There are many accidents on America’s roads. At any given moment, during the day, there are about 660,000 people driving around while playing with their sounds systems, talking on the phone or texting. Even texting while stopped at a red light can be dangerous. Some experts have reported that when people look at a text, their brains stay focused on that text for up to a minute. During that time, they are not paying attention to the road. If you have been injured in an auto accident that you did not cause, you may want to talk to some lawyers for personal injuries. Before you get to that stage, there are some other things you should do to bolster your case.
- Get medical treatment. Some people think that they can get a better settlement if they do not immediately get the medical help that they need. This is a mistake for a number of reasons. In the first place, medical professional can do more for you when they get to treat you sooner than later. If you have been in an serious accident, you may not know you have some serious internal injuries. You also do not want your case to go from a personal injury case to a wrongful death one. Also, lawyers for personal injuries will tell you, you hurt your credibility with the court when you do this.
- Call law enforcement. The other driver may try to dissuade you from calling 911 but the paperwork and the documentation from the police can be very helpful with your personal injury lawsuit. If the other driver is arrested, say for driving under the influence or for reckless driving, those records can do nothing but help your case. Having a third party, such as law enforcement, back up your side of the story will help you.
- Talk to witnesses. If there were any witnesses to your accident, you should talk to them and see if they would be willing to talk to your attorney and give them the details of what they saw before, during and after your accident. Look around to see if there are any security cameras that may have caught it on video. Most people do not realize just how often we are taped a photographed every day. You never know what video might exist of your accident.
- Get photos and video of the scene. Regardless of what security camera video and cameras are around, you can get your own. Take pictures and video, you can use your smart phone, you are not going for an Academy Award here, you just need to document what the scene looked like. If you were injured badly enough to be transported to the hospital in an ambulance, have someone you know and trust go back to the accident scene and get whatever they can to show the scene.
- Talk to qualified lawyers for personal injuries. You are going to want to make sure you talk to the right kind of lawyer. Not all lawyers for personal injuries are experienced with every kind of personal injury case. There are specialized accident injury attorney and other personal injury lawyers who specialize in accidents at work. You need a personal injury attorney who has a lot of experience with your kind of accident and case.
- Keep records. When you go to your medical appointments, let the doctors and others (you may have physical therapy) know that you will need their reports. If you need to take a taxi or Uber ride to your appointments, keep receipts. You also may want to keep a journal. Memories fade. You need to keep a record of what you are going through.
- Listen to your doctors. If they say you should not go back to work and you do, you will really hurt your case. If you are seen going against the wishes of your doctors, the court will question the veracity of your claims.
If you have been in an accident, you have enough on your plate. Leave the lawsuit to the lawyers for personal injuries and focus your energies on getting better.