Personal Injury

FORT WORTH, TEXAS PERSONAL INJURY LAWYERS

Have you been injured, but are hesitant to talk with a personal injury lawyer because you don’t have any money? Hiring personal injury lawyers at CANAS & FLORES isn’t as expensive as working with other types of lawyers.

When you’ve been injured, you’ll usually be looking to the other person’s insurance to collect damages for your injury. If the other person doesn’t have insurance or doesn’t have enough insurance, you may be relying on your own insurance company to pay your damages. Either way, dealing with an insurance adjuster can be frustrating. That’s why it’s a good idea to hire a personal injury lawyer at CANAS & FLORES to help you communicate effectively with the insurance company.  Please Contact Us to discuss your case.

Consultations Are Free
Personal injury lawyers at CANAS & FLORES don’t charge you for the opportunity to talk about your case. You can go in, describe what happened, and discuss the pros and cons of your case to our legal team, as well as how much the lawyer thinks your case might be worth and how long it might take to see results.

Cases Are Taken “On Contingency”
Personal injury lawyers at CANAS & FLORES will generally take your case on what’s called a “contingency fee basis.” You’re not required to pay any attorney’s fees until you recover against the party at fault or their insurance company. If there’s no recovery in your case, you don’t owe any attorney’s fees. When you do reach a settlement, the lawyer then charges a percentage of your overall settlement for lawyer’s fees.

Getting Your Costs Paid As You Go
While CANAS & FLORES don’t charge you to represent you in your claim against the insurance company,  generally the costs of putting together your legal case are borne by your legal team at CANAS & FLORES.  The repayment of the following expenses are intially borne by CANAS & FLORES, but are then reimbursed upon settlement of the claim:

• Copies of police reports 
• Medical records 
• Office expenses such as copying 
• Deposition fees 
• Court filing fees 
• Investigator charges 
• Expert witness fees

The personal injury lawyers at CANAS & FLORES pay these expenses as they crop up, then you reimburse the lawyer for these expenses out of your settlement. It’s obviously a gamble on the lawyer’s part, but it’s a good indication that the lawyer thinks you have a strong case.

What Is My Claim Worth?
Under Texas law, the person who injured you will be responsible for:

• Past, current and future estimated medical expenses 
• Time lost from work, including time spent going to medical appointments or therapy 
• Any property that was damaged, such as your vehicle 
• Any permanent disfigurement or disability 
• Your emotional distress, including anxiety, depression, and any interference with your family relationships 
• Any other costs that were a direct result of your injury

Your Personal Injury Lawyers at CANAS & FLORERS will know what type of expert witness to hire to best prove your damages.

Negotiation
You can expect your lawyer at CANAS & FLORES to kick off the negotiation process by notifying the people responsible that you’re hurt and will be filing a claim for your damages.
Your personal injury lawyer will then thoroughly investigate the circumstances of your injury. You can help CANAS & FLORES by providing copies of the following:

• Police report;
• Traffic tickets given to the other person;
• Photos of the scene of the accident;
• Names, addresses and phone numbers of any witnesses and what they saw;
• Medical records and bills;
• Photos of your injuries; and
• Wage stubs proving how much you made at the time of the accident and how much work time you missed due to your injury.

You’ll also want to provide your Personal Injury lawyers at CANAS & FLORES with any other documentation you may have showing how your injury has negatively impacted your life.
Personal Injury lawyers at CANAS & FLORES will not want to begin serious negotiation with the insurance company until your injuries have stabilized enough to know what the permanent effects will be. This can sometimes take months or even years.
 
After collecting all the information regarding your injury, Personal Injury lawyers at CANAS & FLORES will write what’s called a “demand letter” to the insurance company. This letter will explain:

• Why the other person is responsible for your injuries;
• The extent of your injuries and how you’re likely to be affected by them in the future;
• What type of medical treatment you’ve had and will need to have in the future and how much it will cost;
• How much income you’ve already lost and will lose in the future; and
• Any other damages you’ve suffered as a result of the accident.

The settlement package sent to the insurance adjuster will include all the documentation in possession of CANAS & FLORES to support your claim.

Your personal injury lawyer will likely end the demand letter with a demand for a specific sum of money to settle your claim. Your Personal Injury lawyer at CANAS & FLORES will already have an idea of how much you think your claim is reasonably worth.

It may take a month or two for the insurance company to respond to your lawyer’s initial demand letter. It’s important to realize that insurance companies are big bureaucracies and profit-making centers. There are many layers of management within an insurance company and the adjuster who handles your claim will have to wade through many channels to get authority to make you an offer or up an offer after an initialoffer has been made. Negotiations will likely move very slowly, as CANAS & FLORES and the adjuster talk back and forth.

Settlement
When your Personal Injury lawyer at CANAS & FLORES and the insurance adjuster have come to an agreement on how much you’ll be paid, we will write a confirmation letter to the adjuster agreeing to accept their offer.

When you receive the settlement check, you’ll have to sign a written document that releases the insurance company from any further liability for the accident. CANAS & FLORES Personal Injury lawyers will help you read through this release and answer any questions you may have about what the release covers.  CANAS & FLORES will provide you a detailed accounting of any costs deducted from your payment, and answer any questions you may have about your settlement.

The big majority of insurance claims are settled at the adjuster level. If your lawyer and the insurance adjuster are unable to settle your case, however, it will be necessary to take it to trial.

Taking Your Personal Injury Claim to Trial
Injury cases can be traumatic enough without having a trial. Unfortunately, insurance companies are bolder today than they were in the 70s or 80s. Now they often want to go to trial on cases they never would have risked before. Insurance company propaganda has poisoned the well of potential jurors. Many jurors come to court with the expectation of finding some scam artist claiming to be horribly injured as a result of some relatively minor event. They have been told over and over again in the news media about “Jackpot Justice” where people come to court and ask for millions of dollars for spilling coffee in their lap, or falling down in a puddle of water in the grocery store or having a minor fender bender.

Trial is war. It is war by a certain set of formal rules. The lawyers at CANAS & FLORES know and understand the rules. The participants and jurors may or may not.

How Long Do I Have To File A Legal Claim?
With Personal Injury cases in Fort Worth,Texas, you only have two years to file a lawsuit against the person who injured you. If your Personal Injury Attorneys at CANAS & FLORES haven’t been able to come to an agreement with any involved insurance companies, you’ll have two years from the date of accident to file a lawsuit.