Many people feel overwhelmed after being involved in a car accident. It can be difficult to know what information to obtain, who to contact, and how to report information on the accident. As personal injury lawyers, we often see clients who, before seeking our help, have made mistakes after a motor vehicle accident that impacts their ability to pursue a claim. By educating yourself on the common mistakes to avoid when pursuing a car accident claim, and by contacting a lawyer early on, you can avoid negative ramifications to your claim later.
Not Reporting the Accident Immediately
If there is damage totalling at least $1,000 to the vehicles, you are required to call the police to the scene of the accident. Not only is this required by law, but for more serious accidents it can be important for the police to investigate the scene. Police will usually take statements from those involved in the accident and may also take photographs of the area and collect other measurements. The police will also file an accident report that provides details of the accident and their assessment of fault. Your lawyer can access this report later to get independent information on how the accident occurred and other details that may be relevant to determine who was legally at fault for the accident.
Failing To Document the Accident Scene
Sometimes there is a dispute about how the accident happened later in the claims process. The insurance company may refuse to compensate you for your claim if there is a dispute about who is at fault for the accident. It is important to ensure that you properly document the scene of the accident and collect the necessary information to later prove how the accident occurred. We recommend that you take photographs of the damage to the vehicles as well as where the vehicles came to rest after the accident. It is crucial to obtain the names and insurance information of any other individuals involved in the accident. It is also important to get the names and phone numbers of any witnesses to the car accident.
Take the following case, for example: Our client was involved in a two-vehicle collision. Our client was driving in her lane of travel, when another car that was travelling in the opposite lane of travel, suddenly veered into our client’s lane and collided with her vehicle. The driver of the other vehicle told the police and the insurance company that our client had crossed into his lane of travel and collided with him. Our client was able to get the name and phone number of the driver of another vehicle not involved in the collision, who had been travelling behind our client. This witness was able to confirm our client’s version of events. In addition, our client had taken photos of where the vehicles came to rest and the damage to the vehicles. These photos were able to corroborate the witness’s account and our client’s story. If not for the client documenting the accident scene, this could have ended up as a he-said-she-said situation, with no way to prove the real version of events.
Neglecting Medical Attention
There is often an adrenaline rush after being involved in a car accident. Some individuals may also experience shock, which numbs the body’s ability to identify pain and injury. In addition, some injuries take hours, days, or even longer to manifest. It is important to seek medical attention as soon as possible after the accident. If you suspect that you may be injured, attending the hospital emergency room directly following the accident is the most prudent approach. A medical doctor can assess your injuries and determine whether any tests or immediate treatment are necessary.
After the initial medical assessment, it is important to follow up regularly with a primary care physician. Most soft tissue and concussion injuries are treated conservatively. This means that doctors will often wait to see if the injury resolves on its own before ordering more tests or referring the patient to a specialist. If you are experiencing ongoing pain or limitations from your injuries, it is important that your doctor is aware so he or she can assess if more investigations are necessary.
Take the following example: After a car accident, our client was diagnosed with a soft tissue injury to the shoulder and arm. Our client was told to attend physiotherapy and massage therapy. Despite treatment, the injury did not resolve. Our client continued to see his family physician to report the ongoing pain in his shoulder and arm. Our client was eventually referred to a specialist, an orthopaedic surgeon, almost a year after the accident. Our client was then diagnosed with a rotator cuff tear and surgery was required to repair the injury. If our client had not continued to report his injuries to his doctor, the tear may have taken much longer to be diagnosed and treated, or it may never have been properly treated at all.
From a legal perspective, it is also important that any injuries from the car accident are diagnosed soon enough after the accident that it can be proven that they were caused by the accident. If you do not seek medical treatment and are diagnosed weeks or months later with injuries, it may be difficult to prove that the injuries were caused by the car accident. In a car accident claim, you are only entitled to be compensated for injuries that you can prove were caused by the car accident. After a certain period of time has passed, doctors will be reluctant or will refuse to give an opinion on whether the diagnosed injuries were caused by the accident. If this is the case, it may be difficult to prove the causal link between the injury and the accident.
Miscommunicating With Insurance Companies
After a motor vehicle accident, there are different insurance companies that may become involved. If you do not understand the role of each insurance company, it can be possible to give information to an insurance company that may hurt your claim later on. It is ideal to call a lawyer as soon as possible after the accident to get advice on who to talk to and what to say.
Insurance companies will often contact individuals after a car accident to try to get a statement or to ask for authorization to collect medical information. It is very important to consult a lawyer before giving any statements or signing any authorizations. Depending on the role of the insurance company, they may use the information they gather against you if you try to pursue compensation for a car accident claim. A lawyer can explain your rights and responsibilities to you and advise you on what information to give to the different insurance adjusters involved.
Overlooking the Need for Legal Advice
We often have calls from clients who want to seek legal representation after first trying to pursue a car accident claim on their own, without legal representation. Unfortunately, in some of these cases, mistakes have been made which impact their personal injury claim.
Retaining a personal injury lawyer early in the process allows the lawyer to control the flow of information to the insurance company and ensure the insurance company is not accessing documents or information they are not entitled to. For example, often clients retain us, and they have already given statements to an insurance adjuster without any preparation or supervision from a lawyer. We have seen cases where insurance companies use these statements later to dispute the claim and to try to justify paying the client less compensation.
Retaining a lawyer early also ensures that the evidence needed to support the claim will be identified, preserved, and collected. Retaining a lawyer later sometimes means that crucial evidence no longer exists. For example, modern vehicles have a ‘black box’ that stores information on speed, position of throttle, brake application, airbag deployment, seatbelt use, and steering angles. In collisions where fault is disputed, this evidence can help prove how the accident happened. If a vehicle is written off by the insurance company, these black boxes can end up destroyed. The data in these black boxes are also overwritten after a period of time. A lawyer may decide early on to hire a consultant to preserve the black box data, and to provide an analysis of the accident to support a client’s claim.
A lawyer can also ensure that you are taking all the steps necessary to provide the best outcome for your car accident claim. From the day of the accident forward, a lawyer can give invaluable advice on who to talk to, what steps to take, and what things to avoid.
Finally, a lawyer can ensure that you do not miss any important limitation periods for your claim. Once a limitation period expires, you can completely lose your legal right to pursue a claim or any compensation. Sadly, we sometimes receive calls from individuals who have been pursuing their own car accident claim and have missed a limitation period. There is nothing we can do to help these people and, unfortunately, they lose their right to any compensation.
Accepting a Settlement Offer
Insurance companies may offer you an amount early on to settle your claim. We always recommend seeking legal advice before accepting a settlement offer. We often have individuals call our office for legal advice on an early offer. Usually, these offers are much less than what the claim is worth. Often these clients retain us to represent them on their claim and end up with more compensation as a result.
In addition, many claims cannot be properly assessed early on. To properly assess your claim, a lawyer must be able to answer questions about what the future looks like for you. Some examples of these questions are: Are there any permanent physical limitations from the injuries; will the injuries continue to impact your ability to work; will you eventually need to stop working, switch occupations, or retrain; how long will you continue to require treatment and what type of treatment; and are there some household chores that you will no longer be able to do. This is why a personal injury lawyer will advise you that your claim can not be properly assessed before your injuries have stabilized and you have reached maximum medical improvement. If you settle too early, you could run the risk of accepting an offer that is much less than what the claim is worth. Once you settle your claim, you cannot go back at a later date and ask for more compensation.
Conclusion
If you have been involved in a car accident and plan to pursue a claim, it is important to inform yourself of some of the common mistakes to avoid, as outlined above. By educating yourself on the common mistakes to avoid and by contacting a lawyer early on, you can avoid negative ramifications to your claim later. At Melanson Law, we offer free consultations. Give us a call today for more information on how to set yourself up for the best possible results for your claim.
