Car Accident Lawyer
Car accident lawyers have gotten a pretty bad rap over the years, and perhaps deservedly so. Lovingly dubbed ‘ambulance chasers’, car accident lawyers are renown for their wheeling and dealing and overall desire to exploit an accident for all its worth.
Car accident lawyers are generally frowned on by every other kind of lawyer, and it’s usually the people that couldn’t get work in other fields of law that wind up working as accident attorneys. Because there are so many lawyers out there and only so many jobs, you can’t really blame car accident lawyers for doing what they do as they’re just trying to make a living.
Unfortunately, many of them make their living by encouraging people to engage in frivolous lawsuits over mild or non-existent injuries and damages. The commercials I see all the time showing people bragging about how much money they raked in when they called the advertised car accident lawyer about their accident doesn’t help anything at all. Everyone wants to get rich quick, and knowing that you can pull in a large amount of money from an accident is too tempting for some people.
As an example, I was recently involved in a three car accident that wasn’t my fault. I was hit from behind, and subsequently forced into the car in front of me. Fortunately, no one was hurt and very little damage was done to any of the cars. The guy who hit me was very apologetic, and his insurance covered my minor damages without any dispute. I wasn’t hurt in anyway, so I left it at that.
Unfortunately, the women whom I bumped into in front of me called a car accident lawyer, and decided to exploit my insurance company for as much as she could. Suddenly she was claiming to be injured, and provided a series of photos of damages to her car that I know that I didn’t cause. While it wasn’t my money she was after, my rates did go up as a result and I now carry around a camera with me in case it happens again. Because so many people see car accidents as potential lottery tickets, take pictures of everything if you’ve been involved in one!
Having said all that, there is of course an inherent need and value to a good car accident lawyer. They aren’t all bad, and there are certainly times when a lawsuit and settlement is most definitely deserved after a bad accident. No amount of money is worth having a permanent injury, and if you’ve been genuinely hurt in an accident that wasn’t your fault a good car accident lawyer is highly recommended.
