Have you been injured in an accident due to the negligence of another?
If you have been injured in a car or motorcycle accident (or other type of personal injury accident, such as a “slip and fall,” or if you were injured by a defective product), call Weeks Law Group at 303-435-0601 immediately to avoid damaging your claim. The first few weeks following your accident are crucial to the value of your case. Your initial consultation with us is ALWAYS FREE. For auto and motorcycle accident cases, WLG’s attorney fees are based on a “contingency fee agreement,” which means our fees are a percentage of what we recover for you in the end of the case. Call us for more detail.
WHAT SHOULD I DO FIRST?
1.) Seek immediate medical attention and follow your doctor’s orders.
2.) Call us immediately for a free legal consultation. 303-435-0601
3.) Do NOT give a recorded statement to the insurance companies without consulting an attorney.
4.) Document bruises or other injuries you suffered in the accident by taking photos of them. Take photos of your property damage.
HOW MUCH IS MY CASE WORTH?
Ms. Weeks has obtained settlements worth hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years for her clients. She was part of a team of several lawyers on a seven-day personal injury trial last year that resulted in a $3 million jury verdict. The amount you may be able to recover for your case depends largely –at least initially—on how much insurance the person who hit you purchased. Colorado state law requires auto insurance companies to offer policies of at least $25,000. But the value of your claim depends on how quickly you receive medical attention, the severity of your injuries and property damage, amount of your medical bills, the strength of the medical documentation, and other factors.
WLG is about QUALITY not QUANTITY.
When you hire a large, high-volume personal injury firm (you know, the ones that do all the TV advertising), you are just a number. Ms. Weeks knows, because she has worked for some of the largest personal injury firms in Colorado, Arizona and California. Your case will linger there, and likely will not be settled in a timely manner. Because those firms have extremely high employee turnover, your case will likely be passed through four or five different brand new attorneys before it is actually settled. They simply don’t have the experience or the time to work up your case for the value it is actually worth. These large firms’ focus is on signing up as many clients as possible, and their clients, once in the door, are hard pressed to even speak with their attorney for months on end. Insurance adjusters know that large, high-volume personal injury “mills,” as they are often referred to, don’t have time to take every case to trial. The insurers know that these large firms only rarely file suit and almost never go to trial, which could affect the value of your case.
At Weeks Law Group, on the other hand, you will receive personalized attention and regular follow up from your attorney. We conduct a thorough investigation of the incident including a detailed evaluation of ALL of your potential damages so we can ensure that the at-fault parties’ insurers fully compensate you for EVERY possible category of damages allowed under the law. We comb through your medical records thoroughly and carefully, so we can go head-to-head with the insurance adjusters or defense lawyers on the medical evidence and facts. They won’t know anything we don’t.
WLG founder, Attorney Katie Weeks, is an award-winning former investigative newspaper journalist, and clients benefit from her no-stone-unturned approach to case investigation to find the best way to tell their story to the opposition — leaving the fewest vulnerabilities for the defense to poke at. We’ve built a reputation of being fearless and determined. We have been known to conduct background checks on the at-fault parties, request intersection traffic videos and police body cam footage, and even show up at criminal hearings where the defendant was being charged in order to obtain insurance information they were attempting to conceal. WLG goes to bat for its clients, taking these types of extra steps to increase leverage, and these actions pay off for clients in larger settlements.
DON’T UNDERESTIMATE YOUR MEDICAL NEEDS:
One of the biggest mistakes people make after an accident is thinking they don’t need to get checked out by a doctor. It is often difficult for accident victims to distinguish between mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) symptoms, for example, and simply being in shock over the stress of the crash. It is easy for them to overlook MTBI symptoms, which may include ringing in the ears, lightheadedness, nausea or “just not feeling like myself.” But it is always better to be safe than sorry.
Delay in onset of symptoms is particularly common in “soft tissue” cases. (“Soft tissue” refers to cases where there are no broken bones, but rather sprains/strains of muscle tissue, ligaments or tendons). Insurance adjusters tend to try to devalue soft tissue injuries, but these injuries can be excruciatingly painful and take months of medical treatment and rest to fully heal. This means potential damages for medical bills, lost wages, and perhaps emotional distress as well as increased risk to future injury, depending on the victim’s age and health history, among other factors. If you wait too long to be seen, the insurance company can argue that there has been a “gap in treatment” and that you must not have been “that” injured. Don’t give insurance companies a reason not to cover your medical bills. Call or e-mail WLG today for a free legal consultation.
DON’T GO IT ALONE:
If you try to handle the insurance claim on your own, the insurer will try to get you to sign a release before you know the extent of your injuries. This release likely takes away your right to sue and offers only a nuisance value/minuscule amount of money for you to essentially “go away.” They will not offer you nearly enough money to compensate you for your medical bills, emotional distress, property damage, future medical care, lost wages, etc. Once a lawyer is involved in your claim, the insurance company will be singing a different tune.
WLG knows the ins and outs of insurance and tort laws, meaning we can use the laws to our clients’ advantage to:
Ensure medical bills get covered to the fullest extent allowed by law. For example, leveraging the “Make Whole Doctrine” and other laws that may help reduce your bills and prevent the diminishment of your settlement. We can also leverage our relationships with doctors to get you the most reasonable prices on your health care.
We assist clients in reaching the right type of medical experts to treat their injuries. We can either help you get to a medical professional through your own insurance OR, if you don’t have insurance or need to see a specialist immediately, we can assist you in seeing a doctor on a lien basis, meaning that the doctor will often wait until you get your personal injury settlement in order to be paid.
We can help resolve clients’ property damage claims (The majority of firms won’t help you with property damage, period.) If you are making an injury claim and are our client, we don’t charge for helping you with your PD. We don’t get any compensation for this and aren’t taking a cut of your property damage settlement in any way. We just know it’s important to our clients.
A WORD ABOUT LITIGATION:
While most plaintiff’s personal injury cases settle out of court, WLG is not afraid to take a case to trial where necessary, and we’ve made that painfully clear to the insurance companies. Of course, we do all we can to use a smart strategy from the beginning to avoid the cost and stress of litigation, but sometimes filing suit is necessary. There are many factors that determine whether we would advise filing a lawsuit. If your case reaches the point of needing to consider filing, your attorney would meet with you to discuss the litigation process, potential costs, time involved and to weigh pros and cons with you.
THE BEST POSSIBLE ADVOCATE:
With WLG on your side, you can focus on healing from your injuries and getting back to your family and/or employment obligations. You will be able to rest comfortably knowing that WLG will handle all communications and negotiations with the insurers and attorneys for you. Call right away or e-mail WLG today to schedule your free consultation.