Are you seeking experienced Wichita personal injury attorneys? If you or a loved one are injured, you may be entitled to compensation for your medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering. We offer a free initial consultation to discuss your legal options and operate on a "no win, no fee" basis. So if you don’t win, we don’t win.
Thankfully, our trial attorneys have a proven track record of success through years of experience.
We recently analyzed 1,400 personal injury cases settled with Mann Wyatt Tanksley. These case results showed that clients, on average, secure more than three times the initial insurance offer after partnering with our firm. While past success is no guarantee of future results, it is safe to say that we have a proven track record of success in negotiating with insurance companies.
Partnering with Our Wichita Attorneys
Many victims have had bad experiences with lawyers, especially in family or criminal law. Because of this, accident victims can be apprehensive about seeking legal help. Understanding our team of attorneys' passion for advocating for our clients is essential.
We prioritize our clients' best interests, and if we believe we can't add value to their case or achieve a positive outcome, we won't take the case. We view our clients as business partners; our success ties to theirs.
The Opportunity with Our Pricing Structure
"Here at our firm, we operate on a contingency fee. That means that we don't charge our clients by the hour, and we don't charge them upfront like most lawyers do. We charge a percentage of what we are able to recover for our client.
This works out well for most of our clients because if we were to charge them by the hour for the work we do and our staff does, it would likely come to a significant amount of money. It also gives our client an understanding that we are willing to have a stake in the case because they know that if we're taking the case and we're going to dedicate our resources to the case, we are obviously very serious about it, and we believe in their case. It's a great way to help our clients understand that we take responsibility and also that they can access the representation that they need without having to pay a lawyer out of pocket or up front.
A contingency fee is known as what's called the keys to the courthouse for a lot of people because if somebody had to pay a lawyer by the hour to go all the way through a jury trial process, if the case made it that far, it could be hundreds of thousands of dollars before the end of the case. Whereas if they hire us in a contingency fee basis, we only earn a fee if we win.
We love helping our clients, but we also know that we only earn a fee if we actually win. So what our clients understand is that it creates real trust and a feeling that we are business partners in the case. And that goes a long way in helping our relationship with our client."
~ Mike Wyatt, Wichita personal injury lawyer
Understanding Personal Injury Claims in Wichita, Kansas
Understanding your rights and the full extent of your potential compensation is crucial before accepting any fair settlement offer from the insurance company.
Time Frame to Bring a Claim
Kansas law provides a time frame for you to bring a claim against the other driver who caused the accident. It's called the statute of limitations. It's a two-year statute in Kansas, meaning you have two years to file a lawsuit from the accident date if you do not settle the case before those two years.
If you file a lawsuit after two years, you can be completely barred from recovery, and your lawsuit could be dismissed.
The Legal Process
After an accident in Wichita, KS, the process goes from the date of the accident to the date of the case settlement. Many factors determine the timeline for personal injury cases. It depends on how long the client is treated and whether there is litigation.
When representing a new client, we gather their medical expenses and records. We also determine if they missed work and how much it cost them. Additionally, we aim to capture how the situation has affected their lives or added emotional distress.
This involves conducting client interviews and spending time with our clients. We may take photos of their injuries and pictures of their families before the accident to illustrate the impact of the incident. It is essential to describe how their daily lives have been affected, including the small and significant changes.
Once we have gathered all the necessary information and our client has completed the treatment process, we send a demand letter to the insurance company representing the at-fault driver. This demand letter outlines all the recoverable items for our client, including medical expenses, lost wages, and the pain and suffering portion of the case. We then demand the full amount of their policy limits, as appropriate.
Once the insurance company receives our demand letter, they have a certain amount of time to review it, read through the medical records, and then respond to our demand, either accepting our demand or making an offer. If it's a case where we would negotiate and potentially settle the case, then we will negotiate, go through the process, talk to the client, and advise them.
We can file a lawsuit if we cannot resolve the case for what we view as a fair value, and our clients don't want to resolve it. When insurance companies are often not being fair and don't see the case's fair value, filing a lawsuit will help them understand the value.
For several reasons, they get to do discovery through their lawyers and find out about how our clients' lives have been affected. We also get to do the same thing: figure out the circumstances of the accident and get all the evidence we need to prove at trial what happened in the accident and what our client's injuries are.
So once we go through that process, there's an opportunity to settle the case at any point during the lawsuit. Now, this is an expensive process for many insurance companies. They have to pay their lawyers by the hour to defend the case.
So often, when they're unfair before a suit is filed, when we file a suit, we go through discovery and prove our case even more. Insurance companies often come to the negotiating table and offer the policy limits. They do this because they risk facing a jury trial if they don't.
In such a trial, we can present our case, demonstrate our damages, and potentially secure a jury verdict that exceeds the policy limits for their insured. This situation exposes their insured to greater financial liability.
So often, when insurance companies aren't fair, if we file suit, go through some of the discovery process, and resolve the case for a fair value, we can resolve our cases without filing a lawsuit.
What if I'm not the Suing Type?
A common reaction from injury victims is that they are not the suing type. This is completely normal because filing a lawsuit after a car or truck accident is usually not at the top of people's minds. The reality is that our first priority isn't to file a lawsuit either.
We intend to make sure you get treated fairly, and we have an informal negotiation with the insurance company before we ever file a lawsuit. So the goal isn't just to get somebody sued and get this case in front of a jury as soon as possible. We like to see if we can work it out to get our clients fair compensation without jumping through all those hoops.
An experienced personal injury attorney adds the ability to file a lawsuit if the informal negotiations don't work out. Unless you've had experience taking on the insurance company by yourself, they recognize that you don't have the means or the knowledge to file a lawsuit.
We handle all the medical records, police reports, and accident footage to build as strong a case as possible on your behalf.
Our Practice Areas
- Car Accident Lawyers: Handling auto accidents, hit and run, and drunk driver cases
- Truck Accidents: Advocating for victims of large commercial truck crashes
- Motorcycle Accidents: Fighting for maximum compensation after serious injuries
- Pedestrian Accidents: Protecting the rights of injured pedestrians
- Workers Compensation: Helping injured workers receive medical care and lost wages
- Fall Accidents: Representing victims of slip-and-fall injuries
- Traumatic Brain Injuries: Proper treatment and financial compensation
Disclaimer: Not all cases can be won even with diligent and zealous representation. Every case is different, and results are based on specific factual and legal circumstances. Similar results may not be obtained in your case. Our past performance is no guarantee of future results.
Contact a Wichita Personal Injury Attorney
The most common tactic we see insurance companies do to people who get hurt in auto accidents is to send them an offer immediately. They don't even know the extent of their injuries, and we see a lot of people accept those offers without even being done with their medical treatment.
If you've been in a motor vehicle accident, it is wise to hire a personal injury attorney to evaluate the situation and advise accordingly. Contact Mann Wyatt Tanksley Injury Attorneys for a free consultation today.