In the United States, a car is a symbol of freedom and fun, and it is a personal milestone for a person to own their first-ever car. You probably remember the day to received your own first car, either when you bought it or when someone gave it to you as a gift, such as your parents or a friend. But of course, a car isn’t just a platform for fun; it is also a major responsibility in many ways, some of them concerning finances or safety. There is a reason why so many auto accident attorney services are out there, and many car crash victims are in need of legal counsel after their wreck but before their litigation or court case. Could that be you someday? If you are a first-time car owner, you may ask: “why is it important to have auto insurance?” Be assured that “why is it important to have auto insurance?” is a good question to answer, and there is more than one way to cover that topic. Some six million cars are sold across the United States every year, and statistically, many of them will wind up in a crash. It’s time to get prepared.

What is Auto Insurance?

Many lawyers working in the United States today aren’t criminal prosecutors; they are working in the massive and diverse insurance industry, and when you get your first car, you will want to find an insurance attorney from a reputable and fair insurance company to back up. A lot can go wrong on the road, after all, or even when your car is parked, and not everything can be predicted or prevented. So, be sure to cover your bases and not just wonder “why is it important to have auto insurance?”

Auto insurance is not unlike health insurance. You make regular payments to keep your chosen insurance plan in effect, and if anything goes wrong, your auto insurance company will cover costs that your insurance plan entails. And yes, different insurance plans cover different types and numbers of problems for your car, so it is important that you choose one that fits your needs. Learning “why is it important to have auto insurance?” also means finding a suitable plan, not just having insurance for the sake of it. It is possible to get the “wrong” insurance plan for cars, health, and other items of value.

Some insurance plans are quite basic, meaning that they only cover you for a few different types of problems, and any other issue will be your responsibility to pay for. Plans at the other end of the spectrum are costly in their monthly fees, but in exchange, they can cover nearly anything that could happen to your car. Even when you get the answers to “why is it important to have auto insurance,” it’s a good idea to try and predict what sort of driving you will do and what dangers your car or pickup truck might be exposed to. Knowing “why is it important to have auto insurance” is also related to the value of the car itself; if you are driving a “clunker” as a stand-in until you get a better car, you might choose to get minimal car insurance. But if you are driving a prized luxury car or sports car, it is likely that you will get a more elaborate insurance plan to protect it if something happens.

Your car’s value, and how long you plan to keep it, is a major factor. Also consider the driving conditions and how you plan to use the car. The more danger and hazards your car is exposed to, the easier it is to justify more expensive and powerful insurance plans. If you are not sure how to strike a balance between the cost reduction and power of your insurance plan, get legal counsel or refer to experienced car drivers whom you know, and get an idea of how much coverage you need and how much you do not. A too-expensive plan is a waste of money each month, and a too-cheap plan will hardly do anything if something bad happens to your car. Find the happy medium that suits your car and its intended driving conditions.

Car Repairs

This is perhaps the single most significant factor when it comes to owning a car and having an insurance policy on it. All cars, at some point or other, are going to need repairs and tuning, either routine fixes or major repairs after an auto accident. Even if you were not injured in a crash (more on that later), the topic of car accidents and repairs is a major part of “why is it important to have auto insurance?” It is likely that you will end up in this situation sooner or later, so it is best to be prepared.

An automobile accident attorney can provide some good legal counsel after you have gotten in a wreck, whether or not that wreck was your own fault. This attorney can advise you on what actions to take, if any, and they can help you pursue litigation against an at-fault party if someone else was responsible for the car accident you were in. Bear in mind that not all car crash cases go to court; for most legal cases, litigation is enough, and court cases are actually rare and costly. Rather, you are urged to visit a lawyer from your auto insurance company by phone or in person, and get his or her advice on what to do and how. They may give precise and legally-relevant answers to “why is it important to have auto insurance” if you ask, and you can avoid making mistakes that make your case worse. If your car ended up totaled after a crash, you will definitely want some insurance plans and a lawyer on your side, particularly if the other party has a solid lawyer, too.

Meanwhile, what about car repairs? When your automobile becomes badly damaged in a crash, and if it can be saved, you will want to get it fixed as soon as possible. In some cases, if your car was old and low-value, it may make more sense to have it scrapped and go on the market for a new one. But otherwise, you will want to cover some repairs, and this can be costly without a good insurance plan in place. This is possibly the most common answer to “why is it important to have auto insurance?”, and when you look at your damaged car, you will definitely want paperwork on your side to fix it just right. Repair jobs for the car’s body, its bumpers, the engine, and wheels can get costly if you are paying for them out of hand, so this is where your auto insurance steps in. Any diagnosed damage to your car that is part of that plan will (in theory) be covered by your auto insurance plan and company. This is when you cash in on making all those auto insurance payments each month.

Car Accidents

This is another major answer to “why is it important to have auto insurance?”: personal injuries. Many car crashes result in one or more people getting injured or even killed in the incident, and in the case of fatalities, a wrongful death lawyer is a good idea. Otherwise, you may want to find a personal injury attorney from a local law firm, and be aware that many personal injury law firms specialize in auto accident injuries in particular. After all, in a car-heavy nation like the United States, it is common for people to get injured this way, and it is lucrative for lawyers to set up practices centered around this concept. “why is it important to have auto insurance” is all about your own well-being as well as your car’s, and your own health insurance may come into play as well when and if you end up in the hospital due to injuries.

Finding a car accident lawyer is a good call soon after you suffer an auto accident, and you can look online if you are not sure where to start. Your auto insurance lawyer may have some leads and ideas for you, and in any case, a good auto accident lawyer is one whose skills, experience, and personality are to your liking, and you and that lawyer will work to build your case together. After all, you probably do not have the legal knowledge or skills to do this alone during litigation or court, and you may end up stonewalled if you are operating alone.

By contrast, a car accident lawyer will have a clear and objective view of your case and assemble all the details, and they will likely know what to do if your case gets stonewalled or if the at-fault party’s insurance company is acting in bad faith or refusing to cooperate. Besides, if you got injured in a crash, you are probably too emotionally charged to handle your case alone. Finally, take note that your car crash injuries, if they will prevent you from doing paying work in the future, will greatly complicate your financial life. A car accident lawyer should know how to factor this tricky component into your case and thus strengthen your position, and you may indeed receive the desired amount of settlement money.

Truck Accidents

Not all vehicles operating on the roads are sedans or SUVs. Some of them are smaller, such as motorcycles, and some of them are larger, such as work trucks such as semi-trucks or concrete mixer trucks. Sometimes, one of these large vehicles will cause an auto accident, such as if its brakes fail, the truck slips on ice, or the truck merges into traffic while your car is in the way. Should your car become damaged due to a large truck’s behavior, you may want to call upon a truck accident attorney, and be aware that “truck attorney’ can mean more than one thing.

Some truck accident attorneys will represent clients who got injured due to a truck’s performance on the road, and those are the ones that you will want to hire. Meanwhile, other truck accident attorneys will represent the truck drivers and their companies in these cases, and yet others are there to protect truck drivers who suffer injuries due to their truck’s own mishaps or damage (often if no other party was involved). When you hire a truck accident attorney, be aware that the truck driver may have their own attorney, and litigation may follow. When you pursue litigation against a truck driver who injured you on the road, the case may become complex, since that truck driver is the agent of a company and was driving the truck on that company’s behalf. This contrasts with cases of two ordinary cars hitting each other, and there may be all kinds of third parties involved when you hire a truck accident attorney and pursue litigation against a truck driver. This is not to say that you shouldn’t attempt it, however.

Weather-Related Damage

When you find answers to “why is it important to have auto insurance?”, you will realize that you do not need a head-on collision with another vehicle to end up in a bad position where insurance will help you. Sometimes, Mother Nature itself will damage your car, and you certainly can’t sue a thundercloud. But you can factor in typical local weather when you get car insurance, such as if hail and lightning storms are common where you live. Small hail, such as pieces the size of a pea, will probably not cause any damage, but larger pieces (such as golf ball-sized and bigger) will pound noticeable dents into your car all over, and this is a real problem. You will want to get those dents fixed and pounded out, or have parts of your car replaced, and a good insurance policy will cover inclement weather like that. And it’s not just hail; lightning strikes or heavy ice can cause a heavy tree branch to break free and fall right on your car, causing extensive damage to its metal body and windows alike. An auto accident attorney can help even more.

Car Theft

Consult a law firm for legal counsel if your vehicle was stolen, and you should be ready to provide all kinds of information to make recovery possible, such as your car’s VIN, license plate number, description, and more. Further, if your car had a tracker device in it, geospatial data analysts may be able to locate it and help you recover the car. Many companies do this for their vehicles, too, such as jets, sedans, and work trucks, like snowplows. If your car proves impossible to find, you will want compensation for that loss, and an attorney can help with that.

Auto insurance can be thought of as an analog for health insurance, and if you value your car and expect something bad to happen to it someday, be prepared now and have a practical auto insurance plan in place to cover your finances in any worst-case scenario.