Do I Really Need A Lawyer?

In most cases, you should not consider settling any claims until your doctors have released you from their care, at the very earliest. Unfortunately, one of the many tricks insurance companies uses to settle claims is to offer to settle for a few hundred or a thousand dollars before the injured party has found out just how hurt they are. We have heard dozens of stories of people who need surgery or have to quit their job after they settled for pennies on the dollar. This is just one of the reasons why insurance companies are so profitable today.

Absolutely not. Trial attorneys protect the rights of the individual against the corporate interests that have the money and resources to put up the maximum fight to pay as little money as possible to the people they, or their insureds, harm.

The insurance industry spends millions in public relations campaigns and lobbying to make people believe that the legal system is out of control. For example, everyone has heard of the millions awarded to the lady who spilled McDonald’s coffee on her lap because the insurance industry had a public relations team out in force after the verdict.

However, when this lady’s judgment (awarded by a jury of 12 people who heard every aspect of her case and McDonald’s defenses) was reduced to less than $600,000.00, it never made the papers. Keep in mind that for every case like the McDonald’s verdict, there are thousands where people like you receive far less than they are entitled to from the insurance companies.

For proof of this, consider that 2005 was the most profitable year in history for property and casualty insurance companies and this was after Hurricane Katrina.

Most crash lawyers are willing to work on a contingency basis, which means that they will not get paid until and unless they get a settlement or judgment on your behalf. The Denver crash lawyers at The Law Firm of Crawford Weiss, LLC charges a 33.3% contingency fee at the end of your case in addition to any costs and expenses advanced by the firm in preparing your case for settlement. Please note that under Colorado law, costs and expenses are the client’s responsibility, regardless of whether a settlement or judgment is reached.

Most cases are settled without having to go through a trial. However, some cases do require going to a jury trial in order to ensure that your case receives its full value. Generally, those cases which involve larger amounts of damages or in which it is not clear who is responsible for the crash have a higher chance of having to enter litigation, at the very least.

More specifically, for alcohol, if you have a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.05 to 0.08, you can be ticketed and are in violation of the law and could be sentenced to driving while your ability is impaired. In addition, if your blood alcohol concentration is 0.08 then you can be lawfully charged with driving under the influence of alcohol or DUI. The BAC limits will vary from person to person based on several factors such as weight, body mass, food intake, and other factors.

As you likely know, marijuana is now legal in Colorado, but driving or bicycling with marijuana in your bloodstream can also be illegal. If your THC level is at or above 5 nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood, then you would also be intoxicated and subject to a ticket for violation of Colorado law.

This law is different from other states, so talk to a lawyer in other states if you are charged outside of Colorado. A good resource for a summary of Colorado law as it relates to DUI while biking is at https://www.bikelaw.com/laws/colorado/, which is completely different from the law in Louisiana, which can be read at https://www.bikelaw.com/laws/louisiana/.