You have what seems like a petty clear-cut case. Somebody else caused a car accident, and you ended up with serious injuries. You went to the hospital and got treated right away, so you have plenty of records. Some of your injuries might even still be visible—they might even be permanent. It’s so clear cut that any lawyer should be able to do it for you, right?

Not necessarily. What seems like a clear case to you might become muddied when you throw in all the details of the law. And the law is such a vast beast that no single lawyer can be expected to understand it all, no matter how smart and talented they are.

So, you need a personal injury lawyer? No, you need something even more specific: a car accident lawyer who specializes in this type of claims.

Here are three reasons why you should only entrust your case to a lawyer who specializes in car accident claims:

1. They can help with your insurance company, not just the other driver

Insurance companies aren’t known for being eager to part with their money, and the claims process can take an incredibly long time.

You’ve already survived a harrowing accident. You shouldn’t have to go through all this red tape too. And a lawyer who specializes in car accident claims will be happy to do it all for you.

You can ask a lawyer to deal with the following aspects of the claims process for you:

• Handle negotiations with your insurance adjuster
• Help you create a verbal and/or written statement that is intentionally designed to benefit you as much as possible
• Deal with all the technical aspects of filing your insurance claim
• Keep your best interests in mind at all times and fight for them if/when necessary

This can save you an enormous amount of time and, in the long run, an enormous amount of money.

2. They’ll do the legwork to prove liability

If somebody else is at fault for your injuries and you want to sue them (or even to get the best insurance claim possible) you need to be able to prove liability. This involves several time consuming tasks, all of which your lawyer can perform for you.

Here are just a few of the things your lawyer will do to prove liability:

• Tracking and gathering all your medical records
• Consulting with third party medical experts to confirm the seriousness of your injuries
• Reconstructing the accident scene
• Interviewing witnesses

A lawyer who specializes in car accident cases will know exactly what to look for and what questions to ask during each step of the process. This guarantees that you get the right evidence necessary to prove liability.

3. They know how to negotiate a fair settlement

When was the last time you truly negotiated on your own behalf? How did it feel? How did it go?

Chances are you haven’t done it in a long time, it felt awful, and it didn’t go quite according to plan. That’s because you’re just a regular person. You’re not trained in negotiating tactics, and there’s a good chance that you underestimate your true value. You also don’t know what the typical payout is in a case like yours—and it will take many hours of research to find out.

Lawyers who focus exclusively on car accident cases know all the right things to say. They can assess the true cost of your injuries objectively, as well as how much responsibility falls to the other person. They know what typical settlements in these cases are like. And they’ve spent years training to negotiate for people like you.

In other words, there’s no better person to have on your side.