Car crash lawyer Las Vegas NV

When you’re hurt in a car crash, the decisions you make in the first hours and days can shape your entire claim. In this video, Keith E. Galliher, Jr., founder and principal attorney of The Galliher Law Firm in Las Vegas, walks through the practical steps every crash victim should take — from cooperating with police at the scene to why you should never give a statement to the other driver’s insurance company before speaking with a lawyer. 

Drawing on decades of experience handling personal injury claims in Nevada, Galliher explains how insurance adjusters work to devalue claims, why prompt medical care matters even when you don’t feel pain right away, and how The Galliher Law Firm handles the property damage, insurance communication, and paperwork so clients can focus on one thing: treating and getting well. 

Transcript 

Well, the first thing you do, obviously, is stay at the scene of the crash and cooperate with the police. Make sure you give them a statement if they ask for it. However, don’t give a statement to the adverse insurance company at all until you consult with a lawyer. You need to consult with a lawyer up front. Unfortunately, insurance companies are not necessarily solid citizens. Their job is to save money off claims. They’re not interested in you or your life, and what they’re interested in doing is making sure that they have a nice bottom line next year when it comes time to declare their profits. So talking to an adverse adjuster is never beneficial, because the only thing they’re attempting to do is get information to devalue your claim and increase their company’s profits. So you stay away from the adjuster. 

Also, you need to get prompt medical care. A lot of people make the mistake, after getting involved in a crash, of not feeling the pain right away, so it’s like, well, maybe this will get better, maybe it’ll get better. And then, of course, a week later it hasn’t gotten any better — it’s gotten much worse — and they figure out, gee, something’s wrong here, I guess I better see a doctor. Then they may call an attorney, because a lot of people don’t have health insurance, and if they don’t have health insurance, they don’t get to see a doctor. The doctor won’t see them unless they’re represented by a lawyer, and there’s a reason for that: lawyers ensure that the doctors will get paid after the claim is resolved. Otherwise they don’t, so they don’t accept the patients. 

So bottom line, from my standpoint: first things first, cooperate with the police. Next thing, if you need medical care, get it right away, because with the adrenaline flowing through your system you don’t feel the pain right away — don’t assume it’s not there, because it’s going to be there the following morning or the morning thereafter. Call an attorney, come in and talk to the attorney. And the reason you do that, quite frankly, is that you don’t have time to mess with the insurance company. When it comes to property damage, which we handle, and communicating with them about your injuries, which we handle — we do all of those things for you. From the client’s perspective, the only thing

they need to do is treat and get well. That’s what they should have to do: treat and get well. That’s the only thing they need to focus on when they’re with our firm.