When you’re involved in a car accident, the attorney is going to gather all the information they need in our office. If you’re involved in a serious accident we file that lawsuit usually within 24 hours. If the case is not that serious we might take a look at it so we can get our […]
How to file a car accident lawsuit
When you’re involved in a car accident, the attorney is going to gather all the information they need in our office.
If you’re involved in a serious accident we file that lawsuit usually within 24 hours.
If the case is not that serious we might take a look at it so we can get our arms around what kind of case this is. If you’re still being treated by a doctor then we need to know that.
If you’re out of work we need to understand how long you’re going to be out of work so we start gathering medical records. We get medical reports and we get our investigative reports and we try to understand what kind of accident it is we’re dealing with.
What is the liability and what is the amount of damages or the type of damages? We might want to call the defendant up and say, ‘Do you have any interest in discussing this case?’.
We might send them a letter including all of your medical records including your records of lost wages, records from your pharmacy, all your expenses.
Oftentimes they might want to talk about resolving the case but if they don’t at least we’re ready. Once they tell us they’re not interested or we feel that they’re jerking us around then we file suit.
Video: How to file a lawsuit for a car accident
You should get an attorney for a car accident lawsuit or any other type of accident that causes you personal injury immediately.
Attorneys will try to get out there and interview the police officer, interview the EMS workers, interview eyewitnesses both in the police report and those that are not on the police report.
This should be done immediately before the defendants adjuster or insurance investigator can get out there.
The one that gets out there first is going to have the best shot at getting a statement in their favor.
Accidents that lead to lawsuits are going to run the gamut. Whether they are car accidents, truck accidents, motorcycle accidents, or construction site accidents, you are going to have head and neck injuries. You are going to have fractures to various bones, dislocated joints, internal bleeding, brain damage, burns, spinal cord injuries. You could have loss of limbs and sometimes even death.
There are some lawyers that have a rule of thumb based upon the amount of your medical expenses and that’s how they calculate the value of the case.
We don’t do that and we’ve never done that. We never will do that, we look at every single case.
You can’t use a calculator to figure out the settlement value of the case, you’ve got to look at all the evidence because some of the evidence isn’t in money. Some of the damages are in emotional damage.
Some damages are inability to do things you use to do. What about if you’re retired and you don’t have any lost wages but you’re now stuck in a wheelchair? Or you’re using crutches?
Those things don’t enter into the calculations of loss of amounts paid in medical expenses or lost wages.
So in our law firm at Parker Waichman we look at every case separately. We have a round table for every case at various times over the course of the litigation. Where a whole bunch of lawyers get together and we all analyze each other’s cases and we come up with amounts that we think the case is worth and amounts that we will not take a settlement under.
Maybe the case is worth 120 but our minimum settlement value is 100. If the insurance company offers us 90 we’re not taking it so that’s already hard-coded in our system we just won’t do it. We will give them a discount if they want to settle in advance.
It’s in the client’s interest generally because they’re getting the money today they also stop the expenses on a case and of course if you go to trial there’s vagaries at trial.
So if the insurance company is going to get dangerously close to what you believe the value of the case is, then it’s generally going to be in the client’s interest settle.
Conversely if they don’t get close enough we have objective data in the case file in our computer system that tells us what those numbers are and if they don’t get there the case is not going to settle and we’ll continue.
Now the case is the client’s case so if we get an offer we have to communicate that to the client. Sometimes the clients want the money even though our advice is not to take it but at the end of the day it’s the client’s case that we have to settle.
A lot of the times the clients ask us what we think and of course we give the clients our best thoughts on the pros and cons of what’s on the table.
You should get a car accident attorney immediately before the defendants adjuster or insurance investigator can get out there.
Typical injuries that lead to car accident lawsuits include:
If you are involved in a car accident, contact Parker Waichman immediately calling 1-800-YOUR-LAWYER (1-800-968-7529) for a free case review today.
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