and employ delay tactics to prevent you from filing a lawsuit.

An often-overlooked benefit of hiring a personal injury lawyer is the emotional burden they help alleviate. Accidents have a profound physical and emotional impact, and successfully recovering compensation requires significant evidence. It is vital to take action as soon as possible after an accident while witness recollections are still fresh, evidence is easily obtainable, and the deadline to file a lawsuit hasn’t yet passed, but this is also the most important time for your health. Hiring an attorney gives you the space to rest and prevents you from being taken advantage of by those whose only goal is to minimize or dismiss your claim.

Pinning down your claim’s value is hard right out of the gate, as it depends on several factors, including your injury severity and prognosis, whether you can return to work and the duties you will and won’t be able to do, the cost of your medical expenses and future treatment needed, the impact of your injury on your quality of life, who is at fault for your accident and whether you contributed, and the insurance coverage of the liable party.

Determining the value of your claim is a key responsibility of your Weslaco personal injury lawyer. We will seek professional opinions from medical practitioners, economic experts, and investigators to maximize your claim. Hence, you get the financial support you deserve as you navigate the aftermath of your accident.

We have built a personal injury calculator you can use to get a rough idea of the value of your claim, but this is not guaranteed and does not consider the specific details that can drastically alter the outcome of a claim. Our personal injury attorney can provide an accurate ballpark figure after discovering more about your case.

However, it can be helpful to understand how compensation is calculated and the various damages you could be entitled to.

Damages are split into two categories: compensatory and punitive (or exemplary) damages.

Compensatory Damages 

Compensatory damages comprise economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages are the tangible expenses associated with your accident and include past and future medical bills (including surgery, hospital stays, rehabilitation, and home adaptations), lost wages, lost earning capacity, and property damage. These are fairly easy to determine if you have bills and receipts, although future costs are more subjective and open to interpretation.

Non-economic damages include pain and suffering, mental anguish or emotional distress, loss of companionship or consortium, and loss of enjoyment. While economic damages represent the financial burden of your accident, non-economic damages primarily concern how your injury impacts you personally.l 

Punitive Damages

Punitive damages, also called exemplary damages in Texas, serve as a deterrent and punish the person or party responsible for your accident. They are typically awarded when the actions that caused your injury were especially egregious, such as if somebody intentionally drives at you head-on or gets behind the wheel after a night of heavy drinking.

Punitive damages are less common, primarily because they can only be awarded in a personal injury lawsuit, and most cases are resolved out of court in a settlement agreement between parties to maintain privacy and avoid a lengthy, costly, and uncertain trial.

The best way to see how much your claim could be worth is to speak to a Weslaco personal injury lawyer.

With thousands of personal injury attorneys serving Weslaco, finding a lawyer to potentially represent you isn’t difficult. The daunting part comes with deciding who to hire. Your claim could take months, even years to resolve, so it’s a relationship you shouldn’t rush into, even if you want to get the ball rolling as quickly as possible.

Knowing all of this, how do you make the right decision and ensure the firm you select to represent you is qualified, experienced, approachable, and has your best interests in mind?

The best advice we can give is this: do your research. You can begin by asking for recommendations from friends or loved ones or conduct a search online, but you should remember that hiring a personal injury lawyer is a personal choice and your needs and values may differ from those whose initial opinions you seek.

Reading reviews can give you valuable insight into how an attorney approaches a case and how they treat their clients. Were past clients able to easily contact their lawyer when they had a question or concern? Did their attorney put them at ease, or did it feel like their case wasn’t a priority? Bear in mind that when meeting an attorney, their goal is to evaluate your case and sell you the benefits of hiring them if you have a claim, so the picture they paint of what it will be like to work with them may not line up with the reality once you agree to representation. When evaluating testimonials, prioritize ones left on Google and independent review sites versus those typed up on a law firm’s website.

You should also consider a law firm’s area of expertise. Many firms offer multiple services spanning different areas of law, from personal injury to family law and criminal defense. This does not necessarily mean an attorney is not a specialist in your type of claim, but you should verify their experience with cases similar to yours and ask about their results. For example, if you have been injured in a truck accident in Weslaco, a personal injury lawyer who primarily handles medical malpractice cases may not be the best fit.

Once you’ve narrowed down your search, your next step is to meet with an attorney. Many firms offer free consultations where you can explore your options for compensation. This is your opportunity to get a first impression of a law firm. The best Weslaco personal injury lawyer will be empathetic and upfront about your chance of securing compensation, give you confidence in their abilities by explaining the potential issues they foresee based on their experience, and clearly explain the next steps and what you can expect during the process. Be wary of an attorney who gives you the “hard sell” and guarantees a specific amount of money. An experienced personal injury lawyer will highlight the compensation amounts they have secured for clients with similar circumstances to you. They can offer a ballpark based on what they learn about your accident during your consultation. Still, it is impossible to make an exact determination without a thorough investigation, and even then, the outcome of your claim can quickly change based on the strength of evidence and the willingness of parties to settle.