Have you been injured in a car accident caused by someone else's negligence? Contact a California personal injury lawyer at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation. The Reeves Law Group has successfully represented thousands of accident victims and obtained exceptional results in a wide variety of serious and catastrophic injury cases.
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Car Accidents
Car Accidents
The network of highways, city streets, and country roads that stretches all over the United States is four million miles long, and an estimated 250 million vehicles travel trillions of miles on these highways, streets, and roads every year.
This staggering amount of travel leads to an equally staggering number of car accidents – over six million annually! People who are injured or killed in auto accidents similarly number in the millions. Given these statistics, chances are you will be involved in at least one auto accident during your lifetime – an accident that may be a highly traumatic, and even life-altering, experience.
What Should You Do After an Auto Accident?
If an auto accident causes severe injuries to you or to a loved one, you should contact a well-established and reputable law firm immediately. Time is of the essence in these cases for the reasons explained below – particularly for individuals unable to care for themselves. Even if the injuries are not severe, you should consult a capable auto accident lawyer soon after you:
- Obtain prompt medical attention for any injured parties, including yourself. If the injuries require emergency care, call an ambulance for transport to a hospital. If not, visit an urgent care center or arrange to be seen by your regular doctor as soon as you leave the accident scene. Some auto accident injuries – often serious ones – may not be apparent to you right away, especially when your body has been traumatized, so be sure you are examined by a medical care provider without delay.
- Call the police and file an auto accident report. Filing a police report will document the facts of the accident and help determine who was at fault.
- Gather information at the accident scene. Anyone involved in a car accident is required by law to exchange contact and insurance information. If you are able, you should take photos of the damage to the vehicles (perhaps with a cell phone camera) and obtain the names and telephone numbers of any witnesses.
Protect Your Car Accident Claims – Don’t Delay!
Act quickly. Anyone who has been injured in an auto accident should get in touch with a reputable car accident lawyer without delay. Why? Because a skilled and experienced auto accident lawyer will:
- Conduct an immediate investigation to locate witnesses and preserve evidence relevant to the car accident before it is lost or altered;
- Help you get the medical care you need;
- Conduct all communication with the insurance companies;
- Assist you in dealing with insurance companies;
- Find all potential sources of compensation for your losses; and
As the victim of a car accident, you should not rely on any insurance company – even your own – to protect your interests. Every insurance company has adjusters, investigators, and attorneys assigned to auto accident claims. Their primary goal is to limit the amount of compensation the insurance company pays to auto accident victims like you.
Insurance companies are not the friends of injured car accident claimants. Don’t make their job easier by providing them with information that they can use or manipulate to deny your car accident claim. Make sure you have the best car accident lawyer you can hire on your side to aggressively protect your interests.
Fault for Auto Accidents
Usually, auto accidents occur because a driver has been negligent, meaning that he or she has operated a vehicle in a careless and unsafe manner. A driver must exercise “reasonable care” while behind the wheel and may be deemed negligent for violating speed limits, ignoring traffic signals, or being preoccupied by distracting activities such as eating or talking on a cell phone while driving.
The burden of proving negligence, however, is on the injured party! It falls on the victim to show that the driver who caused the car accident was negligent and that the accident caused injuries deserving of compensation.
An experienced and reputable auto accident lawyer will skillfully navigate an injured person’s claims through the complexities of the court system, pinpointing the legal bases for the claims and quantifying the damages to which the injured individual is entitled.
Damages in Auto Accident Cases
While an insurance company is interested in paying you the least amount of money to settle your auto accident claim, a competent and reputable auto accident lawyer will pursue all types of compensation for an auto injury client.
If you have been injured in an auto accident, you may be entitled to recover compensation for your:
- Medical bills for emergency room care, hospitalization, doctor visits, physical therapy, or chiropractic treatment, not to mention diagnostic tests like x-rays and MRIs. Recovery of medical bills is not limited to past care. A skilled auto accident lawyer will pursue recovery of expenses associated with future medical care that you may need!
- Pain and suffering associated with injuries sustained in the auto accident. The nature, severity, and duration of your injuries are important factors in computing damages for pain and suffering. A thorough assessment of these damages involves fully understanding the car accident’s impact on your life and its disruptive effects on your daily activities.
- Loss of wages due to missed work. If you are unable to work because of the injuries caused by the car accident, you are entitled to recover the wages you would have earned during the time you missed. You are entitled to this recovery even if you used sick leave or vacation time to cover your absence! Sometimes, calculating your lost wages may be challenging, perhaps because you are self-employed or because your earnings are commission-based. In such instances, the services of an expert car accident lawyer will prove invaluable.
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Reduced earning capacity because of ongoing disability. If you suffered
long-term injuries in the auto accident, your ability to earn income may be impacted indefinitely. If your injuries are permanent, you may be unable to return to your particular job or may never be able to work again. A resourceful car accident attorney will assemble the right team of economic experts to ensure that these anticipated losses are fully integrated in your claim for compensation.
Although punitive damages – which are awarded to punish a wrongdoer – are not ordinarily allowed in auto accident cases, a car accident attorney who is well versed in personal injury law will recognize those exceptional situations (as when an accident is caused by a drunk driver) that allow for the recovery of such damages.
Sources of Compensation for Your Car Accident Injuries
It is in your best interest that you hire a law firm that will do more than just file a claim with an insurance company on your behalf, especially because the available insurance policy may turn out to have insufficient limits to fully cover your damages. A resourceful auto accident lawyer will investigate all sources of compensation and pursue all avenues of recovery for injured claimants. You and the passengers in your vehicle may have claims against additional parties who bear responsibility for the car accident. For example:
- All owners of a vehicle may be liable for the negligent conduct of the driver. These owners may range from the parents of drivers under the age of 18 to business entities providing their employees with vehicles as a job perk.
- Employers may bear responsibility for auto accidents caused by their employees while on the job. In certain corporate contexts, parent companies could be held responsible for the conduct of their wholly-owned subsidiaries.
- Government units and agencies may share in the fault for the auto accident. Cities, counties, and even the state may have failed to design, construct, and maintain safe roads (see Dangerous Roads) or implement proper traffic controls (including light signals, stop signs, and speed limit postings). Handling a car accident claim against a government entity, however, is a sophisticated task and requires considerable expertise and legal acumen. In addition, very strict filing deadlines apply to car accident claims against government entities, making it imperative that you consult with a knowledgeable car accident lawyer without delay.
Related Topics
Auto accidents may be of different types and may result from different causes. For more information you can access additional information from our website by clicking on the topics below:
Choosing the Right Car Accident Lawyer
Pursuing a claim for personal injuries caused by a car accident may be both complicated and costly. Some lawyers, due to their lack of skill or resources, may not pursue all claims and compensation available to you. The law firm you select should have ample experience and expertise, and a proven track record of successes. These successes should be not only in the simpler car accident cases, but also in the more challenging ones, such as those involving products liability and government claims for faulty road designs and dangerous conditions.
You should only consider a well-established, well-staffed, and well-financed law firm to handle your auto accident claim – a firm with the resources to fund a proper investigation of the car accident; order the requisite forensic engineering and conduct the necessary safety analyses; and utilize a network of medical and economic experts to ascertain the extent of your damages.
The attorneys at The Reeves Law Group have handled thousands of auto accident cases. We have consistently achieved exceptional results for our clients, while earning a reputation for professionalism and competence in the community of lawyers, judges and insurance representatives. For a free consultation on a car accident case, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or e-mail us.
