How a Bicycle Accident Lawyer Has an Edge
If you or a loved one were involved in a bicycle accident, there’s a good chance that you want to make sure that they’re able to get as much financial help as possible. Accidents on bikes are no laughing matter, especially if that accident was caused by them being hit by a motor vehicle. These kinds of accidents can definitely land someone in the emergency room or worse, and when these kinds of accidents happen you’ll definitely want to make sure that you have a bicycle accident lawyer on your side to help with the case.
But what can a lawyer do that you can’t do for yourself? A lot of people seem to believe that lawyers are after nothing but money so they can help themselves. While this might be a very common misconception, there is a reason why people consider lawyers to be ruthless and money-hungry. Is there a way to capitalize on the help of a personal injury lawyer to make sure that you or your loved ones are able to get the compensation that they so rightfully deserve after their bicycle accident? That’s what we’re going to look at today.
Don’t Represent Yourself
If you’re representing yourself in your trial, which is universally considered a bad idea, there are a lot of obstacles that you’ll face on your path. One of the biggest issues that you’ll have to deal with is how close you are to the issue emotionally. A courtroom is not the place to be emotional about the issue, no matter how justified you are in your emotions. The judge has to hear from people every single day that are dealing with some of the worst things they’ve ever dealt with. The judge is well aware that lawyers exist and are able to speak in court on behalf of you, so they won’t have a lot of patience for your emotional outbursts.
Most lawyers won’t even risk representing themselves for this reason. We’re humans and that means that we are subject to our emotions, and that’s not a great thing in a courtroom. The best way to represent yourself is to be entirely emotionally disconnected from the issue. In fact, Abe Lincoln was a lawyer and he is on record as saying “A lawyer that represents themself has a fool for a client” and this is something that most people that are authorized to practice law agree on.
By having a lawyer represent you in this case, you have someone who has no personal stake in the case able to cooly and calmly represent the facts. There are no personal emotions on the line for the lawyer, in most cases, all they have on the line is a better payday and your opinion of them. That has a lot less of a personal impact on them than you having to represent your own feelings and experiences in front of a judge while trying to convince the judge that you deserve payment for your suffering.
Remember, judges are just people doing their jobs. They probably saw a few people before you that day and will see a few people after you. Some of those people might have had worse situations, and some of those people might have had better. Regardless, the judge doesn’t care much about your emotional state. They’ve probably ruined a lot of people’s lives while sitting on the bench, it’s not their job to care about your emotional state. It’s their job to seek justice and make sure that the outcome is fair for everyone involved.
Experience at Your Side
Did you know that it’s perfectly legal to take the ducks from the park? They’re free and nobody will stop you. We’re just kidding, it’s not really legal to take the ducks from the park. They’re migratory birds so they’re protected under the migratory birds treaty. But is that a true fact? Can you take the ducks from the park or not? Can you leave the park with a new semi-aquatic best friend without any consequences to speak of, or would this get you into some seriously deep legal trouble with the federal government?
We’re not lawyers ourselves so that’s not really something that we can actually answer, but we brought that up to prove a point. The legal system here in the United States is complicated, and the fact that you probably aren’t sure at this point if you can legally take the ducks from the park or not just proves that there’s a lot that you don’t know about the legal system. There’s a lot to know, and there’s a reason that most lawyers have to do seven years of school after high school before they even take the bar exam to be able to practice law at all.
Just to put that into perspective, most PhD. programs take 6-8 years. That means that even after they’ve gone to school for long enough to get a doctorate through some programs, they still have to take one of the most difficult tests in the world. The Bar exam is such a hard test that, on average, half of the first-time takers of it fail. Even after studying law for long enough to get a doctorate, half of the people that take the test fail it the first time. People with enough knowledge to be considered experts in their field regularly walk out halfway through the test.
That means that every one that is legally allowed to practice law has to be the cream of the crop. They have to truly be experts and be able to pass one of the hardest tests in the world to prove it, just to have the right to stand before a judge and call themself a lawyer. That means that when you hire a lawyer, you’re hiring someone that had to do seven extra years of schooling and prove that they actually learned everything perfectly in order for them to even talk to you about the law.
That’s a lot of expertise and all it costs is a bit of money. In fact, there are a lot of personal injury lawyers that don’t take payment unless they win, and if they win they just take a percentage of your payout. That means that you’re really not paying anything out of pocket, they take their cut before you see a dime of it. That means that you’re almost getting all of this expertise on your side for free whether you win or lose, and that’s nothing to shake a stick at.
Get More Money for Your Bicycle Accident
When you’re in court representing yourself, you’ll probably only look for money to cover medical bills. You might also look for some money for time lost from work so that you aren’t financially ruined from that, either. Some people will go above and beyond and try to get money for things like emotional turmoil or other things. That being said, there are a lot of things that we don’t know when we aren’t lawyers, which means that there’s a good chance that you’re still leaving a good amount of money on the table.
Lawyers, especially personal injury lawyers that would be handling bicycle accident cases, have experience with these kinds of cases. They know exactly what they can try to get out of the defendant and what they can ask for money for. Lawyers typically either have courtroom experience or people in their firms that have courtroom experience that are mentoring them, which means that they know everything that your case could potentially ask for money for. That automatically means that they’ll be able to get you more money because they know exactly what to ask for payments for, no matter how small.
Lawyers are also really good at knowing exactly where to apply pressure on these types of cases. Knowing where to apply pressure and where to chill out a bit can help you out a lot. Many lawyers view court as a game of chess, and understanding the tempo of the courtroom and knowing how to react to the tempo changes can mean a lot more money both for themselves and for you. Lawyers have earned their reputation of being ruthless, and having a ruthless lawyer on your side can mean that you get a lot of money that would have not been brought up otherwise.
Get Representation for Your Bicycle Accident Case
No one wants to end up in a courtroom after a traumatic experience. Unfortunately, you might have to sometimes. Luckily, there are professionals that know exactly how to win cases and get you the most money possible for your accident case. That can mean a lot of things for you, and most of those things are good. Representing yourself in these cases can lead to you losing your cool, and that can lead to you not getting the outcome that you’re hoping for. Let a lawyer represent you so you can use more of your energy to recover from your injuries.
