Have you or a loved one been involved in a car accident resulting in injuries and financial loss? An experienced car accident attorney can help. Different types of car accidents result in varying severity of injuries and subsequent damages. These factors influence the complexity of your claim and your settlement timeline.
Do not delay medical treatment or retaining legal counsel to represent your case. It can mean the difference between absorbing financial costs that aren't your fault and recovering your losses and other damages. Schedule a free case evaluation with a Winder car accident lawyer to determine a strategy to secure your right to financial compensation.
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Common Types of Car Accidents
Car accidents may involve single vehicles with fixed or moving objects, such as animals or rolling tires. However, they often involve two or more vehicles. Typical types of car accidents are as follows:
- Read-End Collisions: Rear-end collisions occur when a vehicle backs into another. They often involve distracted drivers on their cell phones, following too closely (tailgating), and sudden stops.
- Rollover Accidents: Rollovers happen when a vehicle flips or tumbles end-over-end. Common causes include unsafe road conditions and how a vehicle's design affects its maneuvering response to a negligent driver. Improper cargo loading is also a leading cause of truck rollovers.
- Head-On Collisions: Head-on collisions are among the most severe, primarily because they tend to be high-speed accidents. The impact force of the two vehicle's speeds colliding is typically greater than the impacts of other crashes.
- Side-Impact Crashes: T-bone or angle collisions occur when one vehicle slams into the side of another. They are the most fatal crashes, responsible for 44.9 percent of all motor vehicle accident fatalities.
- Sideswipe Accidents: Sideswipes occur when two or more vehicles travel parallel to one another, and one hits the side of the other. Sideswipe accidents are commonly caused by improper lane changes, such as not checking mirrors and blind spots before changing lanes or merging into traffic.
- Intersection Accidents: These collisions happen when drivers ignore traffic lights or signs, fail to yield the right-of-way, or make improper turns at an intersection. Aggressive drivers speeding to beat the traffic light change commonly cause intersection accidents.
- Single Car Collisions: These often occur when a single vehicle collides with fixed objects, including fire hydrants, curbs, guard rails, bridges, traffic lights or telephone poles, road signs, and trees or shrubbery.
- Multiple Vehicle Accidents: When three or more motor vehicles are involved in a collision, it’s considered a multiple-vehicle accident. They are often called pile-ups and generally cause more severe injuries and damages.
- Construction Zone Accidents: Construction sites have a reasonable duty of care to mark zones and adequately keep the area safe for motorists. Hazardous conditions can cause accidents. Motorists who ignore signs and cones or race to merge at the last minute also cause construction zone accidents.
Hit-and-runs are the most egregious car accidents, as at-fault motorists flee the scene of the collision. These cases often involve drunk or drug-impaired driving or driving without a valid or on a suspended driver's license. A hit-and-run driver may face criminal charges depending on the state and circumstances. However, hit-and-run accident victims may still pursue a civil lawsuit to recover financial compensation.
Why You Need a Winder Car Accident Attorney After a Collision
Retaining a car accident lawyer after a collision has many benefits, including their extensive knowledge of the law, legal system, and insurance claims process. Reasons you need a car accident attorney to represent your claim include sustaining injuries, protection against insurers, complex liability, case investigation, and superb negotiation skills.
Severe Injuries
If your car accident resulted in significant injuries requiring healthcare, including medical and rehabilitation bills, disability, and causing lost earnings, and pain and suffering, contact a car accident attorney. Injured parties with legal representation tend to receive more substantial compensation than unrepresented accident victims.
To Protect Against Insurers
Insurance claims adjusters will do their best to minimize their company's financial losses. They achieve this by denying valid claims, delaying claims, and sending low-ball settlement offers. Sometimes, liable insurers will employ bad-faith tactics, such as threatening injured parties.
Retaining a car accident lawyer eliminates the potential stress and dangers of speaking to liable insurance companies. If you say something they can twist to dismiss total or partial liability, they will. After hiring your attorney, they will take over all communications and advise them they are not allowed to contact you again.
Complex Liability
When liability is unclear or disputed, it can significantly complicate your insurance claim. A car accident lawyer will investigate and build a strong case to establish all liable parties. Parties who may be liable in car collisions include other motorists, property owners, and municipalities.
Case Investigation
Case investigation is critical for establishing liability, proving negligence, and determining damages after a collision. Car accident lawyers will thoroughly investigate your claim by:
- Gathering evidence, including police reports, photos and video of the accident scene, pictures of your injuries after the collision, debris from the accident scene, medical records, bills, and lost income statements
- Interviewing witnesses from the accident scene
- Working with accident reconstructionists to prove liability
- Consulting with experts to solidify evidence and provide invaluable testimony
- Inspect your vehicle
- Revisit the accident to document road conditions
- Weather reports from the date and time of your accident
After gathering, preserving, and analyzing the evidence, your car accident attorney will summarize all data in a report compilation. The severity of your injuries, the number of liable parties, and various other factors influence the length of your case's investigation. Ask your lawyer to clarify their expectations.
Case Valuation
How much compensation you receive after a car accident relates to the financial losses and non-economic damages you suffer from the crash. Other factors include your injury severity and length of medical treatment. Damages your attorney will calculate when valuing your claim involve:
- Healthcare Expenses—includes emergency care, surgeries, primary care, physical therapy, prescription costs, and future medical expenses.
- Lost Earnings—including lost income, salary, overtime, bonuses, paid time off, benefits, and diminished or lost earning capacity.
- Property Damages—including vehicle-related repairs, replacement, rental car, and rideshare services.
- Pain and Suffering—including acute or chronic pain conditions, loss of companionship, permanent impairments, sleep disturbances, and psychological trauma.
Family members may recover additional damages after a car accident involving the wrongful death of a loved one. These damages include funeral arrangements, loss of consortium, final medical costs of the decedent, loss of financial support, and the lost prospect of inheritance.
Negotiation Skills
Finally, a car accident attorney's negotiation skills are invaluable for maximizing your compensation claim. Liable insurance companies are notorious for significantly undervaluing claims of injured parties without legal representation. They do this because they know without an attorney, the accident victim doesn't know what they are entitled to and will likely not negotiate for more.
Consult a Car Accident Attorney
If you or a loved one have suffered an injury or experienced wrongful death due to a car accident, consult a Winder personal injury lawyer immediately. Bring evidence of injuries and financial losses to your free case evaluation to discover a plan for obtaining compensation.