Three Reasons To Get Multiple Repair Estimates After A Car Accident

When you're involved in a car accident, you'll often be thinking about the possibility of taking legal action in the not-too-distant future. Often, the nature of an accident can help you to decide whether legal action is the right idea. For example, if another motorist clearly wasn't obeying the rules of the road and collided with you, causing major damage to your vehicle, you may think that legal action is appropriate. Before you get too far along, it's important to get a repair estimate for the damage. This amount will be instrumental in helping your attorney come up with a dollar figure to associate with your case. Don't make the mistake of just getting one estimate. Instead, get multiple. Here are some reasons why.

You Can Cite The Highest Estimate

When you're getting repair estimates for the vehicle damage that your car suffered in an accident, you may get different numbers from different repair shops. While the lowest number might be most appealing to you if you were paying for the work yourself, you can cite the highest estimate when you're preparing your case. For example, if one garage quotes you $6,500 and the other quotes you $7,250, you'll surely want to reference the latter number in your case, as it will ideally help you to get more money.

It Shows That You're Serious

In a car accident case, the other driver's attorney will often seek to discredit you. A common way of doing so is to suggest that any injuries you're claiming to suffer are not as serious as you say. The attorney may also attempt to discredit the severity of the damage to your vehicle. This can especially occur if you haven't obtained an estimate. The attorney will essentially suggest that, if you were legitimately concerned about getting the vehicle repaired, you'd eagerly pursue an estimate. When you get multiple estimates, you're clearly showing how seriously you take the damage.

Different Mechanics Might Uncover Different Issues

It's possible that even an experienced mechanic will miss something when he or she assesses your vehicle to give you a repair estimate. The last thing that you want is to use this mechanic's faulty estimate when preparing your car accident lawsuit, and then settle the suit and realize that you didn't ask for enough because another crash-related problem has since come to light. The more mechanics give you estimates, the less likely that any small issue will slip past them.

For more help, contact an auto accident attorney like those at Walsh & Associates, PC.