6 Fallacies About Personal Injury Claims in New Jersey

By Greg Kohn
Partner

Personal injury victims often do not realize the value of a New Jersey personal injury attorney at the outset of their case. They may also have misconceptions about the process or the people involved, too. These erroneous beliefs are extremely common—but you should not be fooled!

  • Hiring a lawyer is too expensive.

Attorneys who do personal injury cases understand that victims have a lot on their plate. Victims may be trying to address physical and mental injuries, loss of employment, and complicated discussions with insurance companies. To deal with cost concerns, many attorneys will take cases on a contingency fee basis. That means that you do not pay your attorney unless you win your case. Look for this type of arrangement if you are worried about costs.

  • The insurance company involved is looking out for your interests.

Insurance companies have little to no interest in your wellbeing or whether you are getting a fair settlement that will address all of your losses. Instead, an insurance company is only concerned about how they can save money. That means that settlement offers may not be fair and the information they provide may not be accurate.

  • I can hire an attorney later if I cannot do this myself.

If you wait too long to involve a lawyer, you may have already taken action (or even failed to act) in a way that could undermine your case. You should engage a New Jersey personal injury lawyer as soon as you can after your personal injury accident to protect your claim going forward. You should also keep in mind that there are time limits that apply to your claim. It is better to act now than be precluded from asserting your rights because you ran out of time.

  • People who file personal injury lawsuits are just greedy.

You may have all kinds of preconceived notions about the type of people that file personal injury claims. However, most individuals who file lawsuits for accidents are just trying to recoup what they lost. They need their medical bills paid because they cannot afford them on their own; they need lost wages to keep up with their financial obligations. Most personal injury victims are not greedy—they are just trying to get back what is rightfully theirs.

  • My estate planning attorney can handle my case for me.

Most lawyers focus their practice on just a few areas. While it is certainly possible that your estate planning attorney also does personal injury work, most estate planning attorneys do not. You need someone that has experience in cases similar to yours, not just anyone licensed to practice law in the State of New Jersey.

  • Resolving my case is going to take an extremely long time.

This common fallacy is perhaps the closest to the truth. Personal injury cases do take time to resolve. In fact, some complicated cases can take years to complete. However, many personal injury cases settle before they even get started, which means a significantly reduced timeline.

If you are considering asserting a personal injury case, you owe it to yourself to at least get more information.  Schedule a consult with the New Jersey personal injury lawyers at Nagel Rice, LLP today to set up a free, no-obligation consultation.

About the Author
Greg Kohn is a partner at Nagel Rice and specializes in complex civil litigation cases, including professional malpractice, personal injury, class actions, wrongful death, products liability, and commercial litigation.  He has extensive experience representing clients in both state and federal court. Greg has tried many jury trials to verdict and has recovered over $50 million in settlements and verdicts in all types of personal injury matters including automobile accidents, wrongful death cases, slip and falls, and other catastrophic injury cases. Greg also handles medical malpractice cases, involving misdiagnoses, wrongful birth, and delayed cancer diagnosis. If you have questions regarding this article, you can contact Greg here.