Salt Lake City Spine Injury Lawyer
With Personal Injury Law Offices in Sandy, Utah
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Brad DeBry is not associated or affiliated with Robert J. DeBry & Associates, P.C.
Client Testimonials
Brad is fantastic! So pleased with all the help he has been giving me in such a stressful hard time with my accident. He definitely treats his clients like family and wants what is best for them. Would recommend him to anyone.
Ashley Richey
I contacted Brad a couple of times with some questions regarding our accident and what our rights were. He gave us valuable and helpful suggestions and was so friendly and knowledgeable.
Aimee Ballif
Went above and beyond to not only help me with my case but to reassure me as I was struggling with my anxiety. He was very kind and supportive and wasn't afraid to offer as much help as possible. One of the best you'll meet here and I highly recommend!
Linzie Builds
ABOUT BRAD DEBRY
7 Mistakes That Ruin Personal Injury Cases
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The sheer force that truck accidents generate is terrifying to experience— even lower impact collisions can cause trauma that goes beyond physical injury. It’s even more devastating to find out the accident that turned your life upside-down was due to carelessness and should have been prevented.
If you’ve sought out this webpage, you’ve probably been injured in an accident caused by the driver of a truck. You are most likely in pain and struggling to recover. You’ve probably been out of work since the accident, adding financial concerns to your burdens. You’re probably overwhelmed by the challenge of finding the right person to answer your questions about a truck accident claim.
We are here to help you with free legal advice. Call our Salt Lake City truck accident lawyer today.
Don’t worry about having money to get answers to your questions. Give us a call as soon as you’re able and schedule a free legal consultation.
The information on this page will give you a good idea of the elements of a truck accident claim. First, we’ll show you the common mistakes people make in truck accident claims in Salt Lake City. Then, we’ll share a story to provide more information about what you need to know. Make sure you read to the end to learn as much as you can.
Common Truck Accident Claim Mistakes
Unfortunately, there are many mistakes you can make that will damage your truck accident claim. Please read the errors listed below to help you avoid taking these same missteps.
Not Going to the Doctor After Being Injured in a Truck Accident
You may see this headline and ask yourself when someone would avoid getting to a doctor if they are injured. The answer is, when they don’t realize the severity of their injuries.
The stress hormone boost of adrenaline and cortisol that floods through your body during traumatic events is biology’s way of trying to protect you. The effects of these hormones make pain more difficult to feel. They also give you an added surge of energy, just in case you need to run away from a threat.
These protective measures are not as helpful as they were in our hunter-gatherer days. In fact, after a truck accident, you are most likely going to benefit the most from staying as still as possible until medical help arrives.
Despite this fact, the human body still provides the stress hormone boost, so it’s important to realize that it can make you think you’re okay when you may not be.
Make sure that you get examined by medical professionals after you’ve been in a truck accident, even if you don’t feel a tremendous amount of pain at the time, and/or feel like you’ve got tons of energy. These aren’t indications you aren’t hurt; they’re proof that you’ve experienced a traumatic event.
Going to the hospital after an accident will help protect your health. It will also protect the value of a truck accident claim by generating an official record of your injuries.
Getting examined as soon as possible will ensure that the date and time of your exam coincides with the accident event. This will become evidence that will strengthen your truck accident claim.
Without this evidence, the insurance company will be able to challenge the severity of your injuries. They may even challenge whether you’ve been injured in the accident at all.
Don’t let them take advantage of you like this. Protect the value of your truck accident claim by going to the hospital as soon as possible.
Not Following Through with Your Doctor’s Orders
Once you’ve been treated and released, your doctor will send you home with a treatment plan. This can take any number of forms. It may involve medication. It may call for a series of treatments or therapies, such as physical therapy (PT) sessions. It may advise a stretching regimen.
Be diligent in adhering to whatever your doctor advises to help you assist in your own recovery. We see too many people make the mistake of starting out strong, but falling off their PT schedule and missing appointments, or forgetting to take antibiotics intended to prevent a dangerous post-surgical infection.
If you slack off on your doctor’s treatment plan, the insurance company will have an opening to try and blame you for any snags you encounter in your recovery.
This may sound despicable, but to them, it’s a numbers game. The less they pay out in claims, the more money they get to keep. They may also try to lower the value of your claim if you don’t get the rest you need— especially if you return to activities you’re not yet ready for.
You may wonder how an insurance company would even know about this. Do insurance companies actually send investigators to follow people around?
These days, they don’t have to. Consider the possibility of images of you rock climbing getting tagged in social media while you’re still out of work recovering from a back injury. Not only can this put your recovery at risk; it puts your claim at risk.
Instead of trying to think of ways to hide forbidden activities after an accident, simply follow your doctor’s treatment plan. Chances are, it doesn’t involve rock climbing.
Don’t Give a Recorded Statement to the Insurance Company
After the truck accident, you can expect the insurance company to call and ask you for permission to record your statement. Many people think the company is trying to help you get the compensation you deserve. After all, isn’t that what your friendly neighborhood insurance company is for?
Unfortunately, that’s not the case, and it’s a mistake to allow the insurance adjuster to record your conversation. They’re not calling to be helpful; they’re looking for “chinks in your armor” — ways your claim can be devalued so they don’t have to pay you what you deserve.
The easiest way to avoid this issue is to pass communications with the insurance company along to your Salt Lake City truck accident lawyer. Many people don’t realize they’re not obligated to speak to the insurance company. It’s okay to pass it on.
Not Calling an Attorney Soon Enough
There are a few reasons people make the mistake of dragging their feet about calling a lawyer. They may feel incapable of thinking about a claim as they deal with their injuries. They may believe the statute of limitations gives them plenty of time to get around to it. Or, they may be toying with the idea that before they spend on a lawyer, they’ll take a shot at handling the claim themselves.
While each of these reasons is understandable, any one of them can destroy your claim, because all of them lead to putting off the accident investigation. And the longer you wait to get an investigation started, the less evidence you or your lawyer will be able to find.
Accident scenes get cleared away. Witnesses forget details over time and can “disappear.” The best way to take the burden of worrying about a claim off your shoulders is to hand it over to a capable personal injury lawyer.
If you’re waiting to start a claim because the statute of limitations gives you months or even years, the same issue of dwindling evidence and witness availability applies. The sooner you get started, the stronger your claim.
If you’re tossing around the idea of “saving money” by handling your claim on your own, ask yourself if you’re up to navigating the complexities of an insurance claim while injured. And keep in mind that if you’re unable to negotiate an acceptable settlement, you’ll be without the legal leverage to take your battle to trial.
Statistically, people who hire experienced attorneys receive many times the compensation than those who go it alone. Your accident claim is not a project to D.I.Y.
Hiring the Wrong Spine injury Attorney
We’ve already mentioned why it’s a mistake to take on the burden of trying to be your own lawyer for your spine injury claim. It’s also important to avoid the common mistake of assuming any lawyer can do the job and get the same results.
Like doctors, lawyers have specializations, called practice areas. Just as you wouldn’t choose a foot doctor to help with a spine injury, make sure the lawyer you hire is an experienced personal injury trial lawyer with experience in spine injury claims.
While it’s true that most claims are settled before going to court, some end up there, having stalled in the negotiation phase. If your claim goes the distance, you need to know that you’ve hired an attorney who’s ready to win your case.
Salt Lake City Spine Injury Client Story
The story below is meant to answer some additional questions you may have about your spine injury claim. The names and specifics have been edited to protect the privacy of our clients, but the information is there, so be sure to read to the end. When you’re done, please give us a call as soon as you’re able to schedule a free legal consultation.
On a snowy day in December not very long ago, Colleen Raglan left her post at Heritage Village after a day of welcoming winter tourists. Locking up the schoolhouse, she lifted her long, heavy costume skirts to carefully make her way through the snow to her car. She was grateful the costume allowed for sensible, well-soled boots to be worn. Besides, she was sure the pioneers would have done so as well.
Colleen loved this place, and winter was the most magical season. Her job as a villager in the various venues in Heritage Village made her feel like a girl at play. As a child, she’d watched all the old episodes of “Little House on the Prairie,” fascinated with the pioneer experience. Now a theater major at the university, she got to “play” a pioneer at her job. She knew the job was a stepping stone to her future acting aspirations, but it really was perfect for her. She hoped she’d like acting on a bigger stage just as much.
Her favorite post so far was the “schoolmarm.” The tourist children filtering in provided an ever-changing audience filled with wonder and curiosity.
Coleen thought about these things as she folded her poofing hoop skirt behind the wheel of her small car. And she navigated northwest back to her dorm, she thought about her fiancé, Gideon.
They’d come as close as she hoped they ever would to a major fight last night. It was about New York, of course. He’d brought up the subject of buying a house in Salt Lake City again. She’d reminded him that when they got engaged, he’d agreed on their plan to move to New York City when she graduated. What better place for an actress?
He admitted he had agreed, but his folks had just told him they were seriously considering downsizing and would sell Gideon and Colleen their house for “a song” … way, way below market price, and certainly many times less than such a large home would cost within commuting distance to New York City.
Colleen could see his excitement. He’d never gotten the “bug” she had to explore the world beyond Utah. But this was too sharp of a turn for her. She needed time to begin to reconsider the dream she’d been clinging to for so long.
In the end they’d parted without a resolution, silently retreating to their own spaces; she to her dorm, he to his parents’ home. There was no yelling, and it’s not like she gave back the ring or anything, but she knew he was upset. She loved that about him; he always spoke his mind, but give her the space she needed to respond from her own truth.
As she drove west on East Sunnyside, she thought about how much she loved working in the pioneer village, and how much she loved Salt Lake City. Did she really want to give up the gift of buying a home for an unheard-of price in the place she’d always considered home? She felt a tug on her heart and took a deep breath. It was a big curveball, but she would consider it. She needed to speak to Gideon and ask him to give her just a little time.
Instead of heading north on Foothill, she turned south, on her way to Gideon’s parent’s home in Wasatch Hollow. Making her way southwest, she turned right onto 1300 South and headed south on South 1700 East. As she crossed Harrison, she admired the profusion of Christmas lights around her. She really loved this place. Maybe, just maybe —
Colleen never finished that thought as her car was T-boned by a car running the stop sign and heading west on Harrison.
She woke up in the hospital with Gideon sitting beside her. He told her that she’d broken her left arm in three places and sustained a concussion, then he paused.
Colleen suddenly understood why Gideon had that look. Not the, “Oh I was worried but I know you’ll recover from your injuries” look. He had the, “It’s the eve of a zombie apocalypse and somebody slapped your mama” look. Gideon was very, very upset, and as he tried to hold back tears, she could see a whole caravan of emotions run across his face.
There was love. There was relief. There was worry. There was anger. And there was fear.
“Deon, what is it?” Colleen asked, afraid herself now. “Dee, talk to me.”
Gideon began to cry as he told her the doctors had done what they could, but they weren’t sure she’d ever walk again. She did have a small amount of movement in her legs, but they couldn’t make any promises.
Over the next week, Colleen’s concussion improved enough to talk about moving her into rehab. She was encouraged that she could feel the sharp pin-stick of the doctors testing her leg muscles in some places, and that was a very good sign. She was however, still unable to move her legs. She was frustrated but determined to get as much as possible out of rehab.
She also began to search online for an attorney to help her with a spine injury claim. That’s when she called us and scheduled a free legal consultation. She told us she wanted to find out how much it would cost to retain our firm, what her claim was worth, and how long it would take.
How much does it cost to hire a Salt Lake City spine Injury lawyer?
We met Colleen and Gideon in her hospital room the afternoon before she was to be transferred to the rehabilitation facility.
“How much will it cost to hire you for a spine injury claim?” she asked after we’d sat down.
Our lawyer explained that there would be no upfront cost. “We work on a contingency fee model, Colleen. Our firm will cover all case fees and expenses, from investigation to court fees. In the end, we only get paid when we bring your claim to a successful conclusion, whether via settlement or a jury trial.”
What is my spine injury case worth?
“Well, that’s encouraging, I guess you can stay, then,” Colleen said with a bright smile.
Since finding out about her spine injury, Colleen had stubbornly replaced all emotion over her circumstances with the determination to overcome them. Gideon was proud of her strength, but worried about the impact her injury would have when she eventually let her guard down. She couldn’t maintain her hyper-vigilant state forever, and he wouldn’t want her to try.
He squeezed her hand. She squeezed back then turned to our lawyer and asked, “Can you tell me what my spine injury claim is worth?”
“That’s not something we can reliably estimate without first doing an investigation and having a clear understanding of your damages,” he answered. We can get your accident investigation started right away, but determining damages will depend upon the speed of your recovery.
“We’ll need you to reach ‘maximum medical improvement.’ This means recovering up to the point at which your doctors consider you back to your ‘normal’ pre-accident level of health.
“If you aren’t able to reach your previous level of health due to the nature of your injuries, then maximum medical improvement will mean you’ve reached what can be considered your ‘new normal.’
“Your job, Colleen, is to channel all of your energy and focus toward recovery. Get the rest you need, follow your doctor’s treatment plan, but don’t overdo it, either. You need to listen to your body and work with it, not against it,” our lawyer cautioned.
“So, no bungee jumping,” Colleen said with a smirk.
“No bungee jumping. Skydiving is probably out, too,” said the lawyer.
“I’m encouraged to see you in pretty good spirits,” he continued. “It’s not uncommon for depression to intrude as the long haul to recovery from a spine injury sets in.”
There, the elephant in the room is out, thought Gideon, giving Colleen the side-eye to see how she’d respond. He was relieved by her answer.
“Oh, it’s there,” Colleen admitted. “I have my days, but so far I’ve been able to work on my ‘headspace’ to keep from sinking.”
“Just be sure to reach out to your doctors if you feel yourself starting to struggle. It’s understandable and not unexpected on this journey. We are all hoping for the best, Colleen, but you are still going through a formidable challenge.
“Emotional support is just as important as physical support right now,” the lawyer agreed.
“I will. I’ve always been relentlessly honest, even with myself,” Colleen answered. “And I’ve got Deon to help me through. We make a great team. I promise to speak up and ask for help if I need it.”
“That’s good to hear,” our lawyer answered, continuing. “Reaching maximum medical improvement is going to mean you’re finished with any surgeries you may still need and we have a clear idea of what the future care of your injuries involve. When you reach this point, we’ll know your damages and can accurately tell you the value of your claim.”
“Fair enough,” Colleen said.
How long will my spine injury claim take?
“So, how long does a claim like Colleen’s typically take?” Gideon asked.
“Well, there really is no ‘typical claim,’ because every case is unique, even with claims that involve similar injuries. People recover at different rates and to different degrees. What I can tell you is the factors that will determine the pace of Colleen’s claim.
“The first factor is how long it takes you to reach maximum medical improvement, Colleen. Naturally, we can only move as fast as the pace of your recovery. Once you’re there, we’ll know your damages and send a demand letter to the insurance company.
“That’s when the second factor kicks in. From that point on, your claim’s timeline is going to depend on whether the insurance company is agreeable to a reasonable and fair settlement. If they are, we’ll be able to move your case to a swift conclusion.
“If not, we take the insurance company to court. Now, please don’t’ let this possibility worry you. We take claims before juries regularly and have a long record of success both in and out of the courtroom. Either way, we’ll be up to the challenge.
“Our success record is well known, and ironically, our reputation at trial may just keep your claim from having to go all the way to court. It’s not unheard of for insurance companies to reconsider rejecting a settlement when the possibility of facing us in court arises.
“That’s why no matter whom you choose to retain, Colleen, we’ll always recommend you hire a personal injury trial attorney with a great track record for your spine injury claim.”
Colleen and Gideon were satisfied with the answers we provided to their questions. Colleen retained our firm and today we can happily say that we got her eight times the amount the insurance company initially offered her.
Call Our Salt Lake City Spine Injury Lawyer Today
We hope this information has given you a good overview about your spine injury claim. As mentioned, no two cases are identical, so please give Salt Lake City spine injury lawyer Brad DeBry a call as soon as you’re able and schedule your free legal consultation. Don’t try to manage your spine injury claim by yourself. Call and let us help.
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