What Should I Do After A Car Accident?
Getting involved in a car accident brings a lot of stress. Let Nathan Maurer and the Maurer Law Firm help to ease the burden. Our personal injury attorneys will work to make the process easier on you and get you the compensation you deserve. If you have been injured in a car accident, follow the steps below help preserve your claim against the at-fault driver’s insurance company.
Call The Police
If you or anyone involved in the car accident was injured, call the police right away. An officer should arrive at the scene of the car accident and take down every party’s information and their statements. This establishes a baseline for the facts of the car accident and makes it difficult for parties to change their stories later down the road. The officer will mark the location of the car accident and also generate a diagram depicting how they believe the car accident took place. Texas crash reports are usually the first piece of evidence an experienced personal injury attorney will obtain when they take on a car accident case.
Seek medical attention If You Are Feeling Signs Of Injury
Injuries from a car accident do not always surface immediately. Concussions, neck injuries, and back injuries may have delayed symptoms that get worse over time. If you are feeling any signs of injury after a car accident, it is important to seek medical attention to make sure you do not have any substantial problems that may become worse without treatment.
Exchange Information With Anyone Involved In The Accident
Make sure to get every party’s information who were involved in the car accident. A police officer responding to a car accident will not always get everything perfect. They may get some pieces of important information but might leave out other important details. At a minimum, you should get the names, addresses, phone numbers, license plates, and insurance information from each driver involved in the car accident.
Take Photographs Of The Vehicles Involved In The Car Wreck
It is important to take as many photographs as possible of your vehicle and the other driver’s vehicle at the scene of the accident. This may be the only opportunity you have to document the property damage before the vehicles are either repaired or declared a total loss. Taking photos of the vehicles at the scene also helps to fill in any gaps in crash report diagrams that may not be entirely accurate. Photographs of the damage to your vehicle are crucial pieces of evidence your car accident attorney will use to develop your case.
Get Information From Any Witnesses
Not only is it important to get the information of other drivers involved in your car accident, but it is also just as important to get the information of any witnesses who observed the wreck. Having independent fact witnesses, who witnessed the car accident firsthand, can help to corroborate your story. In cases of disputed liability, obtaining testimony of a witness to the car accident can tip the scales in your favor.
Call A Car Accident Attorney In Texas
In addition to following the steps above, the most important choice to make is hiring a personal injury attorney to represent you for your car accident. Nathan Maurer and the Maurer Law Firm have represented hundreds of injured clients throughout the State of Texas. We can help you recover compensation for past medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, and more. You will never pay us a single cent out of your own pocket. If you have been injured in a car accident or were involved in any type of injury in the State of Texas, give us a call for a free consultation.
Why won't my adjuster pay for my bodily injuries?
If you were recently injured in a car accident, you have probably already experienced the stress of communicating with an insurance adjuster. The bodily injury adjuster assigned to evaluate your claim has very little incentive to make a fair offer to compensate you for your injuries. If you are having lingering pain and issues with full mobility, you should consult with an experienced personal injury attorney who understands how insurance companies operate. Adjusters know that the longer you wait to consult with an attorney, the less your claim is typically worth. Auto insurance companies typically use the same several factors to determine how much they believe your claim is worth.
Treatment Gaps
Lack of medical treatment or medical documentation of your injuries are one of the most common reasons adjusters will undervalue your injury claim. While your work schedule or family life might get in the way of you seeking medical treatment, it is important to not wait too long to seek care if you are seriously injured. Waiting several months after an accident to see a doctor will raise red flags with the insurance companies and lead them to conclude that you are not seriously injured as a result of your accident. If your case were to go to trial, a Jury might find this fact concerning as well. If you are in need of imaging, such as X-rays, CT scans, or MRIs, it is best not to delay these appointments as well. Even if the imaging results show that you have objective findings of herniated discs, torn ligaments, or fractures, a delay in getting these scans completed can cast doubt as to whether these injuries were caused by your accident or something that might have happened afterwards.
Recorded Statements
Not all injuries can be realized or understood immediately. If you were involved in an accident, you might only notice the most serious injures first. Insurance companies love to get recorded statements from their insured and the claimant very soon after the accident occurs. They will typically start off by asking how the accident occurred then try to nail down each and every injury you sustained. If they catch you saying that certain parts of your body feel fine, they will hold that against you months later if you eventually develop problems. Not all injuries surface immediately. Clients often say that they start to feel pain most intensely on the third day after their accident. An experienced personal injury attorney will usually advise their clients to refrain from giving recorded statements, unless absolutely necessary to resolve the property damage portion of your claim.
Crash Report
Another common reason an insurance adjuster will delay or deny a bodily injury claim might be the existence of an unfavorable crash report. In Texas, the officer who investigated your car accident has 10 days to submit their crash report to the Department of Transportation. A finalized version of this report will be viewable on the TxDOT Crash Report Online Purchase System (CRIS) within 14 days of your accident. If the crash report mentions any ambiguity about who is a fault for the accident, the adjuster will likely delay or deny your claim. Although the officer’s crash report is crucial evidence to a personal injury case, the police officer is not the ultimate judge and jury for your case. After arriving to the scene of an accident, the police officer has to do their best to write a report based on limited knowledge of the accident. Since the officer did not witness the accident first-hand, they have to rely on the information they can gather in the short amount of time they are at the scene. This usually boils down to the statements both parties and any available witnesses made at the scene. The officer will visually inspect the damages, note the location of the vehicles, and compare that with the statements they have been told to ultimately make their decision. Hiring a personal injury attorney with experience handling disputed liability claims is a necessity in situations like these.
How Much Can I Recover From A Car Accident?
While every car accident is different, Texas law requires drivers to obtain a minimum of $30,000 in liability coverage while driving their personal automobiles. If an insured driver hits a vehicle with multiple people riding in it, the Texas minimum liability coverage will cover up to $60,000. However, the at fault driver in your accident may have opted to purchase a higher liability limit. An experienced personal injury attorney will be able to determine the amount of coverage at play relatively soon after the accident has occurred. The amount of liability coverage in an accident will not always be the limiting factor in a recovery though. Additional coverages from first-party insurance carriers may be at play, depending on the facts of your case.
Personal Injury Protection
If you are injured in a car accident, a personal injury lawyer may be able to pursue additional coverages through the first-party insurance carrier. If you have purchased personal injury protection, or PIP, you may be entitled to compensation in addition to the at-fault driver’s liability limits. Personal injury protection is no-fault coverage that can be obtained for past medical bills and lost wages. It is not subject to subrogation, meaning that the first-party insurance carrier cannot seek reimbursement after a third-party recovery is obtained. PIP will typically be purchased in increments of $2,500. Some PIP policies can reach as high as $100,000. Unless your insurance company can produce signed written rejections, proving that you rejected PIP at the time you purchased your policy, you will be afforded $2,500 in coverage by default. This default coverage applies even if you have never made any payments towards PIP coverage in the past..
Medical Payments Coverage
Some insurance policies will offer medical payments coverage, or MedPay, instead of PIP. MedPay behaves similarly to PIP but has a couple of key distinguishing features. If you purchased medical payments coverage as part of your auto policy, you may be able to recover this money to pay for medical expenses. Similar to PIP, MedPay is no-fault coverage. MedPay is, however, subject to subrogation. If you obtain payments from MedPay, your insurance company will ask to be reimbursed after you obtain a third-party recovery. MedPay will also typically be offered to insureds in increments of $2,500. Depending on the insurance company, MedPay limits can reach as high as $100,000.
Uninsured Or Underinsured Motorist Coverage
Uninsured/Underinsured, or UM/UIM coverage, is offered to all Texas drivers when you purchase an auto insurance policy. The minimum amount of coverage available to purchase in Texas is $30,000/$60,000. This means that if you purchase the State minimum coverage for UM/UIM, you could potentially recover $30,000 per individual, but not more than $60,000 per accident. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is only available when a driver is hit by an at-fault third party. This fact makes this coverage slightly more difficult to obtain in disputed liability situations. To obtain a settlement from uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, you will first have to prove two things. First you will need to prove that the driver who hit you either did not have insurance or did not have enough coverage under their policy to compensate you for your damages. Second, you will have to prove that you were not at fault in causing this accident. Once these two conditions are satisfied, you may be able to obtain a UM/UIM settlement if your damages warrant the recovery. Just like personal injury protection, auto insurance companies are required to offer UM/UIM coverage. Unless your insurance company can produce signed written rejections, showing that you turned down this coverage, you will be afforded a minimum of $30,000/$60,000 in coverage.
What Damages Can I Recover In A Personal Injury Settlement?
If you pursue a claim or lawsuit for injuries you sustained in an accident, you can recover compensation for many different types of damages. The two main categories are economic damages and non-economic damages. In cases of gross negligence by a third-party tortfeasor, a Jury may even award punitive damages (damages designed to punish the Defendant).
Economic Damages
Economic damages are damages that can be reasonably calculated and proven to a Jury. These tangible damages are easier to prove in a personal injury case since they are less subjective than non-economic damages. The following are examples of economic damages you may be able to recover:
-Past medical expenses
-Future medical expenses
-Lost wages
-Loss of future earning capacity
-Property damage
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages are almost entirely subjective, and therefore much more difficult to calculate. Predicting what a Jury would award for non-economic damages in a personal injury case depends heavily on the facts of the accident. The following are examples of non-economic damages you may be able to recover:
-Pain and suffering
-Loss of enjoyment of life
-Mental anguish
-Physical disfigurement
-Loss of consortium