Immediately after you’ve sustained an injury. Sometimes within days or even hours after an accident occurs, you may start receiving telephone calls, letters or emails from insurance companies or defense lawyers. They can question you and solicit information and statements from you if you are not represented. You’ll be told that these questions are attempts to aid you in getting your property damage and injury claims resolved quickly. Once you hire your own attorney to advocate on your behalf and that attorney sends out a notice of representation, insurance companies and defense lawyers cannot contact you.

Their goal in contacting you is to secure information or statements from you with the hopes that what you provide will help them minimize, deny or defend against your claims later on. Their job is not to help you get your medical bills paid or to help you collect for pain and suffering. Anything you say to an at-fault party, their insurance carrier, or their lawyers can and will be used against you. Even your own insurance company can use information collected against you to deny benefits. Do not assume that your own insurance company will be on your side. Hire a lawyer – it won’t cost you anything out-of-pocket – personal injury attorneys work on a contingency fee basis. This means the lawyer only earns attorney’s fees on what is recovered for you. Do not delay. Getting a lawyer involved from the start of your claim gives your lawyer maximum ability to control what information is relayed to the other side in order to protect your rights.