Car Accidents, Do’s and Dont’s

Transcription

If you’ve been injured in a car accident, there’s some things that you need to be aware of and evidence to collect. Obviously, make sure you call 911 if you’re injured, make sure the police show up, police always will do a pretty darn good investigation which is what we need. Your cell phone is probably your best friend during an accident, take pictures of everything and or video where the scene of the accident, where the cars were located, the damage to the vehicles, often we can use an accident reconstructionist to put those back together, see how that accident actually occurred. Light sequences, what lane were you in? That all those things are determinative on, you know, how far through the intersection the vehicle went before it was hit. Who is more likely the one having the right of way. Which lane the debris is in tells us who changed lanes. You know, any witnesses that were there, their information, phone numbers, what they saw, you know, if you’re severely injured, obviously, see if anybody can help you gather this information.

But the more you can get at the scene of the accident is super helpful for us to win your case because the evidence is a critical thing. And the faster we can get retained and get our own experts out there and have them look at the vehicles, have them make sure that we get all the witness information that we can so that…witnesses disappear and that’s a sad thing that happens over the years, I’ve noticed, you know, they change their phone numbers, they change their address, and it’s hard to get ahold of them. So the quicker we can get ahold of them, get permanent information from them, get a recorded statement, and or a deposition, those are very helpful. You know, take pictures of the license plate, their driver’s license, the insurance information, you know, especially on hit and runs, obviously, any witnesses that sign anything is critical, that happens a lot more than you would think.

And then people’s stories change, which is sad as soon as they find out they’re responsible for an accident, they may tell you one thing, and then you know all sudden they’re telling their insurance company, oh, it wasn’t my fault and they lie. And so we have to catch them in those lies and it’s unfortunate but true. So the quicker you get a good attorney on this case, the better off you are. Make sure that you don’t give a recorded statement to your insurance company without your attorney being present. People say the darndest things during recorded statements that they should never say.

A lot of times somebody that’s injured in an accident, will call the insurance company and say hey, you know, I was injured and the insurance company, first off will say you know what? We’ll get back to you, we’ll get you a doctor to go to. And so they’re gonna delay your treatment as long as possible so that you don’t have consistent treatment, you have gaps in your treatment. And the reason for that is they show that to the jury, say look, you know, if this person was severely injured, they definitely would have went to the doctor and, you know, now it’s been two or three, four weeks, and no treatment, obviously they weren’t hurt. So they’re gonna try to save them the money that they can.