“I’m hurt, but I don’t want to sue anybody”… As experienced, professional local personal injury attorneys, we have heard this many times from clients and, believe it or not, we empathize with it.
Auto accident injuries are often a consequence, not of malice, but of the careless or accidental failures of otherwise well-meaning people. It is frequently the case that an at-fault driver will immediately check on the person they hurt and offer apologies. On a human level, it can sometimes be difficult to turnaround and seek retribution from an apologetic, well intended person. Even though car wrecks are typically ‘accidents’ in every sense of the word, it does not mean that auto accidents do not cause damage that needs to be contended with. Automobile accidents cause damage; sometimes life altering damage. In fact, auto accidents can unravel your life just as much or more than an intentional action. Who is charged with cleanup duty? Is it the person that, though well intended, created a dangerous situation? Are we going to expect people to simply turn the other cheek and absorb the damage inflicted upon them? The good news is that American culture, and the State of Colorado, recognizes that accidents happen. Colorado mandates that every driver be insured before getting behind the wheel.
Insurance is as American as baseball, and it was created to give peace of mind to our culture in a way that allows us to engage, boldly, in enterprise and pushing the limits of the human experience. In a sense, insurance provides the freedom to do things we might not otherwise do. An example of something we might not do but for insurance is sit in a multi-ton hunk of metal traveling at 75 miles per hour on asphalt, attached to the vehicle by a piece of fabric.
All insured motorists can get behind the wheel knowing that if they hurt someone on the road that day, insurance promises to pay the person they hurt and to protect them from the expenses of a lawsuit. It is important to understand that, in the context of car crashes, insurance is intended to cover not only the person that was hurt due to someone else’s failures. Insurance is also intended to protect the person that failed. When you hurt someone in a wreck, the insurance company must give you a lawyer to defend you from civil liability and the insurance company must pay any damages owed to the injured person up to the amount of your policy limits (in some cases, possibly more). This is a great benefit as long as the promise is honored.
In our experience as automotive accident attorneys, that promise is rarely honored without a legal battle. Even though the insurance industry collects trillions of dollars in premiums from Americans every year, only a fraction of that amount is paid in claims, allowing companies to enjoy exorbitant profits. Sometimes, insurance companies will allow people, both the injured and the at-fault, to suffer personal disaster before honoring their contract.
In the overwhelming majority of circumstances, when you sue or file a claim for a car wreck, you are simply expecting an insurance company to honor the promise of peace they made in exchange for an amount of money that, when totaled up, has created companies worth billions of dollars, with the wealthiest leadership on the planet.
Far too often, despite outrageous profit margins, insurance companies deliver acrimony instead of peace. Though we are extremely aggressive personal injury trial attorneys, lawsuits are, by their very nature, a last resort. Too frequently, our only mechanism to enforce the promise of peace is to expose insurance companies to a lawsuit and ultimately a jury.
When you sue or file an auto claim, you are steadfastly demanding a level playing field, no matter how much money you have at your disposal. We at Maher and Maher Law are experienced, professional committed personal injury attorneys and we work for YOU. Call us today at 719-301-7500.
