Dallas Auto Accident Attorney

Dallas Personal Injury Attorney Michael Grossman Discusses Auto Accident Law

If you’ve been hurt in a car accident in or around Dallas, Texas, do you know what to do? Most people in this country will be involved in at least one car accident during their lifetimes and many people will be involved in several.

If you’ve been in a minor fender bender in the past, you may think you know what it takes to file a claim and recover for your injuries. But not all accidents are built alike, and the legal process that follows your wreck may be more or less complicated depending on the circumstances of your crash.

No matter how serious or minor your accident, you deserve to recover as much as possible for your injuries. In this article, Dallas personal injury attorney Michael Grossman explains some of the factors that could have an effect on the complexity of your case, and helps you decide whether you need a lawyer to make a full financial recovery.

Your case is important. Don’t make the mistake of losing your case because you weren’t sure whether or not you needed a personal injury attorney. For a free opinion and to discuss your options, call us at 1-855-326-0000 (toll free).

What You’ll Need to Prove to Win

In a personal injury lawsuit, such as a case involving a car accident, the accident victim, (called the “plaintiff”), has the burden of proof to convince the jury that he’s telling the truth. The defendant, on the other hand, is presumed not to be liable for your injuries until you prove otherwise. In nearly every car accident case, you’ll need to prove four things in order to hold the defendant accountable for his actions. Proving these four elements is called “meeting your burden of proof.” In most instances, only once you’ve met your burden of proof will the defendant be required to pay you anything. Below, we’ll explain the four elements you’ll need to prove in order to meet your burden of proof.

First, an accident victim must show that the defendant in his case owed him a duty of care to behave in a way that would not cause accidents and injuries. The law determines how careful people must be to make sure that they don’t hurt others. In the majority of car accident cases, the law dictates that the drivers involved owed each other a duty of care to drive as a reasonable person would drive in order to avoid causing wrecks. Proving that the defendant in your case owed you the duty to drive according to this “reasonable person standard” is usually quite straightforward.

Next, you must demonstrate that the defendant breached the duty of care that he owed you. Generally, this involves presenting evidence to show that the defendant drove in a way that a reasonable person wouldn’t, even if just for a split second. Driving under the influence of alcohol, rolling through stop signs, and failing to turn on headlights at night are all examples of conduct which may constitute a breach of a defendant’s duty of care. To prove this second element of your claim, you’ll need to have evidence showing exactly what the defendant in your case did or failed to do. The jurors will consider your evidence along with all other evidence regarding the circumstances surrounding the wreck, and determine whether the defendant in your case breached the applicable duty of care.

Once you’ve proved the defendant breached the duty of care he owed you, you’ll have proven that the defendant in your case was negligent. Proving negligence alone is not enough to prove liability. To hold the defendant accountable for his negligence, you’ll also need to bring evidence to court to prove that the defendant’s negligence was at least partially the cause of your wreck. It’s important to have strong evidence on this element of causation, since the defendant in your case will probably do everything he can to blame someone else for the wreck. This someone else may be a third party, or it may be you. If the defendant successfully convinces the jury that his mistake didn’t cause the crash, he’ll be off the hook for paying for your injuries.

Finally, you must demonstrate the amount of damages that you are entitled to collect. The term “damages” does not refer to the injuries you sustained in the wreck, but rather to the monetary value of those injuries. Lost wages, pain and suffering, loss of earning capacity, medical bills, and repair bills may all be accounted for in the damages you recover from the defendant.

To prove how much you are entitled to collect in damages, you’ll need to calculate how much you’re owed and submit evidence of your injuries to back up your claims. To you, your injuries are probably glaringly obvious and may affect your everyday life. You may be unable to return to work because of a disability, suffer with pain each day, or find yourself unable to afford to repair your car. Don’t expect jurors to see your injuries as clearly as you do. They’ll expect to see hard proof of your losses, and may assume that you’re just asking for a handout if you don’t provide it.

For those unaccustomed to calculating damages, accounting for all of an accident victim’s losses can be a daunting task. If your medical treatment is ongoing, you’ll need to calculate how much your continuing care will cost over the course of your lifetime. If your injuries were emotional, such as pain and suffering, you’ll need to figure out how to assign them a dollar amount. If you’ve been unable to return to work, you’ll need to account for hypothetical promotions and raises you would have received over the course of your career in order to collect what you’re entitled to for loss of earning capacity. The Dallas auto accident attorneys at Grossman Law Offices know how to account for, calculate, and prove all of your damages in order to maximize your potential recovery.

When do you Need a Lawyer?

In most car accident cases, there’s usually something that a personal injury attorney can do to help. In some cases, however, you may be able to protect your rights even without a lawyer on your side. Below, we’ll explain some of the situations in which you should consider hiring a Dallas auto accident attorney.

• You were Hurt in the Accident
  If you suffered any sort of bodily injuries which required at least one visit to the doctor after the accident or will require medical care in the future, you should have an attorney handle your case. In claims involving whiplash, broken bones, back injuries, brain injuries, or any other type of physical injury, insurance companies have no automatic obligation to volunteer to pay you any money in compensation for your suffering or medical bills. Since insurance companies are in the business of making money, and not in the business of helping people, it can be challenging to get them to pay what’s fair without the help of a lawyer. Often, insurance companies will pull out all the stops when it comes to finding ways to avoid paying accident victims’ claims. Especially if you’ve been physically injured, you need to make sure that your rights are protected.
  
  
• The Other Driver was Difficult to Deal with at the Scene of the Accident or Afterward
  Whether or not you were physically injured in an accident, you should consider hiring an attorney if the other driver involved in your wreck was hard to deal with at the scene of the accident or afterward. If the other driver didn’t want to give you his contact or insurance information, didn’t want to call the police after the wreck, or otherwise gave you a hard time, this may be an indication that he’s going to make it as hard as possible for you to collect what you’re entitled to.
  
  
• You can’t Afford to See a Doctor or Pay your Medical Bills
  If you don’t think you can afford to see a doctor for your injuries, or if you’ve already seen a doctor but you can’t pay your medical bills, there’s probably something that our Dallas auto accident attorneys can do to help. Many people in and around Dallas, Texas don’t have health insurance and those who do have insurance may find that the treatment that they need isn’t covered under their plan. Some accident victims worry about the wages they’ll lose if they take time off from work to get treatment for their injuries.
  
  If you’ve been injured in a wreck, going to the doctor is important to both your health and your lawsuit. At Grossman Law Offices, we work with a large network of doctors and other healthcare professionals. We can help put you in touch with a doctor who will take your financial situation into consideration. Additionally, we can explain how the wages you lose if you need to miss work to get medical care may be reimbursable by the defendant in your case.
  
  
• The Car Insurance Company Pressures or Harasses You
  We’ve mentioned that insurance companies often go to great lengths to see to it that they can deny claims or pay accident victims as little as possible for their injuries. Sometimes, this can lead to pressuring or harassing an accident victim. Insurance companies may call you repeatedly to ask you questions about the accident. Their questions may seem friendly and innocent, but in most cases they’ll be calculated to get you to admit something that could be used against you to deny your claim. Be very careful what you tell them. Whatever you say will be recorded and could come back to haunt you.
  
  In other situations, insurance companies will try to pressure accident victims to settle claims for low amounts of money. If you accept an unfair settlement agreement, you won’t be able to demand any more money from the defendant in the future, so it’s very important not to accept anything from the insurance company until you’re sure you’re getting a fair deal. Insurance companies know that accident victims are often strapped for cash, faced with high medical and repair bills which often seem impossible to pay if a victim has taken time off from work to recover. As a result, insurance companies will often dangle fast cash in front of accident victims, and pressure them to accept even before they’ve had a chance to hire a lawyer. These initial offers are rarely fair, but their effects are usually binding. Make sure you ask a lawyer how much your case is really worth before you accept an offer from the defendant in your case.
  
  Additionally, contact a lawyer if an insurance company tries to do one of the following:
  
  
  • Makes you a settlement offer before the full extent of the medical treatment you’ll need is known
  • Offers you less money than what’s due on your car loan
  • Refuses to offer you a rental car while your car is being repaired
  • Stalls or takes too long to respond to your inquiries (this usually means that they’re investigating behind your back)
  • Tells you they’ll pay your bills as soon as you submit them, and then refuses to do so
  • Tells you that a settlement offer is “the best you’re going to get” or “all that you’re entitled to.”
  
  
• You have a Bad Feeling about the way your Claim is Being Treated
  If you have a funny feeling about the way an insurance company is handling your claim, trust your gut. Insurance companies are looking out for their own interests, which are usually directly opposed to yours. The lawyers at Grossman Law Offices can get to the bottom of what’s going on, and make sure that your rights are protected.

If any of the above circumstances are present in your case, we recommend that you call a Dallas auto accident attorney for assistance. If your case doesn’t involve one of those issues, however, you may be able to handle your claim on your own. This is because when an accident involves only property damage, and not bodily harm to an individual, insurance companies are bound by strict guidelines which tell them how much they’re required to pay you. Since they have little wiggle room under these guidelines, insurance companies have little ability to rip you off if only your car has been damaged.

If you’ve been involved in an accident which injured only your car, and none of the other circumstances we’ve discussed above apply, get your claim rolling by exchanging insurance and contact information with the other driver at the scene of the accident. Next, drive your car or have it towed to a mechanic for repair. The mechanic will submit the repair bill directly to your insurance company, which will pay the mechanic and send the bill on to the other driver’s insurer for reimbursement. Usually, this process goes smoothly, but occasionally insurance companies dispute which of them is ultimately responsible for paying the bill. When this happens, your insurance company will usually represent you in settling the dispute without the need for you to intervene. This process, in which your insurance company represents your interests against the other insurance company, is called subrogation. If the two insurance companies get in a dispute over more than $5,000 worth of repairs, however, you may need an attorney to represent your rights.

The Role of Insurance

Does the defendant in your case have insurance? Whether or not the defendant has insurance can make a big difference in the legal process and outcome of a case. Suppose that both drivers in an accident are insured. In such a case, an insurance company will ultimately be footing the bill for your injuries if you are successful in your claim. Since an insurance policy is involved, some amount of money is theoretically available to compensate you for your injuries. The problem, of course, is that insurance companies often make getting to that money as difficult as possible by using defense attorneys, accident recreation specialists, adjusters, investigators, and other professionals to build cases against you. Additionally, if the other driver carries only minimum coverage, there may not be enough money available to cover all of your losses.

Though drivers in Texas are required to carry insurance policies on their vehicles, the reality is that many individuals choose to break the law and drive uninsured. If the other driver involved in your accident was uninsured, and you don’t have uninsured motorist coverage on your insurance policy, your only avenue for recovery will probably come directly from the other driver himself. Although this means that you won’t be up against the sophisticated adjusters, investigators, and other professionals that insurance companies use to defend their cases, you will have to worry about the issue of insolvency. A driver is insolvent if he doesn’t have enough money to pay you for your losses. If a defendant is insolvent, there’s usually little that can be done to ensure that a plaintiff makes a full recovery.

In many situations, however, uninsured motorists will take steps to hide their assets after a car accident in order to appear insolvent. In other words, defendants who appear insolvent may secretly have sufficient resources to compensate you for your injuries, but if you can’t prove it, you won’t recover. At Grossman Law Offices, our Dallas auto accident attorneys perform asset checks on the defendants involved in the cases that we handle. If the other driver in your case is hiding resources, we’ll find them.

How to Choose a Dallas Auto Accident Attorney

There are many personal injury attorneys in and around Dallas. Choosing the right one for your case may seem like an overwhelming task. We think that the best way to choose a lawyer is to speak with two or three attorneys before making a decision about which of them you’d like to handle your case. Ask each attorney you speak with about his or her track record for handling, settling, and litigating cases like yours. Find out if the lawyer knows what the strengths and weaknesses of your case are, and whether he or she can put you in touch with a former client whose case was similar to yours. Your case is important. You should be looking for an attorney who you can trust and who has experience handling car accident claims.

The Dallas auto accident attorneys at Grossman Law Offices have been handling car accident litigation for the past twenty years. We’ve won verdicts and settlements against nearly every major auto insurer in the country. When we take a case, we handle every aspect of our client’s claim from beginning until end. Some of the services we provide in nearly every car accident case that we handle include:

• Investigating the cause of our client’s accident.
• Gathering the evidence we’ll need to prove our client’s case.
• Making sure that our client sees a doctor.
• Accounting for all of our client’s damages and serving a demand on the defendant before our client’s bills come due.
• Using our reputation to pressure the defendant into settling our client’s case for a favorable amount.
• Mediating our client’s case.
• Preparing for trial and litigating our client’s case if necessary.
• Performing an asset check on the defendant.
• Taking all calls from the insurance company so that they don’t have a chance to bother our client.
• Handling all paperwork and submitting all bills to the insurance company on our client’s behalf.

Our objective is to make sure that you receive all that you’re entitled to for your injuries, and that the legal process is as easy as possible on you. To find out more about what your options are or to learn what we can do for you in your case, call us at 1-855-326-0000 (toll free). We’re available twenty-four hours a day to provide you with a free consultation and answer your questions.