Steps to Take After a Road Traffic Accident

Getting involved in a road traffic accident generates plenty of stress, as well as the fear of the unknown concerning any injuries sustained. You have to follow a series of steps in sequential order to build a strong enough case to have a claim approved by either your insurance company or the other party’s insurer. Receiving treatment for injuries sustained represents a crucial step in the financial recovery process, as you must submit copies of medical bills and records to an insurance company to be considered for compensation.

Filing an insurance claim is not the only way to receive compensation for the injuries and property damage sustained as a result of a vehicle collision. After meeting with one of the experienced personal injury attorneys at Morgan and Morgan, you should have enough information to determine whether you have a persuasive case to file a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages. To win a civil lawsuit, your road traffic accident lawyer must prove the other party committed one or more acts of negligence. Proving fault requires demonstrating your case meets each of the four elements of negligence.

An experienced road traffic accident attorney can provide legal support in many ways. Your legal counsel files every legal document before the deadline. State law establishes a statute of limitations for you to file a notice of intent to file a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages. Your lawyer ensures you file all the proper legal documents before the expiration of the statute of limitations. Another important supportive role for a personal injury attorney is to calculate a fair value for monetary damages. If you submit an unreasonable value for compensation to your insurance company or with the documents that form the foundation of a civil lawsuit, you might not receive the compensation that you deserve.

Since 1988, the road traffic accident lawyers at Morgan and Morgan have supported clients that filed insurance claims and civil lawsuits seeking monetary damages. In a little more than 30 years, Morgan and Morgan has recovered more than $14 billion in compensation for our clients. Our litigators work with clients from the day of the first meeting to the day when a case gets resolved. Learn why the personal injury attorneys at our law firm are the go-to litigators for road traffic accident cases by scheduling a free case evaluation.

What Contributes to the Most Common Causes of Raid Traffic Accidents?

During the free case evaluation scheduled with a Morgan and Morgan personal injury lawyer, the attorney sitting across from you reviews evidence and the official incident report to determine the cause of the collision. Discovering the cause of a car accident helps your lawyer decide whether negligence played a role in producing your injuries.

Driving Under the Influence

Virtually every state has taken measures to clamp down on driving while under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol. Most states have set .08 as the maximum Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) level permitted for a driver operating a motor vehicle. Driving under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol is considered an act of negligence, as well as a criminal act if drugs and/or alcohol represented the primary reason why an auto crash occurred. Drunk drivers that cause road traffic accidents can face time in jail for violating a criminal statute.

Distracted Driving

Before the explosion of digital technology, distractions while operating a motor vehicle included eating a meal, applying makeup or combing hair, and focusing on the scenery instead of the road. These factors still play a role in the distractions that lead to motor vehicle crashes. However, texting while driving has become enough of a menace on American roads and highways that 48 states have passed laws banning the dangerous practice.

If you got involved in a road traffic accident with a distracted driver, you might have a strong enough case to file both a civil lawsuit and criminal charges.

Reckless Driving

Reckless driving is another old-school cause of car accidents that dates back to the development of the first automobile model. Speeding remains the most common type of reckless driving. The faster a motorist operates a motor vehicle, the less control the motorist has over the car. Speeding also exacerbates the damage and physical carnage inflicted by the impact of a vehicle collision. Running a red light or stop sign represents another common type of reckless driving.

Bad weather also is a culprit for causing road traffic accidents, as are poor road conditions.

What Should I Do in the Aftermath of a Road Traffic Accident?

Knowing how to handle the aftermath of a vehicle collision helps you build a strong enough case to file a successful insurance claim and possibly a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages. The first thing to do is remove your vehicle from traffic, if possible. You also should check on the medical conditions of the other driver and any passengers involved in the accident.

After that, follow these steps to build the strongest case for your insurance company to review.

Call 911

Unless you experience a minor fender bender that requires just the exchange of information between drivers, you should call 911 to activate the emergency response system. The officers responding to the scene of the road traffic accident conduct a thorough investigation to determine the cause of the collision, as well as determine whether negligence played a role in producing injuries and property damage. Law enforcement personnel also help secure the accident scene to prevent additional incidents from harming motorists and pedestrians.

Get Medical Attention

If you sustained one or more serious injuries, the call to 911 also activates the emergency response team to get you immediate medical care. Undergoing diagnostic tests proves the seriousness of your injuries. Your insurance company also has a financial responsibility to pay for treatment programs and physical therapy sessions, if your policy covers such healthcare procedures. If you feel healthy enough to remain at the scene of the road traffic accident, you can complete the remaining steps on this list. However, you still should seek medical care to ensure you have not sustained a serious injury that triggers delayed symptoms.

Gather and Organize Physical Evidence

The law enforcement agency that responds to the auto collision conducts an investigation that includes collecting physical evidence. Then, the officer responsible for filing the official police report sends the physical evidence to the insurance company to process your claim. You should gather and organize evidence as well, especially by taking photographs of the crash scene. Pay special attention to capturing the images of tire tracks. Your personal injury attorney files a formal request to retrieve traffic camera footage that might reveal which party should assume fault for causing the road traffic accident.

Get the Names and Contact Information of Witnesses

Witnesses do not represent evidence in a car accident case. They provide legal support for the physical evidence collected at the scene of the collision. Although the incident report should contain the names and contact information of witnesses, the law enforcement officer who obtained the names and contact information might have missed a witness or two. If you feel up to it, spend time getting the information you need from witnesses, but do not ask questions concerning the accident.

Leave the questions up to your road traffic accident lawyer.

Contact a Personal Injury Attorney at Morgan and Morgan

Working with one of the personal injury lawyers at Morgan and Morgan helps you build the strongest insurance claim possible. Our experienced team of litigators has established positive professional relationships with insurance adjusters located across the United States. We closely monitor the progress of your claim to prevent delays, as well as provide the insurance adjuster processing your claim with all the information needed to make a decision regarding your case.

What Are the Most Common Types of Monetary Damages?

The primary responsibility of your personal injury attorney is to get you the compensation that you deserve to recover from the financial losses generated by a road traffic accident. For an insurance claim, you ask for two types of compensation. If you file a civil lawsuit, you have the right to request a third type of compensation.

Economic Damages

Also referred to as special compensatory damages, economic damages cover the tangible costs associated with a vehicle collision. By far the costliest type of economic damages, medical bills can easily soar into thousands of dollars. You have the right to ask for compensation to cover the costs of diagnostic tests, treatment programs, and physical therapy sessions. If you receive prescription medications and/or use an assistive device such as a pair of crutches, you should also ask for compensation for those expenses as well.

Economic damages also pay for the repairs done to personal property, as well as the replacement value of personal property if the property is beyond salvageable. You should ask for compensation to address vehicle repairs, as well as damage done to personal items like electronic devices.

Non-Economic Damages

Non-economic damages are more difficult to calculate because they involve non-tangible issues such as pain and suffering. Getting involved in a road traffic accident can trigger a considerable amount of fear and anxiety, especially when you get behind the wheel of an automobile. Your personal injury attorney calculates a reasonable value for non-economic damages by using a formula that includes the value of economic damages.

Punitive Damages

If the defendant committed an intentional act of negligence or committed an unintentional act of negligence that caused you significant harm, you have the right to request the judge hearing your case to impose punitive damages. The purpose of punitive damages is not to pay for the costs associated with tangible expenses. Instead, punitive damages deter the defendant from committing acts of negligence in the future that cause a road traffic accident. Punitive damages also establish a precedent for similar cases filed as civil lawsuits.

Hire a Highly-Rated Road Accident Lawyer

What defines a highly-rated road accident lawyer? A proven record of success, operating with integrity and transparency and knowing how to negotiate favorable settlements sit at the top of the list of criteria. The team of personal injury attorneys at Morgan and Morgan fulfills every criterion you need to be filled to choose one of the best road traffic accident lawyers.

Schedule a free case evaluation today to start the insurance claim and possibly the civil lawsuit process.