Zachar Law Blog

Should I Accept the Insurance Company’s Settlement Offer?

Most times, the insurance company’s settlement offer is their first offer.  It is important to understand that insurance companies will do their own independent evaluations of your claim, and decide what they think they should pay—not necessarily what is fair.

This means that they might not consider some of your medical treatment to be related to the accident, they might not consider all your lost wages and will certainly discount the effect on your life.   

Insurance companies will generally use whatever tricks and calculations they can to pay you as little as possible.  Then, they will try to convince you to accept a settlement for less than what you are entitled.

This is why it is so important that you hire an experienced Phoenix personal injury lawyer to help you through your case. 

After an accident, your main focus should be getting the medical treatment you need to recover from the accident and dealing with your property damage, lost wages and other expenses.  Do you know how to address these?  Do you know what to say and what not to say to the insurance companies?  What if you say too much, or the wrong thing?  How might that impact your case?

An experienced Phoenix personal injury lawyer will allow you to focus on the most important person…yourself, while the lawyer deals with making sure the case is set up the right way to best maximize your recovery at the end of the case.   An experienced Phoenix personal injury lawyer will make sure that your medical treatment is the right treatment for you, and gets included in the insurance company’s assessment.  An experienced Phoenix personal injury lawyer will make sure that your pain and suffering and other damages are accounted for.

Understand, for an insurance company, you are merely just another claim number. But to Zachar Law Firm, you are our client.  That is a responsibility that we take very seriously, and it is the job of Zachar Law Firm to turn you into a real person whose life has been affected by the injuries—and not just a number.   

The insurance company just wants your case settled and off their books, for as little as possible.  But Zachar Law Firm, your experienced Phoenix personal injury lawyers, and staff will prepare your case and fight for you to make sure you get every penny that you reasonably deserve.

When your case settles, it is over—forever.  You cannot come back later for anything more, so it imperative that before you agree to a settlement, that you know you have the best deal possible.  Hiring the right experienced Phoenix personal injury lawyer, early in the process, will help you get everything you understand everything and get what you deserve before you settle.

What questions will be asked in a personal injury deposition? Follow these tips.

When you are a victim of a personal injury, ZLF will make reasonable every effort to settle your case. But understand, we cannot force the insurance company for the at-fault party to pay.  Indeed, sometimes they just don’t. Sometimes for a good reason, sometimes for a bad reason.  Sometimes, for no reason. Sometimes a lawsuit is necessary.  At ZLF, we are ready. Willing and able to take this step for you. After the lawsuit gets filed, the other side may request your “deposition”. What does this mean?

 It means that the other attorney gets to sit down with us,  and ask questions. What kind of questions?

In a personal injury case, there are three main areas:

1. Your life and your health before the incident that caused your injuries;
2. The circumstances of the incident that caused your injuries; and
3. Your life and your health after the incident that caused your injuries.

Before this occurs, we will sit down with you to prepare you for your deposition and then, be assured that we will be sitting right beside you when the deposition takes place.

If a question is not fair, we will protect you.  If a question is related to the case, we will protect you.  If the defense attorney is not nice, we will protect you.

We cannot avoid the defense attorney’s right to take your deposition, but we can make sure you are ready, and we will be right there beside you the whole way through.

IT’S POOL SEASON IN ARIZONA: TIME FOR EXTRA SAFETY

When the heat is rising the water starts calling all of us, but especially the kids. 

Since the start of the year, there have been 59 water incidents in Maricopa and Pinal counties. Eight of these water incidents turned deadly for children. 

Lori Schmidt with Drowning Prevention Coalition AZ says even the most careful parents can miss a few safety spots. You have to control the access points to the pool starting with any outside gates, you never know when a curious little one will seize a window of opportunity. 

"We always want to make sure the gates are locked but also that it has a good spring so when it's opened it shuts and latches automatically," said Schmidt. 

Water Safety Tips:

- A pool fence is a must and Schmidt points out that you check to make sure the springs are tight so it self-closes. 

- Watch for rust spots along the fence; a motivated child could push the fence down. 

- If you have pets, make sure they don't dig holes that little ones can squeeze under. 

- Keep any large objects that could be used as steps away from both sides of the fence. 

- Even for homes that don't have kids but could have a few young visitors during pool parties, make sure you're not defeating the purpose of safety tools. 

- If you have a pool net or cover, put it on as soon as everyone is out of the pool. 

- Door alarms and heavy, high latches are an excellent safety tool as long as you're not propping the door open for your guests. 

- Don't leave pool toys in the water to entice young children. 

ABC's of water safety:

- Adult supervision. Designate a 'Water Watcher' or hire a lifeguard for parties. The rule of thumb is 1) hands-on kids under four and 2) eyes on older kids;

- Barriers in place;

- Classes so children and adults know how to swim. 

There is little chance, with so many pools in Arizona that we are going to get through the summer without pool accidents, but with attention, supervision, and diligence, perhaps we can eliminate some of these?

Let’s all work together to make 2018 a safe of a pool season as we can.