Why Do I Need a Lawyer?
A lawyer can collect evidence to strengthen your claim and negotiate on your behalf with the insurance company representing the at-fault party. A lawyer can push back if an insurer tries to deny your claim or take advantage of you. If the case goes to trial, an experienced personal injury attorney will know how to present your case to jurors to increase your chances of a favorable jury verdict.
Attorney Bert Parnall is a fighter. He and his legal team will fight for your legal rights if you have been injured in an accident due to the negligence of someone else in Albuquerque or anywhere in Central New Mexico.
The insurance company will have lawyers advising its staff during the settlement process. Having an attorney on your side and looking out for your interests evens the playing field. Insurance companies want to avoid going to court. The insurance company may agree to a higher settlement in order to avoid litigation if you have a lawyer advocating for you. If you do not have legal representation, you will be at a disadvantage in dealing with the insurance company.
You want a lawyer with whom you feel comfortable communicating and sharing information. You want a lawyer who will listen to your questions and concerns and offer informative answers. You want a lawyer who will be accessible when you have questions and keep you informed of the status of your case.
You want a lawyer that has good references.
Steer clear of any attorney who promises or guarantees you a settlement or a certain outcome. No lawyer can ethically guarantee a certain result in a case.
To find an attorney, you may ask your friends, relatives or co-workers to recommend a lawyer who they have used. You can also schedule a free, no-obligation consultation with an attorney at Parnall Law to get an understanding of your legal options. The consultation will help you clarify your legal options at no charge whether you decide to work with our law firm.
How Much Will My Case Cost?
A contingency fee arrangement means you will not have to pay any money up front to hire a personal injury lawyer.
If a lawyer quotes a fee to handle your case, be sure that you understand exactly what services and expenses the fee includes and what will be billed separately.
Other reasons to hire a personal injury lawyer include pursuing compensation for injuries caused by unsafe conditions at someone else’s property or to protect a loved one in a nursing home if you suspect your loved one is being subjected to neglect or abuse.
In many instances, people who need legal guidance may have questions about a troubling situation and need a personal injury attorney to investigate the matter and find answers.
Bert Parnall and the team at Parnall Law are available to answer your questions and discuss your legal needs during a free and confidential consultation. The attorneys at Parnall Law have helped thousands of accident victims obtain proper compensation and move forward with their lives.
How Much is My Case Worth?
Every case has unique factors that affect the value. To have our attorneys review your claims and discuss the determining factors in your case, contact Parnall Law Firm, LLC for a free consultation.
Alternately, the insurance adjuster may assign a ‘per diem’ amount to pay for each day from the date of the accident to the time when you have fully recovered. Either way, the insurance company is likely to discount your pain and suffering and make a low offer to protect their bottom line. An experienced personal injury lawyer can help you seek a settlement that represents the full extent of your pain and suffering.
Next, try to make a realistic assessment of your pain and suffering on a scale of 1 to 5. Multiply the economic damages by this number. This is an estimate of your noneconomic damages. Add your economic and noneconomic damages together for an estimate of your settlement.
If your doctor does not offer to provide you with documentation of your visits, ask for it. You will have to show all your bills to the insurance company to get them covered. If you are missing any billing statements, contact your doctor’s office to get a copy. Remember that the insurance company wants to protect its bottom line, so it will not agree to reimburse you for anything unless it has hard proof that you paid.
How Long Until I Settle My Case?
If you have been injured and are considering whether to file a personal injury lawsuit, you may have questions about how long the case will take to resolve and how quickly you may get compensation for your injuries. That can be a pressing question, particularly if you cannot work and are experiencing financial stress after a car accident or other personal injury accident.
People who contact Parnall Law frequently ask how long it will take to negotiate a settlement of their personal injury claim. Insurance companies will press for a quick settlement and try to pay you much less than you deserve. Attorney Bert Parnall and the legal team at Parnall Law have helped thousands of people in Albuquerque and Central New Mexico negotiate fair settlements of their injury claims. Over the decades, Parnall Law has obtained more than $40 million for clients through settlements and jury awards. Our goal is to pursue full compensation to help our clients move forward with their lives.
An attorney at Parnall Law is available to review the details of your accident and answer your questions. Each case has unique factors that affect how long it will take to resolve.
If the liability is not in question, the cases may settle within a few months without a lawsuit. But complex injury cases in which the facts are in dispute and the stakes are high may take several years to settle. Just because your relative received a settlement check in three months does not mean that your case can be resolved that quickly.
- Medical Treatment The severity of your injuries and the length of the medical treatment affect how long it will take to settle an injury claim. It is important that you receive all the medical care necessary and have a clear understanding of any future medical care needed before entering a settlement agreement. If you receive a settlement check from the insurance company and then incur additional medical costs, you cannot go back to the insurance company and ask for more money. You need to have a clear picture of your medical expenses related to the injury.
- Preparing the Demand Letter An attorney at Parnall Law will gather your medical records, medical bills and income statements to prepare a demand letter reflecting the full extent of your injuries and the impact of the injury on your life. It often takes four weeks to six weeks to obtain your medical bills. Depending on how quickly the hospital and doctors respond to our request, sometimes gathering the records takes longer. Generally, a draft demand letter with accompanying documents can be put together in eight to 10 weeks. We’ll meet with you to review the letter and seek your authorization to negotiate on your behalf. Submitting the demand letter to the insurance company or companies sets the stage for the start of settlement negotiations.It typically takes 30 days to receive a reply from the insurance company to the demand letter. We will attempt to start initial negotiations to settle the claim. The negotiations may take 30 to 90 days or longer. Sometimes, clients ask, “Why are the negotiations taking so long?” If we try to rush the negotiations process at this point, it may adversely affect the amount of the settlement. If we cannot reach a reasonable settlement with the insurance company, we will discuss litigation with you.
- Litigation If a personal injury lawsuit is filed, the defendant named in the lawsuit has a certain amount of time to respond.
- Discovery Process After you file a personal injury lawsuit, it is normal for each side to conduct discovery to find out more about the other side’s case. The defense attorneys will send written questions about your accident and injuries. We will try to provide complete answers to the questions and we will then have you review the drafts and add any additional information. After the written discovery, you will appear at a specific time and place to be questioned by the opposing counsel and provide testimony under oath. Your attorney will help you prepare for the deposition and be present during the questioning.Injury cases typically do not settle until after the deposition of the key parties in the lawsuit.
- Trial While most car accident injury cases are settled, some proceed to trial. If the opposing insurance company refuses to agree to a reasonable settlement we will be ready to proceed to trial and present your case to a New Mexico jury. Sometimes, an insurance company will not focus on settling a case until the trial. The two sides may reach a compromise and settle a case on the eve of the trial or during the trial. A case can be settled at any point during a trial until the jury returns a verdict.
How Much will My Case Cost?
Our personal injury attorneys handle cases on a contingency fee basis. We understand that if you have been seriously injured and out of work, you may be experiencing financial stress. It’s difficult for most people, particularly those who are injured and unable to work, to come up with money to hire an attorney. Recognizing this situation, our attorneys at Parnall Law Firm handle cases on a contingency fee basis with no upfront costs for the client.
If we agree to handle your case, you will be presented with a written fee agreement showing the fee you can expect to be charged if we are successful. We do not charge anything to start work on your case. We only get paid an attorney’s fee if we win your case and obtain compensation for you. Then we receive a portion of the award to cover our legal fee and expenses. The fee is a percentage of the amount recovered through an insurance settlement or jury award.
It’s difficult to generalize about what a case will cost. The fact is that every personal injury case has factors that affect the length of time it will take to resolve and the cost. Every case is unique in some respects. Our attorneys at Parnall Law Firm, LLC are available to review the details of your accident and discuss your legal options. Contact Parnall Law Firm, LLC for a free consultation.
There are a number of different costs associated with a personal injury case. They include:
Attorney’s Fee—Most people would be unable to afford to retain an experienced personal injury attorney on an hourly basis to pursue an injury claim. The attorneys at Parnall Law Firm handle personal injury cases on a contingency fee basis. A contingency fee arrangement allows accident victims to retain experienced legal representation without having to pay for an attorney out of pocket. Personal injury attorneys typically take roughly a third of any amount obtained in a settlement or jury award as payment of the attorney fee. The percentage may vary depending on the stage at which the case is concluded. The exact percentages and terms are spelled out in a written fee agreement that is reviewed and signed by the client and the attorney to avoid any misunderstandings at the conclusion of a case.
Court Filing Fees—Courts in New Mexico charge a filing fee to file a civil lawsuit, including a process fee to serve a lawsuit and a fee for a jury trial. These expenses are advanced by the attorney, then subtracted from the amount of settlement or court award.
Administrative Expenses—There are a number of miscellaneous expenses typically incurred, such as hiring a court report to take a deposition, making copies of transcripts, getting copies of medical records and gathering other documents.
Expert Witness Fees— The cost of hiring expert witnesses can be a major expense in a personal injury lawsuit. To build a strong case, your attorney may need to hire physicians as medical experts to testify about your injuries and medical treatment and traffic accident reconstructionist and product safety engineers to analyze how your car accident occurred.
The costs of court filing fees, conducting depositions, hiring expert witnesses and paying for any travel expenses are typically paid up front by the law firm, then deducted from the final settlement or jury award.
If you are seriously injured in an Albuquerque car accident due to another driver’s carelessness or negligence and have sizable medical bills, you need to consult with an experienced personal injury.
Parnall Law will review your case at no charge and explain your legal options. If we handle your case, we will take the case on the contingency fee basis. You will not owe a legal free unless we obtain money for you.
We will collect evidence and present a demand letter to the insurance company representing the at-fault driver. If the insurance company responds favorably and your car accident case is settled out of court for $70,000, for example, then the expenses are deducted. Let’s say the case involves $10,000 in expenses. That leaves a balance of $60,000. The attorney’s fee would be a third of the remaining amount or $20,000. You would receive a check for $40,000.
Many injury claims are resolved without going to trial. Our attorneys at Parnall Law Firm are skilled negotiators and will try to negotiate a fair settlement with the insurance company and avoid the expense and uncertainty of a trial. However, if the insurance company refuses to agree to a reasonable settlement, it may be necessary to go to court to seek justice.
Taking your case to court typically involves more expenses than settling the case out of court.
Gathering evidence and preparing for a trial will incur certain kinds of expenses including court filing fees, the cost of depositions, investigation costs, administrative costs, hiring expert witnesses, travel expenses for expert witnesses and preparing trial exhibits. These expenses can be significant in a complex personal injury case.
Parnall Law Firm will advance the cost of the expenses. The expense will then be subtracted from the final settlement or jury award at the end of the case.
