When Should You Contact a Lawyer After a Car Accident?

When Should You Contact a Lawyer After a Car Accident?

Gary Burger is the principle and founder of Burger Law's personal injury law firm in St. Loouis, and has had a distinguished career defending the rights of the injured and vulnerable. Below is a recent transcript of Gary talking about when it becomes necessary to contact a lawyer for your car accident injury claim.

Gary Burger: At what point in the course of a motor vehicle accident claim should I contact an attorney? Kira, Good question. Usually right away if you're really hit. I did a newsletter recently my friend Randy Ove. We settled his case for $350,000.

There are a couple great things Randy did in his case. One is he got out of the car and he took pictures. On the highway, safely. He got to safety, but he got smashed. He ended up getting neck surgery, multi-level fusion. He went out and he took pictures.

The second thing is he called us right away. Randy knows. And he's been down. I've tried a case with Randy in Jefferson County. We had a verdict of $142,000 about six or seven years ago. There's a couple things you want to do in a motor vehicle accident.

Take pictures, get witness names. Call the police. You'd be surprised how many times you think all these witnesses are there. We did a deposition two weeks ago and this young lady was like, All these people were here. They saw that the truck. The tractor trailer ran the red light and they were all there.

And then we get the police report and none of them are in the police report. Get the witness names yourself. Take pictures yourself. Go get medical attention. Then contact a lawyer. Contacting a lawyer is free. I only charge you if I win a case for you.

So there's no charge to call a lawyer. And lawyers like me — and there's a lot of great lawyers out there that are straight shooters — we'll tell you, "Hey, listen. You need a lawyer, they're gonna fight this one. They're going to say that you stopped suddenly on the highway."

And you'd be surprised. I literally have a case that I'm trying to settle right now. Sometimes people come to me and say, "I don't know if I really need you. But I don't know what I'm doing and I need some guidance." And then two years later when we're fighting like cats and dogs over $10, $20, $30, $40, $50 thousand more in a settlement. They're like, "Thank God I got you. Remember when I came in and I said, I didn't know I if I needed you?"

And I told this to the client today. I said, "Remember when you weren't really sure if you needed me? And you like, we're like three weeks away from trial and they're finally ponying up money."

Gary Burger is a personal injury lawyer with over 30 years of experience in a wide variety of practice areas, including:

• Auto accidents
• Car accidents
• Truck accidents
• Motorcycle accidents
• Slip and falls
• Wrongful death
• Medical malpractice
• Dog bites
• Product liability
• Workers' compensation
• Camp Lejeune Contaminated Water Lawsuit
• Exactech Knee Replacement Lawsuit
• Exactech Ankle Replacement Lawsuit
• Exactech Hip Replacement Lawsuit
• Ferrari Brake Failure Lawsuit