If you’re injured in a car accident, you’ll want a personal injury lawyer on your side. After all, Big Insurance is very good at finding ways to avoid paying your debts. They may try to pin your physical problems on preexisting conditions, blame anyone but their client for your injuries, minimize the seriousness of your injuries, or say that your claim was late or incomplete.
An experienced personal injury lawyer won’t be intimidated and won’t back down. They’ll cut through these underhanded tactics and fight relentlessly to get you the compensation that you deserve.
Why Property Damage Gets Neglected
Most personal injury lawyers will help you recover medical expenses (current and future), lost wages, and compensation for pain and suffering where appropriate. But what about property damage?
Your physical health is more important than any kind of property; however, property damages represent very real financial setbacks that can heap new stresses on accident victims who are trying to rebound from difficult and costly injuries.
Consider these scenarios:
Scenario 1:
Just as you are (legally) heading into the intersection in your 2012 Camry, a car runs a red light and T-bones you. Your now undrivable car will need to be towed to the repair shop where it will undoubtedly need thousands of dollars in body work—that’s if it’s salvageable. But wait! You’re a mom and an employee and a student attending night school. You need your car! You’ll have to get a rental, but this is all starting to add up. Your head is starting to hurt so you call your husband to take you to the doctor. More bills ahead.
Scenario 2:
You’re enjoying the beautiful weather on your road bike when a distracted motorist rounds the corner and hits you from behind. The bike goes down with you on it. Fortunately, they swerve out of the way to miss you, but the bike is totaled and so is your brand new cell phone. You’d tucked it into your armband and landed on it when you fell.
These are just two examples of personal injury accidents being compounded by property damages.
Property damages are defined as injury or harm to anything other than a person.
Property damages may include:
- Automobile damage
- Bike or motorcycle damage
- Towing expenses (if your car can’t be driven)
- Rental car expenses
- Damage to the items inside of your car (cellphone, laptop, car seat, etc.)
- Fence
- Building
- Tree
Property damages may be paid out according to:
- Replacement value
- Cost of repairs
- Loss of use until the property is repaired or replaced (i.e., payment for a rental car while your car is being fixed)
- Sentimental value (such as your grandmother’s necklace that you were wearing during a car accident)
In the majority of accidents, the at-fault party is responsible for the costs associated with your property damage claim. If the at-fault party doesn’t have insurance—or doesn’t have enough insurance—your insurance carrier may have to cover these costs.
You can file a claim for your property damages (separate from your injury claims), and many personal injury attorneys will suggest that you do just that. They may not want to be bothered by the little details of property damages—even if that property is very important to you. Why?
- It’s time consuming. Property damage claims involve extra paperwork that must be filled out with precision in order to be accepted. They also require back-and-forth phone calls between the insurance agent and entities such as auto shops, rental car companies, and more. Then there will be follow-up, as things rarely move along on schedule. Beyond that, the insurance company may deny the claim, which requires even more legal muscle and “back-and-forth” to try to resolve.
- They won’t make money off of it. Property damage claims are not profitable for lawyers. That is why many attorneys are “hands-off” when it comes to pursuing them. There’s just not enough bang for the buck.
Why We Make Property Damages a Top Priority
At Tingey Injury Law Firm, we feel differently about property damages. As a family-owned law firm, we believe in treating our clients like family. Many legal practices say that they put their clients first, but we back it up with specific actions.
Leaving our clients with a host of costly property damages to deal with amidst all the other post-accident stresses is not acceptable in our view. That’s why we have made recovering property damages on behalf of our clients a top priority for the last 50 years.
Given our extensive experience in the personal injury field, we know the laws pertaining to property damages backward and forward. We know the right way to submit the claims so that they won’t get rejected, and we know who to submit them to. This allows you to rely on our expertise and focus on what’s most important – recovering from your injuries so that you can return to life-as-usual without the financial burdens that your accident placed on you.
Don’t settle for anything less than a personal injury attorney who guides you through all aspects of your case. Contact Tingey Injury Law Firm. We’ve been fighting for Las Vegas residents for 50 years, and we’ll do the same for you.
Members of the editorial and news staff of the Las Vegas Review-Journal were not involved in the creation of this content.