Fort Worth and Dallas Car Accident Attorney

This video features David Shuster, a Bankruptcy attorney based in Texas.

How to Tell If You Need a Lawyer After a Crash

Video Transcript:

David Shuster: 

If you or a family member or passenger, anybody in the car is injured really should have an attorney

Tom Mustin: 

After a car crash, how do you know if you need to contact a lawyer? We're gonna talk to Texas attorney David Shuster about that on today's episode of Ask the Lawyer, and I wanna remind you that if you wanna ask David questions about your situation, it's easy, just go to askthelawyers.com, click the button up top, it says ask a lawyer, or you can always call the number you'll see at the top of the screen. David thanks for joining us today.

David Shuster: 

Yeah, great, thanks for having me.

Tom Mustin: 

Great to have you. First question, When you or a family member gets into a car accident, how do you know whether you can handle an insurance claim yourself or if you should actually speak to a lawyer?

David Shuster: 

Well, the biggest factor is really whether there's any kind of injury, if you or a family member or passenger, anybody inthe car'ss injured, you really should have an attorney. That's the biggest determining factor, really. And obviously, if it's an injury where you're just sore, you don't know the extent of your injury that's fine. With any kind of injury at all, where you might be getting medical attention, you should definitely, definitely consult with one or more attorneys, and I would say, definitely seriously consider hiring an attorney for the claim, so you don't have to try to deal with the insurance company.

Tom Mustin: 

Right. Is there ever a situation where you advise the client to try to handle the case on his own?

David Shuster: 

Yeah, well, primarily, if there's just not a real injury, okay, if you're just... If it's sometimes pretty serious fender benders, just for whatever reason, hit at a certain angle, not result in a big injury, and so if you're not... Again, if you don't need any medical attention, maybe if you follow up with your doctor, you don't have any pain anywhere, then again, if there is no injury, then you can handle the claim yourself. An insurance company is dealing with just property value, but if there is an injury, yeah, I'd definitely, again, recommend consulting with and probably retaining local attorney. 

Tom Mustin: 

Okay. So walk us through how fault is determined in a car accident in Texas... What's the criteria there?

David Shuster: 

Well, Texas is what we call it, a modified comparative negligence state, and so fault is determined by who's responsible for the accident sometimes did you have multiple parties with certain portions of responsibility, and that refers to the comparative negligence theory, but ultimately that police report is really to go to... So if you can get a police officer out to the scene to do a report, the information in the report, while technically is a hearsay, because it's officer writing it, it's the rendition of the events based on what the officer has observed, based on what statements were taken, so get a police officer out there for sure to get that report and that's gonna help you out most times.

Tom Mustin: 

Okay, and most people know that the other driver's insurance company is definitely not on your side, but is there ever a situation where your own insurance company is not on your side, and are there things we should look out for there?

David Shuster: 

Well, sure, yeah, insurance company is an insurance company, they have to exercise good faith to pay claims that are covered, but there are often times, if you have the general minimum limit liability coverage, is what a lot of people have, unfortunately... So I'll use this as an opportunity to tell people to check your insurance policy and see if you have under-insured motorist coverage, because if you can it into a serious accident, someone else's fault, they'll just pay you whatever their policy limits are, and then where does that leave you... So if that is your situation dealing with your own insurance company for your own injuries, you definitely should still have an attorney regardless of the fact that it's your own insurance company, and you should definitely look at your policy if it's within your budget to increase the coverage for some personal injury protection for under insured motors, you should definitely also do that.

Tom Mustin: 

Okay, and along the same lines, talk about the value that an attorney brings to a car accident claim and is it really worth paying the attorney fees?

David Shuster: 

Yes, it definitely is. A lot of times, we'll have clients that get into car accidents, and it's a little interesting how quickly they're contacted by both just solicitations by phone, which is obviously not proper, and also how quickly they're asked to sign some sort of complete release by the insurance company, so you're gonna be quickly pressured both by unknown outside entities to hire somebody, hire this person or that person, or by the insurance company to quickly settle this claim, you don't even know, maybe I'm not hurt, but maybe it's only been 48 hours, so you have two years to do anything so having an attorney has immense value, okay? If you start getting treated by your doctor, and then you deal with the insurance company, it could be that the entire claim of the insurance company is willing to pay you is actually going to be paid instead to your health insurance company who in effect paid for the treatment for those injuries. So it gets a little sticky. You have only to benefit by getting an attorney, you just wanna make sure you have an attorney that communicates with the clients we serve our clients, do we look at it as a serving situation, we're there to help them, answer their questions, find that type of attorney and you'll get the value of your case, the most times you won't end up with anything unless you have an attorney, any competent personal injury attorney is going to make up for their value in the representation every time.

Tom Mustin: 

And it's just great to have an extra helping hand on your side. Well, David, I, to your time...

David Shuster: 

Who needs the stress of having to deal with that, as anyone who's deal with the insurance companies... Indeed.

Tom Mustin: 

Exactly. Well, thank you for your time David. Is there anything else you wanna add really quickly?

David Shuster: 

No, that's it. Well, okay, I will say everybody, get their sleep. Okay, sleep is very important. And yeah, not hiring an attorney for an auto accident could cause you to lose them some valuable sleep. That's the message.

Tom Mustin: 

Alright, well, great stuff. Thanks so much, David. And that's gonna do it for this episode of Ask the lawyer. My guest has been Attorney David Shuster. I wanna remind you, if you'd like to ask David questions about your situation, just go to askthelawyers.com, click the button you see at the top of the page there that says, Ask a Lawyer, and it'll walk you through the very simple process. Thanks for watching. I'm Tom Mustin for Ask the Lawyers.

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