I was in a pretty bad car accident ( Edited to add Update)

[moonscape]

53. I've been in 2 accidents where my car was

totaled - one with injury, one without - and handled both myself. With the injury one I had to have surgery and did meet with an attorney for a consultation. He gave me an idea of what the injury was worth, his fee would be 30%, and if I couldn’t settle on my own to come back to him. That one was 20 years ago and I settled for 80k.

The other one I argued with the insurance company re the value of my car and got them to increase payment by 5k. Since you have no injury (make sure those bruises and soreness aren’t an injury! take pics of bruises) , once fault is determined to be the other driver (critical), your only issue is the value of your car. It wouldn’t occur to me to go to an attorney ($$) for that but I guess if they try to seriously low-ball you and you can’t get them to budge …

So glad you are okay! For me, the reliving/trauma faded after a reasonably short time. Here’s hoping it does for you as well.