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7 Questions to Consider when Contacting a Car Accident Law Firm
Contents:
What Are Some of The First Things You Should Do After a Car Crash?
How Do I Know If I Have a Personal Injury Case after a Car Crash?
Should I Contact a Car Crash Lawyer before An Insurance Adjuster?
Can I Handle My Own Car Crash Personal Injury Claims? Do I Specifically Need a Car Accident Attorney?
How Much Will it Cost Me to File a Car-Crash Injury Claim?
Should I Accept the Insurance Company’s Settlement After My Auto Accident Injury?
What Kind of Compensation Can I Get after A Car Crash?
What is a PIP Claim and How Does It Work?
What Are Some of The First Things You Should Do After a Car Crash?
First, anyone who is suffering from an injury after a car accident should immediately call the police or 911 and tell them they need medical assistance. If you can, take pictures of the crash scene and the cars involved and keep them to yourself so that you can show a lawyer. Make sure everyone is safe and get all of the medical assistance you need. Then, seek the help of an auto-accident attorney before you even think of talking to an insurance adjuster or a private investigator hired by an insurance company.
Access The Rothenberg Law Firm’s checklist of “What To Do After A Car Accident” or click on the infographic on the right to learn more.
How Do I Know If I Have a Personal Injury Case after a Car Crash?
If you were injured in a motor-vehicle crash, and the crash was caused by someone else’s negligence, you may have a legal claim. Even if the events of a crash seem unclear to you or if you are uncertain as to who caused the crash, if you are injured, call an injury law firm for a free case evaluation to see if a car crash lawyer can help you.
Should I Contact a Car Crash Lawyer before An Insurance Adjuster?
Insurance adjusters are professionally trained to deceive you by having you say the wrong things in a recorded statement after a car crash, or having you sign a false statement. Remember, the adjuster’s only goal is to pay you as little as possible to maximize their company’s profits.
Our top personal injury lawyers at The Rothenberg Law Firm LLP always offer a free consultation, so there is nothing to lose by explaining how you were injured and learning how the law applies in your specific situation.
Can I Handle My Own Car Crash Personal Injury Claims? Do I Specifically Need a Car Accident Attorney?
It is understandable for individuals to want to settle matters quickly and move on as soon as possible after a car crash. As a result, many people are tempted to try to take care of all issues—including legal issues—without getting help from a car accident attorney with a focus on personal injury claims.
Before proceeding on your own, it is crucial to understand the pitfalls of trying to handle your case without legal representation.
You can be sure that those representing the negligent party—usually an insurance company—will be investigators, adjusters, and lawyers working to pay out as little as possible. Insurance companies and their attorneys will often calculate the value of your claim based on how aggressive they feel the injured party will fight for full compensation. When you retain a car accident lawyer to fight for you, you are essentially ensuring that you will not be taken advantage of by the other side.
You should seek the help of an injury attorney with vast experience handling car accident cases that can stand up to insurance companies. If the other side is not cooperating and your case requires litigation, the attorney must be prepared to take the case to trial for full and fair recovery.
If the opposing side sees that you are willing to go as far as necessary to ensure justice, they will often deal more reasonably right from the start. Obtaining experienced legal counsel with a focus on car accident claims will show the defending insurance company that you are serious about your case.
How Much Will it Cost Me to File a Car-Crash Injury Claim?
The auto-accident attorneys at The Rothenberg Law Firm LLP take personal injury claims on a contingency fee basis. This means that they will only get paid following a successful monetary recovery for you.
Should I Accept the Insurance Company’s Settlement After My Auto Accident Injury?
Adjusters often come ready to make payments immediately to convince you to accept less than what you actually deserve. Typically, insurance agents’ settlement offers are less than 5% of the value of your car accident case!
For this reason, an insurance adjuster will contact you immediately after your car accident and may even visit you in the hospital after an auto accident injury to get information from you.
There is no reason to rush into accepting a settlement offer from an insurance company without first seeking the help of a personal injury lawyer. A lawyer can help you through your case to get you the highest compensation you deserve. Your lawyer will make sure that you never sign away your legal rights without being fully informed of the consequences.
Do not deal with the insurance company alone. Seek help from experiences and successful personal injury lawyers. For more information, click here.
What Kind of Compensation Can I Get after A Car Crash?
The law allows recovery for a wide range of situations. A lawyer can help you get money for past medical bills, future medical bills, rehabilitation costs, therapy, lost wages, future lost income, and often most importantly, pain and suffering. Pain and suffering after a crash can include the loss of enjoyment of your life and the mental anxiety of dealing with pain, trauma, and/or a disability caused by a crash.
A car crash attorney may also help you obtain compensation for your family members who were adversely affected by the crash. Harm to spouses or children can often be recovered separately from the damages awarded to the injured individual. Your car accident attorney will explain whether damage awards to your spouse or children applies in your case.
What Is a PIP Claim and How Does It Work?
If you live in Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, or Utah, you may be eligible to make a personal injury protection (PIP) claim following a car accident. PIP coverage and claims have to do with “no fault” car insurance, which means that your own insurer will pay a portion (or all of) of your medical bills and lost earnings if you get into an accident, regardless of who was at fault.
No fault car insurance is typically enacted by states as a way to streamline accident insurance claims. Every state’s law is different; some limit the amount of compensation that your insurance company is allowed to pay you, and some do not. Once your medical bills exceed your state’s no fault limit, it becomes your responsibility to pay the remaining balance. Understanding how PIP insurance can work for you after an accident can be confusing, and you should contact an attorney to help you navigate the process.
Common Auto Accident Causes and Injuries
What Are Some of the Main Causes of Car Crashes?
Car accidents can be caused by a number of factors. These can include driver negligence, reckless or intentional misconduct, and defective car parts such as airbags, seat belts, and lack of crashworthiness. Some of the most common causes are:
- Negligence
Driver Negligence is perhaps the number one cause of auto accidents. Negligence generally means that the driver who caused the accident did not exercise reasonable care under the circumstances on the road. The driver’s actions are compared to what a reasonable person would do under similar circumstances.
Examples of negligent driving include speeding, distracted driving (talking on a cell phone, texting, smoking, eating), carelessly ignoring traffic signals, or not taking conditions like rain or snow into account. There are many areas in which negligence can occur, but the common thread is that negligence is a failure to act reasonably under the circumstances.
- Impaired Driving: Drugs, Alcohol and Fatigue
Drowsy driving and driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol are all impairments that heighten a person’s likelihood of getting into an auto accident. Of course, no one should drive if they feel they are impaired by medication or the use of recreational drugs.
In most states, auto accident injuries caused by drunk drivers could result in liability for the business or host who supplied the alcohol and allowed the patron to drive in an impaired condition. The rules related to these issues are often referred to as “dram shop” laws, and they are currently implemented in 38 states
Finally, a person should not be driving if they are feeling overly tired or did not get enough sleep. Lack of sleep can have the same effects on a person as being drunk, and. symptoms of drowsy driving include
- Trouble keeping focus on the road,
- Performing careless or thoughtless driving behaviors
- Drifting in and out of lanes, and
- Falling asleep behind the wheel.
For commercial drivers and truck drivers, it is federally mandated that workers take sufficient breaks between shifts to get enough sleep.
- Recklessness or Intentional Misconduct
Intentional misconduct, on the other hand, is an act committed when the person knew that doing so could cause harm and did not care, or actively desired to harm others. Someone who drives drunk or impaired, or at a high rate of speed, cutting in and out of traffic, is intentionally putting himself and others at risk.
- Defective Auto Products
Under strict liability, a manufacturer of a product can be held liable for damages caused by its products if the product is shown to be defective. Defective car products can lead to dangers on the road for the driver and other drivers around them. Dangerous car products that can cause accidents include faulty tires, airbags, seatbelts, seatbacks, blinding headlights, and other products that affect the driver and occupants.
In addition, road conditions may cause a crash. Be sure to advise the responding police officers if there were dangerous road conditions at the time of the crash.
For more information about the causes of car accidents, read our list of common car accident questions here.
What Are Some of the Most Common Car Accident Injuries?
When you are involved in an auto accident, it is extremely important to be evaluated by medical personnel to ensure you are injury-free as internal damage may not be apparent immediately following the incident. It could take days for symptoms to begin to show, if they even show at all. There is no limit to what type of physical injuries may be sustained from a car crash, but some of the most common include:
- Soft tissue injuries including damage to tendons, ligaments, or muscles.
- Scrapes and cuts
- Neck and back injuries
- Head and brain injuries including concussions, traumatic brain injuries, or internal bleeding
- Burns
- Broken bones
- Spinal injuries
It is important to see a health care provider as soon as you begin to experience symptoms so you can be sure to make a claim and get your medical costs paid. Regardless of your insurance coverage, if you didn’t immediately seek medical attention, insurance companies can and will dispute your claim.
If you have been in a car accident and think you have sustained an injury, contact us as soon as possible so we can provide a free case evaluation and help you determine how much you may be owed.
Finding the Right Car Accident Attorney
The Rothenberg Law Firm LLP has been handling car accident lawsuits for over 50 years. We have the experience and the dedication you need. The firm can be reached at 1-888-387-1247 or you can fill out a free online case evaluation form. Timing is important because statutes of limitation affect how long you have to file a claim. The initial consultation is always FREE. If we pursue your case, there is no legal fee unless we are successful in getting you money.
Our Process
When a car accident victim contacts us about a crash, we recognize that each case is unique and requires extensive care. How do our accident injury lawyers deliver the results to which our clients are entitled? We do it the Rothenberg Way.
1. Take Aggressive, Prompt Action.
Though this may be your first experience with a car accident case, we have dealt with thousands and have the experience to fight for your rights. We are committed to being prompt as time is essential in maximizing your compensation and recovery. Typically, we contact clients as soon as possible after they come to us for a consultation and schedule an intake interview. Though the police report can be useful, it may be incomplete and not give an accurate picture of the incident. So we work to quickly get to the scene of the accident with any necessary experts. This ensures that the accident scene is preserved and witness accounts of the incident are as accurate as possible. We then use this to reconstruct the facts of each case to develop the narrative for the trial, ultimately driving it towards a verdict or resolution for the accident claim.
2. Master the Law.
We want to serve our clients in the best way possible, so we make it a priority to know the law of the jurisdiction as it applies to liability, admissible evidence, and recoverable damages.
3. Master the Science.
Despite the fact that the science and medicine behind injuries is constantly evolving, we are dedicated to being “on top” of how the injury happened and how it can be remedied. Mastering the science is critical in our process, and can benefit both us and the client throughout the claims process.
4. Invest in the Case.
When the right experts are involved, the probability of us winning a case rises exponentially. We work with doctors and other experts that are just as competent as the defense experts for billion dollar insurance companies. We also work with investigators who are former FBI agents, police officers and other experienced professionals. Our trial strategy includes the use of the highest quality experts in the respective fields.
5. Prepare the Client.
We want to ensure that you feel prepared for a deposition, so we walk you through every portion of the process from the look of the courtroom to what questions may be asked. When we finish our preparation, our clients leave confident that they are prepared for what would otherwise be an intimidating situation.
Last updated: 3/20/2020
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