Injuries and Cars need a lawyer.

Utah's general statute of limitations for personal injury is four years from the date of the accident (78B-2-307). Wrongful death claims are shorter — two years from the date of death (78B-2-304). Medical malpractice is also two years from discovery. Cases against a government employee or entity (UDOT, UTA, a city, a state agency) require a formal Notice of Claim within one year under the Utah Governmental Immunity Act — miss it, and the case is gone no matter how strong the underlying facts are.

Even though four years sounds like a long time, waiting is expensive. Skid marks get cleaned up, security footage gets overwritten (most businesses only keep 14–30 days), witness memory blurs, and the at-fault driver's insurance adjuster locks in lowball offers within 48 hours. The sooner we start, the more evidence we can preserve — and the more leverage we have at settlement.

Most can't — and most won't. Most personal injury firms in Utah file only the bodily-injury claim and hand your totaled (or damaged) vehicle off to the insurance adjuster. That adjuster then lowballs your car and quietly uses that settlement to weaken your injury case. The average Utah driver leaves $3,800–$14,200 on the table in unclaimed diminished value and total-loss shortfalls.

LawyerUp is built differently. We're the only Utah injury firm with certified in-house appraisers — BCAA-credentialed through BOCAA — who handle both claims simultaneously. One firm, one case file, one settlement that accounts for everything the at-fault driver owes you. If you've already accepted a property-damage offer, call us anyway — we can often reopen it under Utah's bad-faith and unfair claims practice rules.

Diminished value is the permanent loss in your vehicle's market value after a reported accident appears on Carfax or AutoCheck, even after perfect repairs. Utah is one of the states that allows third-party diminished value claims — meaning you can recover from the at-fault driver's insurance carrier, not just your own.

The math is real. A 2022 SUV with a $38,000 pre-loss market value and a documented accident history typically loses $4,000–$7,000 in resale value the moment the Carfax report posts. On higher-end vehicles — Teslas, trucks, luxury makes — the diminished value figure routinely exceeds $12,000. A qualified appraisal compares pre-loss value to post-repair market value using Black Book, KBB, and recent dealer-auction comps.

You qualify if (1) the crash was not your fault, (2) your vehicle sustained structural or cosmetic damage reported to your insurer, and (3) you still own the vehicle (leased vehicles have different rules). We file the diminished value claim on top of the injury claim — same file, same settlement. See our property damage practice page for full detail.

No — and you shouldn't. Insurance adjusters for State Farm, Allstate, Progressive, Geico, USAA, and Farmers are trained to open with offers 30–70% below fair case value. They rely on three things: (1) you don't know what your case is actually worth, (2) you're stressed and want the bills paid, and (3) you've never negotiated a case like this before.

Represented claimants recover on average 3.5× more than unrepresented claimants (Insurance Research Council data), even after legal fees are deducted. LawyerUp clients specifically average 3–12× the first offer once we engage. The leverage shifts immediately when a law firm with a 30-year Utah trial history is on the file — the adjuster's authority limit changes, supervisors get involved, and valuation gets serious.

A free case review costs nothing and tells you, in plain numbers, what your case is actually worth before you sign anything.

It means pure contingency fee representation. You pay zero out of pocket. We front the cost of medical-record retrieval, expert-witness fees, court filing fees, deposition transcripts, accident reconstructionists, and every other case cost along the way. Our fee is a percentage of your recovery — typically 33⅓% pre-litigation and 40% if we have to file suit, in line with standard Utah personal injury contingency rates.

If we don't recover money for you, you owe us nothing. No retainer, no hourly billing, no hidden costs, no surprise invoices at the end. The only time you pay is when a settlement or verdict hits — and we disburse the funds transparently with a closing statement showing exactly where every dollar went.

1) Call 911 and get medical attention — even if you feel fine. Whiplash, concussion, TBI symptoms, and soft-tissue injuries often don't appear until hours or days later. An ER or urgent-care visit the day of the crash is critical for both your health and your claim documentation. 2) Photograph everything — vehicle positions, license plates, debris, skid marks, traffic signals, weather conditions, your visible injuries, the other driver's ID and insurance card. 3) Exchange insurance info with every driver involved and collect contact info for every witness on scene. Ask the responding officer for the case number. 4) Do NOT give a recorded statement to the at-fault driver's insurer — ever. They will call within 48 hours and it will sound friendly. It is not. 5) Call LawyerUp at (866) 264-2638 — we answer 24/7. We can coordinate medical care on a lien (no out-of-pocket) and open both claims the same day.

Case value depends on injury severity, medical bills, lost wages, future medical care, permanence of the injury, available insurance limits, and liability clarity. Utah settlements generally fall in these ranges based on our 30 years of case data:

• Soft-tissue / whiplash (no surgery): $10,000–$75,000
• Disc herniation, ongoing treatment, injections: $50,000–$500,000
• Surgery, fusion, permanent impairment: $250,000–$2,000,000+
• Spinal cord, severe TBI, amputation: seven to eight figures
• Wrongful death: case-specific; our largest Utah verdict is $58.5M

Insurance policy limits frequently cap recovery — Utah's minimum required liability coverage is only $25,000 per person / $65,000 per accident, which is rarely enough for a serious injury. We also pursue umbrella policies, commercial policies, and your own underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage where applicable. A free case review gives you a specific value range based on your facts, not a generic quote.

Utah follows modified comparative negligence with a 50% bar (78B-5-818). If you're 49% at fault, you can still recover 51% of your damages. If you're 50% or more at fault, you recover nothing. This is why insurance adjusters aggressively inflate your fault percentage — pushing you from 40% to 51% cuts their payout to zero.

Fault allocation is fought with police reports, scene photos, skid-mark analysis, dash-cam and traffic-camera footage, witness statements, and — when the dollars justify it — a full accident reconstruction. We've moved fault allocations from 60/40 against the client down to 0/100 in the client's favor more times than we can count. Partial fault is not a reason to skip the call. It's a reason to call sooner.

Utah is one of 12 no-fault states. Your own auto policy's Personal Injury Protection (PIP) pays the first $3,000 of medical bills, plus limited wage-loss, household-services, and funeral benefits — regardless of who caused the crash. PIP is mandatory on every Utah auto policy (31A-22-307).

The catch: you can only sue the at-fault driver for pain and suffering after you meet Utah's injury threshold — typically when medical bills exceed $3,000, or the injury causes permanent disability, disfigurement, or dismemberment (31A-22-309). Adjusters weaponize this threshold to rush lowball settlements before your bills finish stacking up. We don't let them. We delay settlement until treatment is complete and the full damage picture is in view.

The same day if possible — and definitely before you talk to the at-fault driver's insurer. The first 48 hours determine case strength more than any other factor. In that window we can (1) preserve scene evidence before it's cleaned up, (2) subpoena surveillance footage before it's auto-deleted, (3) lock down witness statements while memory is fresh, (4) coordinate medical documentation so nothing gets missed, and (5) block the at-fault insurer from taking a recorded statement that would later be used against you.

Brad personally takes new-case calls 24/7. There is no charge to call, no obligation to hire, and the consultation does not create an attorney-client relationship — it's just an attorney looking at your facts and telling you honestly what the case is worth and what we'd do with it. Call (866) 264-2638 or submit the intake form above.