Have you ever been involved in a car accident? It is important to keep in mind that 90% of car accident cases happen with a human factor. It means that in many cases, one or several of the parties involved in the accident have made a mistake that led to the occurrence of the accident.
Most type of accidents involving cars are collisions.
1. Rear end collisions – the driver who is in the car behind you is usually the one to blame
2. Side collision – typically, this kind of collision happens once another driver ignores traffic rules in crossroads and hits a car on the side.
3. Head on collision – the gravity and severity of damage is calculated by the overall speed of both cars involved. This kind of accidents occurs following bad take-over that is made riskily.
Embarking upon a car accident claim or any type of personal injury claim, for that matter is not all that easy or spontaneous. Before filing a claim, you have to make sure that all necessary and obvious factors are covered in your claim, as well as the hidden factors that could make or break your case.
Here are several of the most important things to have in mind if you are planning to file a car accident claim.
1. Requesting for a car accident claim can only be done if you have nothing, which could pinpoint the blame for the accident to you.
2. When you are sure that you are blameless in the course of the events that led to the accident, next thing to do is to find an expert car accident lawyer to assist you with the procedures of filing your claim.
Even as you have read instructions and several laws about it, do not even consider doing your claim by yourself. If the knowledge you have gained is still lacking, and you attempted to do your claim on your own, then it may be detrimental for your case.
It is even more advisable to find car accident specialists in a car accident law firm, wherein they would have various expertises in claiming for certain car accident scenarios.
3. It may be serious mistake to lay out all of your money and take it with the insurance company. If you fail to get assistance from a lawyer, chances are the other party’s insurance company would extend all its efforts to reduce the amount that you rightfully deserve, up to minimum.
Your lawyer would clear up issues like this, for you. He/she can tell you the specific amount of money that you could receive, what to do to achieve this, what are the things to and the proper way of saying it.
One major advice in dealing with car collision lawyers where you would be satisfied with the outcome is to retain a lawyer on a contingent fee basis. In this case, the no win no fee rule will be implemented and you would not be burdened with costs and expenses without being sure of the outcome.
This is important since if you were injured, your priority must be recuperating and not being bothered with more financial problems of supporting your case.
By: Carla C. Ballatan
Posts Tagged ‘Head On Collision’
Things to Remember Concerning Car Accident Claims
February 5th, 2010Car Accidents in NY – 7 Reasons You May Not Want to Sue
January 15th, 2010
In New York, if you were involved in a car accident, there’s an excellent chance that you would bring a lawsuit against the driver of the car that hit you. In this article, I explain 7 reasons why you may not want to bring a lawsuit if you were involved in a car accident:
1. You were not injured.
You’d think this was self-explanatory, but it’s not. There are two types of claims you can bring in an auto accident. The first is a property damage claim for the damage to your car. The second is a personal injury claim which would be for the physical injuries you suffered, the medical expenses, your past and future pain and suffering, as well as lost wages and potential lost future wages.
2. Your friends will think you are greedy.
Some people feel that the only reason to bring a lawsuit is because you are looking to ‘make money’ off the system, and why not? It’s only the insurance company’s money. Other people don’t look at their injuries as a w0ay to make money. They’d rather go to work and earn money the ‘old fashioned’ way by working for their income.
During a trial, a good trial lawyer can make the following argument when asking a jury to understand what his client went through and why he’s entitled to compensation : Let’s suppose that this morning Mr. Jones put an ad in the newspaper and said he’d give away One Million Dollars, for free! Just show up at his door, and the first one there will get it. No questions asked. How many people do you think would sprint out their door and race to be the first one in line? Thousands of people would try. But…what if you placed certain conditions on getting that $1,000,000 dollars?
Let’s say now that the ad said that in order to get that one million dollars you had to be involved in a horrific head-on collision that ejected you from the car and you landed 30 feet from the car. How many people do you think would still be waiting on that line? A lot less than started. But what if the add went further, and said that before you could get that money, you not only had to be involved in this terrible car accident, but you had to have suffered a fractured pelvis, shattered both of your femurs (the largest bone in your body- they’re the thigh bones) had to be placed on a respirator for 20 days, intentionally put into a medically-induced coma for 10 days, and had major reconstructive surgery to fix the broken bones. How many people do you think would still be standing on that line? Not very many, but maybe one or two very desperate souls.
What if we added a few more conditions on to that advertisement, so that in order to get that “Free” million dollars, you had to learn how to walk all over again, you had to spend three months in a rehabilitation center, and had to have two more surgeries to fix complications and infections that happened from the original surgery. Then on top of that, explain that their daily activities would have to be forever changed and they could not play sports, run, jog, ski, play basketball, football and everything they liked to do before the accident. How many people do you think would still be standing at the door seeking that “Free” million dollars? Nobody.
That’s what a good trial attorney tries to explain to a jury in a significant accident case. The money will help pay for medical bills and modifications to their home to ambulate. It will provide a safety net for the injured victim and their family. Anyone who thinks a seriously injured car accident victim is suing because they’re greedy should read this article. In addition, they should spend at least one day in victims’ home watching them struggle with daily activities like ties their shoes and buttoning their shirt. Only by showing someone the tremendous hardships you face will they realize how important it is to obtain full compensation for your injuries.
3. What good will the money do you?
This is a famous defense attorney line. This is used during negotiations, and also used during summations. “Plaintiff’s attorney is asking for millions for his client. Think about this…what good will the money do him? He can’t use it. His medical expenses…sure, give it to him, he deserves it. But the millions he’s asking for? No way. His injuries prevent him from going out and spending such huge exhorbitant amounts of money.
The reply to this argument is not what you think. As much as you’d like to shake some sense into the defense lawyer, this is a better approach. “Look, your client created the problems that my client suffered. He didn’t do anything to create this accident or his injuries that stem from this accident. My client has incurred medical expenses in the thousands of dollars. Who is going to pay for those expenses? Should he, or his insurance company, have to foot the bill for your client’s wrongdoing? I don’t think so. That only covers his medical expenses in the past. What about future medical expenses that he’s sure to have? You’ve got to cover that as well.
This doesn’t even begin to address the compensation that he’s entitled to for the suffering he’s endured from the time of the accident until today. Don’t forget about the future suffering he’ll have from his injuries and medical care he’s going to need to treat his ongoing problems. This is known as past and future pain and suffering. Thankfully for injured victims in New York, there is no cap on pain and suffering awards.
To answer the question above…it will do a lot for the injured victim and their family.
4. You don’t know a good New York lawyer anyway.
If you don’t know a good lawyer, you should keep looking. There are many ways to find a good attorney.
Importantly, you want an attorney who has handled many cases just like yours. You want someone with experience. The question of whether you want a big New York City firm, a small firm, or even a solo practitioner is simply a matter of personal preference. Keep in mind that whomever you choose, you must feel comfortable with. Always ask “Who is going to be handling your case day to day?” “Who will be appearing on your conferences with the Court?” “Who will appear at your deposition, and the depositions of the people you have sued?” “Who will be trying my case if it goes to trial?”
If you don’t mind many different attorneys handling different parts of your case, then you should have no problem going to a large firm. If you want one attorney to handle your case from start to finish, then you should seek an experienced solo practitioner.
5. The chances of you recovering money are not good unless you have a significant injury.
That may be true. If you have a minor injury, then your compensation will like be minimal. If your injuries are significant, the compensation you may be entitled to may also be significant. Each case will differ. The answer also depends on where your case is venued- that is which court it’s in. Is it in the Bronx or Brooklyn? Or is it in Westchester or upstate Albany?
If you don’t have any injury, or the injury was minimal, your case may be dismissed without ever getting to trial. Your injuries may not meet the “threshold” that is needed to continue your case. There are specific guidelines relating to the type of injury you must have to bring a case in the Supreme Court of the State of New York- which by the way, is the trial-level court.
6. The driver of the car that hit you will not like you if you sue him.
My response is “So what?” Why would you care about what the other driver thought? You shouldn’t. The other driver was careless and his carelessness caused you permanent injury. If you want to live your life worried about what other people think, then you should re-think what you do on a daily basis.
A decision to sue someone isn’t about whether you’re popular or whether someone will or will not like you. It’s about your fundamental right to be repaid something that is owed to you. When a wrongdoer causes harm, he becomes obligated to pay you for your harm and the disability that he has caused. That’s an obligation we as a society recognize, not just in New York, but throughout the United States.
7. Your picture might appear in the newspaper.
In most accident cases in New York your picture will not appear in the newspaper. Most cases are not deemed “newsworthy” by the local newspapers. They’re a common occurrence and unless it’s an extremely slow news day, or there’s something unusual about your particular case, it is unlikely your picture or your case will get any mention in the newspapers.
CONCLUSION
After reading this article you should have a better understanding of whether you should or should not bring a lawsuit if you’ve been injured in a car accident in the State of New York.
By: Gerry Oginski
Car Accidents are Common in Los Angeles–Good Personal Injury Lawyers Aren’t
November 4th, 2009
Every year tens of thousands of California and Los Angeles vehicle drivers are involved in a car accident resulting in injuries to themselves or others. A high percentage of these accidents result in personal injuries. If you have suffered a personal injury you may be entitled to compensation for your injuries. Personal injury cases can become very complicated.
In all automobile accident cases it is essential that steps be taken immediately to preserve evidence, investigate the accident in question, and to enable physicians or other expert witnesses to thoroughly evaluate any injuries. Therefore, is important to choose an experienced personal injury attorney in pursuing a claim to recover for your personal injuries.
Traffic Accidents in Los Angeles and Orange County are the most common types of personal injury cases. Cases involving personal injury resulting from accidents are litigated under the principles of negligence, (link to negligence) unless the state has determined to do away with fault as an issue. The injured plaintiff is required to prove that someone was negligent, that the negligence caused the accident, and that the accident caused the plaintiff’s injuries. In some cases your gut feeling may tell you that the other driver, cyclist, or pedestrian acted carelessly, but not what rules they violated.
Types of Car Accident Injuries
Side-impact injuries
A side-impact injury occurs as a result of another vehicle barreling into you from the side. It is the deadliest form of car accidents leaving 10,000 persons dead each year. In a head-on collision you are protected by several feet of steel, engine, and bumper. A side-impact accident leaves only a few inches of door and some window glass between you and the other vehicle.
Every vehicle on the road is required to pass the government implemented side-impact standards. Many people feel these standards are outdated. The government tests have been criticized for failing to test head standards in all vehicles. It uses a dummy representing an average size male that doesn’t register head injuries, and its test only looks at what happens when similar size vehicles collide.I was a passenger involved in a car accident and I suffered injuries, can I get recovery for my personal-injury damages?
Passenger Injuries
If you were a passenger in a vehicle involved in an accident, and if you have sustained injury as a result, you are entitled to receive compensation for your injuries. As a passenger, you have a claim against both the driver of the vehicle in which you were riding as well as the drivers of any other vehicles (or any other negligent party) involved in the collision. As a passenger you generally cannot be considered to be at fault or partially at fault for causing an accident unless you do something to cause the accident such as distract the driver.
Paraplegia
Paraplegia is a type of paralysis which affects both the legs and the trunk. Persons affect by paraplegia have no movement in their legs, and are often limited or have no movement in their torso. Paraplegia results from spinal cord injury. (Link to Spinal Cord Injury) Many accident victims are paraplegic as a result of unsafe or defective vehicles.
Paraplegia interrupts sensory messages to the brain so that the affected individual cannot “feel” their affected body parts, and are generally insensitive to pain or heat. As a result, a victim’s health and safety is jeopardized because of this inability to differentiate pain. Some victims have damaged nerves resulting in phantom pain and heat sensations. Paraplegia significantly impacts the patient’s quality of life by affecting sexual drive, digestive capabilities, bladder control and shortened life expectancy.
Car accidents have often caused the major trauma (link to traumatic brain injury) that result in paraplegia. Vehicles such as SUV’s are prone to roll over and do not have adequate roof structure. As a result, the roof crushes and caves in causing spinal cord injuries. Fortunately, there are steps to be taken to reduce such injuries including paraplegia. There are step that auto manufacturers should take to ensure that vehicles are safe and have the best airbags, seatbelts to prevent ejection, sound vehicle design and roof stability
Spinal Injuries
Although the spinal cord is only 18 inches long, and is made up of tiny, delicate nerve cells, a spinal cord injury (SCI) can be a traumatic and devastating injury resulting in a lifetime of pain, suffering and huge medical expenses. At the California Attorney Group, we know how devastating these injuries can be.
An SCI typically involves some type of trauma to the nerve cells that form the spinal cord. As the spinal cord carries messages from the brain to various parts of the body to control functions such as movement, breathing, speaking, and other critical body functions, an injury to the spinal cord disrupts this communication, leading to the impairment of the body’s sensory, motor and involuntary reflex functions. Depending upon the nature and extent of the SCI, these disruptions can lead to two devastating conditions: paraplegia (paralysis of the lower portions of the body) or quadriplegia (paralysis of the upper and lower parts of the body).
The principal causes of SCI are automobile accidents [link to Car Accidents, slip and falls [link to Slip and Falls], acts of violence, sports-related injuries, injuries at work, and other incidents that cause injury or compression to the nerve cells of the spinal cord. Approximately 250,000 Americans currently suffer from some form of SCI, and there are about 11,000 new cases annually.
The costs related to SCI can be staggering. More than half of all spinal cord injuries result in quadriplegia, resulting in an average hospital stay of 95 days and approximately $140,000 in medical expenses. For individuals who sustain SCI at the age of 25, the average lifetime medical costs for quadriplegia is $1.35 million. And these figure does not take into account the physical and emotional suffering of the victims, the loss of wages and other income, and the financial and emotional burdens that SCI places on the victims’ care givers, who are more often than not close family members of the victim.
Moreover, if you are in a car accident, you could have injuries such as Brain Injuries and Spinal Injuries. It is important for your attorney to understand the possibility of theses injuries and not overlook them. Many unscrupulous attorney’s will push to settle their personal injury cases as quickly as possible to generate revenue for themselves. They will overlook symptoms such as simple headaches which could be an indication of a brain injury. {link to brain injury] A poorly timed or crafted settlement can leave you liable for thousands of dollars in medical bills. Our goal at California Attorney Group is to make you whole. This means our first goal is to assure the medical fitness of our clients and settlement of our cases second.
Brain Injuries
Most often brain injuries are caused by serious vehicle accidents, drastic falls, bus or train accidents, amongst other sever accidents. Every 15 seconds someone suffers a brain injury. The impact of a brain injury on someone’s life can be devastating, but a brain injury attorney can help lessen the strain the brain injury has caused by recovering damages the brain injury patient is entitled to. Of all the injuries that an individual can suffer, brain related injuries are among the most frightening and the most deadly. At California Attorney Group, we can handle brain injury cases, and we know how traumatic they can be.
There are several different types of traumatic injuries that can damage the brain. A skull fracture occurs when the bone of the skull cracks or breaks. A depressed skull fracture occurs when pieces of the broken skull press into the tissue of the brain. This can cause bruising of the brain tissue, called a contusion. A contusion can also occur in response to shaking of the brain within the confines of the skull. Damage to a major blood vessel within the head can cause a hematoma, or heavy bleeding into or around the brain.
Traumatic Brain Injury
Traumatic brain injury, commonly referred to as TBI is sudden physical damage to the brain. The damage may be caused by the head forcefully hitting an object, such as hitting the wheel, window or dashboard of car (closed head injury) or by something passing through the skull and piercing the brain, such as a bullet or a knife (penetrating head injury). A closed head injury can also be experienced when the brain undergoes severe shaking or twisting, such as whiplash.
The common symptoms among adults are:
low-grade headaches or neck pain that won’t go away
having more trouble than usual with mental tasks (e.g., remembering, concentrating, making decisions)
slowness in thinking, speaking, acting, or reading
getting lost or easily confused
feeling tired all the time, lacking energy or motivation
changes in sleeping patterns (sleeping a lot more or having a hard time sleeping) *
feeling light-headed or dizzy, losing your balance
increased sensitivity to sounds, light, or distractions
blurred vision, eyes that tire easily
loss of the sense of smell or taste
ringing in the ears
mood changes (e.g., feeling sad or angry for no reason)
Among children, the symptoms are:
listlessness or tiring easily
irritability or crankiness
changes in eating or sleeping patterns
changes in the way the child plays
changes in performance at school
lack of interest in favorite toys or activities
loss of new skills, such as toilet training
loss of balance, unsteady walking
Brain injuries can result from a number of different causes, with the leading causes being motor vehicle crashes, slips and falls, sports-related injuries strokes, anoxia, tumors, viral infections, degenerative diseases, near drowning, and other conditions not involving external force. Approximately 1 million Americans are treated and released from hospital emergency rooms each year as a result of TBI, and an estimated 5.3 million Americans are living today with some form of TBI-related disability.
Moreover, if you are in a car accident, you could have injuries such as Brain Injuries and Spinal Injuries. It is important for your attorney to understand the possibility of theses injuries and not overlook them. Many unscrupulous attorney’s will push to settle their personal injury cases as quickly as possible to generate revenue for themselves. They will overlook symptoms such as simple headaches which could be an indication of a brain injury. A poorly timed or crafted settlement can leave you liable for thousands of dollars in medical bills. Our goal at California Attorney Group is to make you whole. This means our first goal is to assure the medical fitness of our clients and settlement of our cases second.
By: Michael Eric Williams