Texarkana Car Accident Attorney

Michael Grossman, Car Accident Attorney Texarkana, Explains What To Do After A Car Wreck

If you or a loved one has been in a recent car wreck in Texarkana, it’s important you take steps to protect your rights. At some point in our lives, the majority of us will experience involvement in a car accident. Most of the time, a car accident is nothing more than a simple fender bender that causes minor property damage. In other incidents, wrecks can be traumatic and devastating events, leaving permanent scars on the lives of the passengers and drivers involved.

Regardless of if your accident was a simple fender bender or one more serious, you are most likely entitled to seek compensation for the physical, emotional and financial injuries you suffered as a result of that crash. How much money you are entitled to and the degree of difficulty to collect it depends on the highly individualized circumstances of your accident. In a few instances, you may be able to protect your rights own your own, but generally, hiring an attorney is the only way to recover the full amount that your case is worth. Our Texarkana auto accident attorneys will highlight some of the basics of car accident litigation in Texas.

Do You Have A Claim?
Nearly every one of us will get into a car accident during our lives. So how can you know if you have a successful case against someone to reimburse you for injuries? In most cases, an accident victim is only entitled to collect compensation for his injuries if he can prove in court the four elements of a car accident claim. Until you demonstrate that the law and facts reveal the defendant is required to pay you money, the defendant in your case will be presumed “innocent.”

The four elements in a car accident claim you must prove in order to recover for your accident injuries are duty, breach, causation, and damages. We’ll discuss each of these four elements in detail below, so you will know the precise requirements to prove you’re entitled to compensation.

• Duty:
  The initial requirement for a successful car accident case is to prove the defendant owed you a duty of care in exercising a certain standard of caution to make sure you would not sustain an injury. The law sets this level of duty of care that one person owes another, and it depends on the circumstances of the situation and the relationship between the involved parties. Proving the defendant owed you a minimal duty of care will most likely be straightforward, because almost all drivers owe each other the duty to operate their car as a reasonable person would to keep others safe. This “reasonable person standard” will probably be applied to the defendant in your case.
• Breach:
  After you show the defendant owed you a duty of care, you’ll need to reveal how he breached that duty of care. Usually, this requires demonstrating the defendant drove in a way a reasonable person would not have driven. Your defendant can be held responsible for any consequences that resulted from his negligent actions, if even for just a moment, he drove unreasonably. But proving the defendant breached his duty of care often requires you bring to court evidence to precisely demonstrate what the defendant did or failed to do. The jury in your case will consider your evidence and the evidence of the rest of the circumstances around the defendant’s actions to decide if the defendant’s behavior was indeed unreasonable. Actions such as driving while intoxicated, driving at nights without headlights on, speeding recklessly, or running through red lights, can all constitute a breach of the defendant’s duty of care.
• Causation:
  You’ll have shown the defendant in your case was negligent, once you’ve proven the elements of duty and breach. However, showing negligence is not enough to hold the defendant responsible for your injuries unless you also show the defendant’s negligence caused the wreck. Often there are several parties who could potentially be at fault in a car accident–pedestrians, other drivers, and even you could be framed as potential suspects by the defendant. Your defendant will probably do everything he can to avoid liability—he’ll try to convince the jurors that a third party caused the wreck, your injuries existed before the accident, or you caused the accident yourself. So it’s crucial you have sufficient evidence to prove it was the defendant’s conduct that caused you harm.
• Damages:
  Finally, after having proved the defendant’s liability, you’ll need to show how much in damages you are entitled to collect from the defendant. The term “damages” does not refer to your injuries—it refers to the monetary value of your injuries or the amount of money you will recover if you prevail in the case. You’ll need to determine exactly what you’re owed and give evidence of your injuries and losses to support those calculations, in order to prove what you’re entitled to collect. Losses such as loss of earning capacity, lost salary, medical bills, repair bills, and pain and suffering can all be recovered as damages.

As you’re calculating how much you think you’re owed in damages, your defendant will also be performing the same task. In a car wreck case, the amount of damages is usually a contested issue. If the jury finds the defendant was liable for the wreck, defendants calculate how much they think they owe accident victims. Defendants often allege they owe you much less than your calculations, and that you are unfairly asking far more than the real value of your injuries. So to show the jury the calculated amount is fair, and the defendant is simple making a last-ditch effort to avoid his negligence, you must have available evidence of your losses to substantiate your figures.

It’ important to figure the full amount of damages because you only have one attempt to demand all you are entitled. Yet, unless you’re experienced, accounting for all these losses can be difficult—for instance, how do you calculate an amount for an intangible loss such as pain and suffering? When figuring lost earning capacity, how do you allow for possible raises and promotions you would have earned if still working? If your medical treatment is continuing, how do you summarize your medical bills? The Texarkana car accident attorneys at Grossman Law Offices understand how to make all these calculations and determinations so you can recover the full amount possible.

Insured and Uninsured Defendants
All drivers in Texas and Arkansas are required by law to carry insurance on their vehicles. However, many drivers choose to drive uninsured, thereby driving in violation of the law. Whether an insurance company is involved in your case can determine the legal process and ultimate outcome of your case against them.

Suppose both drivers involved in your wreck were insured and ultimately, an insurance company will be responsible for compensating you for your injuries. This actually can be beneficial to an accident victim because in most cases it means if you succeed in bringing your claim, there will be some amount of money available to compensate you for your losses. However drivers often carry minimal coverage on their cars, and if the accident was severe, the insurance policy may not completely reimburse your for your losses. And just because there is money theoretically available in an insurance policy to compensate you for the losses, doesn’t guarantee it will be simple to get your hands on the money. Any time an insurance company is involved in a case, you’ll be up against intimidating adjusters, accident recreation specialists, defense attorneys, and investigators whose goal is to see you don’t win your case.

On the other hand, the other driver involved in your accident may be uninsured and you don’t have uninsured motorist coverage either. If there is not an insurance company involved in your car accident litigation, you won’t have to deal with their aggressive lawyers, adjusters, and other professionals who are determined to see your claim is denied. However, you’ll need to worry about the other driver’s solvency, since he will probably be responsible for paying for your injuries. If the defendant is insolvent, it simply means he doesn’t have enough money to compensate you for your injuries. There’s usually no logic in pursuing a litigation with an insolvent defendant, even when you can prove he is liable for your losses. It’s a sad fact of life that accidents victims are frequently unable to recover compensation from insolvent defendants that can’t pay up.

Then sometimes a driver involved in an accident, will try to hide his assets, just to give the illusion of being insolvent. If you have a suspicion this may be true in your case, the Texarkana auto accident attorneys at Grossman Law Offices can do an asset check on the defendant to discover how much he is actually worth. We’ll find money, if it’s available, and then work to help you obtain your fair share of it.

Signs An Attorney Is Necessary
Usually, for a Texarkana auto accident victim to make sure he recovers all his case is actually worth, it requires a Texarkana auto accident lawyer. It’s possible, on occasion, for an accident victim to handle his claim alone without the help of an attorney. The following is a discussion of some of the circumstances in which the likelihood of you making a full recovery will only be possible by seeking the assistance of a Texarkana auto accident lawyer.

You’ve Experienced Bodily Harm in the Accident:
If you experienced any bodily injuries in your accident, it’s wise to have an attorney handle your claim. If your injuries require more than one or more visits to a physician, you should call an attorney. When a client seeks damages for bodily injuries, insurance companies don’t have to follow predetermined guidelines when deciding how much to compensate you. Legally, they can decide to give you nothing by default, but having an attorney can change the way they perceive your claim. Call Grossman Law Offices for assistance if you’ve suffered broken bones, head injuries, back injuries or any other type of injuries in your wreck.

The Other Driver is Difficult to Deal With:
If the other driver involved in your accident is difficult to deal with either at the scene of the accident or late, it is advisable to call a Texarkana car accident attorney. If he doesn’t want to give you his contact or insurance information, that could be an early warning sign he wants to make it as hard as possible for you to recover what you deserve. If this occurs, you should seriously consider hiring an attorney.

The Insurance Company Harasses You or Pressures You to Settle:
If you don’t have a lawyer on your side, insurance companies can be very difficult to negotiate with. In essence, insurance companies are out to protect their own interests, and if you’ve been injured, their interests are diametrically opposed to yours. They will utilize adjusters to attempt to discover ways to deny your claims. The adjusters may also call you frequently, asking innocent-sounding questions about your wreck. Their questions may seem well-intentioned, but they are usually always calculated to pry you into saying something detrimental, that could be used against you to deny your claim. They will record whatever you say to them, and this could come back in the future to haunt you.

We’ve found, at Grossman Law Offices, the best avenue for our clients to deal with insurance adjusters is simply to not deal with them at all. We won’t permit adjusters to call our clients. Instead, we take those calls from the adjusters. If adjusters don’t have the opportunity to talk with our clients, they don’t have the chance to twist our clients’ words to use them against them.

In other situations, an insurance company may pressure you to settle your claim for less than your claim is actually worth. While accepting a fair settlement offer can be beneficial to an accident victim, accepting an unfair, inadequate settlement can be devastating for your legal rights. If you accept the insurance company’s settlement offer, you waive your right to sue the defendant in the future for more compensation for your injuries. Since the settlement is all you can collect from the defendant, it’s important not to accept an inferior offer, unless you are certain it is fair and complete.

Insurance companies realize accident victims are often struggling with cash flow issues, because of high medical bills, repair bills, and often being unable to work due to their injuries. So they hope if they dangle reduced amounts of quick cash in front of you, you will grasp it eagerly, and thereby relieve them of any future obligation for further liability. Settlements accepted from insurance companies before having an attorney on your side, are seldom fair, but they are in most cases, binding. Don’t allow the defendant to use this tactic to pay less than what your claim is worth. Call our Texarkana auto accident lawyers to discover what your case is really worth so you will have a comparison to know if the defendant’s offer is fair.

You Can’t Afford a Physician or Pay Your Medical Expenses:
Many people in the Texarkana area don’t have health insurance and aren’t able to pay for the medical treatment needed after being in an accident. Even if an accident victim has health insurance, his benefits may not cover the medical treatment he requires. Regardless of having health insurance or not, many accident victims are hesitant to get treatment for their injuries because they are afraid they cannot afford to take time from work to see a physician.

Seeing a physician and receiving treatment for your injuries after an accident is critical to your health and your lawsuit. If you already have accumulated medical expenses you can’t pay, or you can’t afford the needed treatment, there’s a good chance our Texarkana personal injury lawyers can help. We regularly work in collaboration with physicians and healthcare professionals and can put help you contact a physician who will take your financial situation into consideration. We are also able to help many of our clients get medical care at no out-of-pocket expense to them. And we can explain to you how the time taken off from work for medical care may be compensated by your defendant.

You Have Bad Feeling About How Your Claim Is Being Handled:
Trust your instincts or gut reaction if you have a bad feeling about how your case is being handled by the insurance company. Insurance companies are not in business to help individuals—they’re in business to turn a profit. The more creative ways they can create to deny legitimate claims, the more money they’ll make, the better their bottom line looks. If you have a bad feeling, call an attorney, or if any of these circumstances apply:

• The insurance company offers you less money that what’s due on your car loan.
• The insurance company extends you a settlement offer before the full extent of medical treatment you’ll need is known.
• The insurance company offers to pay your claim when you submit your bills, but then refuses to do so.
• The insurance company fails to offer you a rental car while your vehicle is being serviced by a mechanic.
• The insurance company claims their settlement offer is “all you’re entitled to” or “the most you can hope to get”.
• The insurance company takes extremely long to respond to your inquiries (usually this signifies they are investigating the claims behind your back).

If none of those circumstances apply, you possibly can handle your case on your own, without the assistance of an attorney. Sometimes, if a plaintiff has been involved in a accident which resulted in property damage only, they have succeeded in protecting their own rights. If your automobile was damaged, but you are fine, insurance companies are restricted by strict guidelines which delineate what they have to pay you to compensate for the damage to the automobile. Insurance companies have little opportunity to rip you off when they reimburse you for repair bills, because these guidelines are so limiting.

If you were in an accident where the car alone has been damaged, take down the contact and insurance information of the other driver and then drive your car or have it towed to a repair shop. The mechanic will bill directly your insurance company and then the insurance company will reimburse or pay him. Then your insurance company will look to the other driver’s insurance company for reimbursement. Sometimes a conflict surfaces between the two insurance companies over which one should ultimately be responsible for the expenses. Often they settle their disagreements with no involvement from you through a process termed subrogation. However, if the damage to your vehicle exceeds $5,000, you may need an attorney to represent you if the insurance companies are indecisive about who is to pay.

How to Choose The Texarkana Personal Injury Lawyer Who Is Right For Your Case
With so many car accident attorneys in Lubbock, how can you determine which one is the best choice for your case? Texarkana personal injury and car accident attorney Michael Grossman recommends interviewing two to three lawyers before making a hiring decision. Question each attorney about their track history for settling and litigating car accident cases and get feedback from each attorney about the strengths and weaknesses of your case. See if they can provide names of former clients whose cases have similarities to your case. Don’t hire an lawyer until you’re confident about his experience and competence in handling cases such as yours and confident he is someone you can trust with your case.

The Texarkana car accident attorneys at Grossman Law Offices have been litigating car accident cases for the past two decades and have won favorable settlements and verdicts against nearly every major auto insurer in the United States. Insurance companies know our name, and often, because of our reputation, we can influence them into giving our clients special treatment. Our goal is to make the legal process as easy as hassle-free on our clients and to assist them in recovering as much as possible for their injuries.

Don’t lose your important case because you didn’t think it was necessary to have an attorney in your corner. Call Grossman Law Offices toll-free at 1-855-239-1290 for a free consultation. We’ll inform you whether you need a lawyer or not, and the reasons why. We can discuss all the options available to you, and explain how we can help you in your case, so you can get back on you feet and move forward confidently into the future.