Available 24/7This latest wave of California wildfires has been devastating for those who have been affected by its wake. Wildfires are all too common an occurrence in California and because of this most Californians will carry some form of fire protection insurance.
This may lead many Californians to say, “I already have insurance, so why do all these attorneys in California say I need to hire them?” It may come to your surprise that insurance doesn’t always pay out.
Yes, Insurance is supposed to pay, but a person cannot forget that California insurance companies are financially invested in making sure they hand out as little money as possible to their clients. The whole reason insurance companies have adjusters is to send people out to inspect your property for eight hours a day to ultimately try to find ways to deny your claim. Unfortunately, many insurance adjusters lead California wildfire victims along and make them believe that the insurance company is willing to pay for their property damage or reimburse them for the property damage and medical bills — leading these victims to believe their damages will be paid fairly, whereas they actually only just drag them along for weeks.
By the time the wildfire victim has realized that the money they are owed is not coming and decided to hire a California property damage lawyer after a certain amount of time, the California lawyer would be in a worse position to defend your claim against the insurance company who’s supposed to protect you. Negotiations might have already commenced and the victim of the wildfire property damage would not have been able to document their damages or find a third party adjuster to properly assess the damages.
This is where a good California lawyer could have guided a wildfire victim to a good restoration company who could provide the proper repairs to your home, business, rental properties, and vehicles. It’s a shame that insurance companies would be willing to do this during this time of heavy tragedy, but the fact is thousands of Californians are losing their homes and insurance companies are not going to want to pay out to all of these people.
How Does a California Attorney Actually Get Paid From a property damage claim?
A contingency agreement is a common course of business in California between attorney and client. A Contingency fee simply means the attorney’s fee would depend on the success of the case. Most lawyers in California would represent the person and only take a fee if they actually collected money on the client’s behalf from the responsible party’s insurance company. The usual fee would be 25 to 33 percent of the settlement, and up to forty percent if the case went to court, although most cases do settle without the need for litigation. For personal injury attorneys, this is the best course of practice because it ensures the attorney will work hard for your case and gives the client the best possible result in their claim.
How Does Someone Decide How to Hire an attorney after suffering massive damages from a California wildfire?
Wildfire and fire protection are no normal area of the law. Not every personal injury attorney in California is going to understand the ins and outs of litigating fire damages and property loss from a wildfire where a third party can be found negligent. When seeking legal representation, the person should find a lawyer who advertises and has proven experience in litigating fire damages and personal property loss as the result of a California wildfire. Don’t leave it up to just any attorney to litigate your case, trust the attorneys at The Sargent Firm Injury Lawyers to help litigate your case against insurance companies trying to deny your claim against the personal property you lost in a California wildfire.
From a more sensible standpoint, most attorneys get their clients through a referral process. A potential client could ask family members if they had been represented by someone, who they might be able to recommend — which in the case of wildfires in California you could find many people who have been represented by attorneys in wildfire litigation.
When you look for an attorney, be sure to do your research and interview each attorney who could potentially represent you in litigating your wildfire damages. This decision should be thoroughly done, it should be done quickly. The more time you give an insurance company to sniff around your property damage, the more likely they’ll have evidence to hold against you.
Should Someone See A Doctor Or Talk To A Lawyer First If I was Injured in the California Wildfires?
Someone who was a victim of a California wildfire might have injuries that required emergency care, so they should immediately go to the doctor and not worry about a lawyer until later. However, if they did not have a doctor handy and they wanted to seek medical attention for a pain that was not of an emergency nature, their California attorney would definitely be able to help them find one. A good California Attorney would know and be able to recommend quality doctors for someone who’s suffered from smoke inhalation or severe burns as a result of being caught up in a wildfire.
Can An Attorney Help Negotiate Down The Hospital And Medical Bills And Possibly even My Property Damage?
This would be a good reason to hire an attorney. Lawyers for the hospital are going to negotiate bills and that is sometimes the bigger job in wildfire accidents, where large emergency bills would be part of the case. Every dollar that the lawyer managed to reduce from that hospital account would be a dollar more in the client’s pocket. If someone had a $100,000 bill for emergency treatment, then it would be possible and even common to get it reduced by up to 80 or 90 percent in certain cases. A person should not enter into a payment plan with a hospital unless a lawyer is helping in the negotiations.
Call a California Wildfire protection attorney today.
These wildfires are no accident — those responsible for starting and exacerbating these fires can and should be held responsible. If you’ve suffered from smoke inhalation and the medical bills to treat it are piling up, you need to call an attorney to help you get the compensation you deserve.
The attorneys at The Sargent Firm Injury Lawyers are experienced in litigating fire damages and smoke damages all across California. They will help you too — your consultation is free and requires no obligation.
You pay no fees unless you win — call California fire damage attorney Ryan Sargent today!