What To Do After a Car Accident
A serious car accident is a traumatic life experience that can haunt you forever. The injuries sustained are often permanent and may debilitate you in some manner. If you are lucky, you will only have scars to tell your story. Many victims are not so fortunate and walk away with crippling injuries or die.
When you need a Los Angeles car accident lawyer, rely on WestCoast Trial Lawyers to lend their decades of expertise in presenting your auto injury claims in the best light. They have helped victims just like you secure over $100 million in settlements and verdicts.
An expert team of lawyers, medical experts, and investigators will reconstruct the accident and calculate the damages like a precision machine. This ensures that you are not burdened by the financial aspects of an injury and at least compensated for the difficulties that you may continue to face on a daily basis.
Although there is never a price high enough to compensate for the passing of a loved one or the loss of major life functions, our lawyers will work hard to secure maximum compensation. The experience and focus necessary to battle against the skullduggery that some defendants can pull is a heavy burden to bear.
You never want to risk losing a claim by hiring a less experienced auto injury lawyer or small-time car injury law firms. The legal theories are fragile and can be won or lost on technicalities when it comes to determining fault and a myriad of other considerations.
The Steps That You Should Take After an Auto Accident
Considering that one in three California drivers will experience a motor vehicle accident injury or fatality over their lifetimes, it is critical to be aware of the steps to take after an accident. In most cases, the steps that you take immediately after an accident can determine whether you will be compensated for your injuries or not.
1: Assess Injuries
There is nothing more important than your life and the lives of others. Assessing the extent of injuries is critical to mitigating the injuries and reducing the risk of a fatality. In fact, a failure to seek medical attention can be used by the defendants to argue comparative negligence.
They may posit that you inflicted your own injuries if you failed to seek medical attention at the first signs. The trick is that some injuries like whiplash may be delayed for several hours after the accident occurs. If the other driver is injured, you should also be the Good Samaritan who helps them in any way possible.
2: Call for Help
Now is the time to summon forth the police, ambulances, and other emergency services, if necessary, like tow trucks and the fire department. Unless we are talking about a fender-bender with no visible injuries, you will probably need to call for an ambulance even if they are there to simply provide a checkup on the scene. These emergency services can all be summoned forth using the same 911 number.
In any case, you should have police on the scene to file a report as evidence for your compensation. Make sure that you obtain the name, badge number, and contact information of any investigating officer. If there are any obvious reasons for the accident like a wrong way turn or failure to yield, be sure to point this out to the officer and any evidence like tire marks, impact angle, obscured stop sign, etc.
3: Exchange Contact and Insurance Information
It may be easier to simply to take photographs of the other driver’s insurance card, driver’s license, or other documents. If the driver says that they don’t have these items, then you have to take a photo of their license plate and face. Make sure that they stay there until police arrive and inform them that they can be charged with hit-and-run driving if they leave the scene.
If the driver becomes threatening, combative, or argument, you should at least try to remember the license plate number, make, and model of the vehicle. You should never leave the scene of the accident either, until exchanging information or receiving the authorization from a police officer. Otherwise, you may be the one facing charges.
4: Take Photos and Note Observations
Does the driver look disheveled like they just got out of bed? Are they glassy-eyed? Is their speech slurred? Do you smell alcohol on their breath or perceive that they are intoxicated by their mannerisms? Take photos of the accident scene, any forensic clues that may be helpful in reconstructing it: the angle of impact, skid marks, the orientation of traffic lights, the position of the sun, speed limit signs in the area, stop signs, yield signs, etc.
You should also try to find any witnesses who stop at the scene to help and collect their live testimony and contact information on video if possible. Independent eye witness testimony can play a critical role in determining fault. Without it, forensic experts may be needed to reconstruct the accident scene.
5: Take Appropriate Precautions
When it comes to discussing the accident, you don’t want to make any statements to insurance companies or the other drivers. Even when you speak to the police, you want to make sure that your statements are clear and concise. Saying too much can confuse the issue and make it hard for the officer to decide who is at fault.
The only thing that you have to give the insurance company is your name, address, and telephone number. You can also give them the number of your Los Angeles car accident lawyer. You must also be careful not to discuss your case on social media or in any public setting where people may misconstrue the evidence of your injuries or statements.
6: Document the Damages
Be sure to keep a record of all your medical bills, property damages, expenses after the accident, and medical records documenting your injuries. These are critical to calculating the correct settlement or award.
Contact Us
When you need an auto injury lawyer that you can trust to streamline the process and protect your full panoply of rights, make sure to . We have helped thousands of people just like your reclaim their lives and get these rough periods behind them. Don’t let other car injury law firms sell you the dream and nothing more. We put the hard work into securing you the maximum compensation allowed by law. Call today for a free consultation.
