Costa Mesa Car Accident Lawyer
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If you are one of the approximately three million individuals who will be non fatally injured in a motor vehicle crash in the U.S. this year, know that you may have opportunities to secure compensation as a result of the harm you’ve suffered. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the annual financial toll that medical bills and lost productivity take on Americans as a result of motor vehicle crashes tops $75 billion. Exploring your legal options as quickly as you can in the wake of an accident can help to ensure that your crash doesn’t take an unnecessary toll on your family’s financial situation.
Going the Extra Mile for Car Accident Victims
Some law firms attempt to serve as many
car accident victims as they possibly can at one time. This model can lead to an unintentional indifference towards the outcome of any single case. When a lawyer is juggling 50
car accident cases at once, failing to secure positive results for any one client may not seem terribly consequential. By contrast, our firm strives to treat each client as if they are the only client whose interests we are managing. This client-focused approach to high-quality representation has earned our firm a reputation for excellence throughout Southern California. When you work with our
experienced personal injury team, you can feel legitimately confident that your case is being handled by trustworthy, capable professionals dedicated to securing you the best possible outcome for your case under the circumstances.
“Must Do” Steps to Take Following a Car Accident
If you have not already taken the following steps, please do so as soon as you can. If you’ve been injured as a result of your accident, chances are good that you are entitled to compensation due to the harm you have suffered. Making sure that you take each of the following steps will help to ensure your wellbeing, preserve your legal options, and protect your rights as an accident victim:
If you haven’t yet left the scene of your accident and you may have internal injuries, do not attempt to make it to the hospital on your own. Stop what you’re doing and call for an ambulance. None of the rest of these steps will matter if your health remains in jeopardy.
If you haven’t yet left the scene of the collision and you can do so safely, take pictures of the crash site from multiple angles and video on your phone as well. Exchange names and contact information with others involved in your crash and any witnesses to the accident.
If you haven’t yet filed an accident report, contact law enforcement to complete this task. Failure to do so may inhibit your ability to pursue legal action and/or insurance settlements. If you are uncomfortable, for any reason whatsoever, with speaking to law enforcement officers on your own, contact our office and we’ll provide you with the support you require.
Take time to write down or otherwise record your memories of the moments leading up to the crash, the crash itself, and the immediate aftermath of your collision. Sooner than you might think, your brain will start to protect you by allowing certain aspects of your memory of this event to fade. Having your memories recorded can serve as an important reference as our team builds a case on your behalf.
Avoid Doing This Following a Car Accident
There is one step that you should avoid taking before you’ve scheduled a free consultation with our firm and spoken to us about your circumstances. If you haven’t already done so, don’t communicate with insurance representatives until you can make an informed decision about allowing us to communicate with them on your behalf. Insurance companies are for-profit businesses. This means that their ultimate allegiance isn’t to policyholders or accident victims, it is to their stockholders. This isn’t a cynical perspective, it’s simply that businesses have a fiduciary duty to make money on behalf of their shareholders. As a result, they protect their bottom line whenever possible. If they can devalue, reject, or otherwise compromise your claim so that they don’t have to pay you as much compensation as you’re rightfully entitled to, they will.
Our legal team has years of experience successfully negotiating with insurance representatives. We understand how to avoid red tape, what to say (and what not to say) to insurance representatives to maximize the value of a claim, and how to resolve insurance issues as efficiently and effectively as possible. Right now, anything you say to an insurance representative may be used as an excuse to pay you less compensation than you deserve. Strongly consider allowing our team to negotiate with insurers on your behalf, regardless of whether you’re interested in filing a
personal injury lawsuit or not.
Why Car Crashes Happen
There are two primary questions that need to be answered at the beginning of the personal injury process that help to determine whether a motor vehicle accident injury victim may have grounds for a successful case. The first question is, “What caused the accident in question?” Only after that question is answered objectively can the second question (“Can anyone be held legally liable for the cause(s) of the crash?”) be answered with any authority.
There are seemingly endless scenarios that lead to car crashes. Properly identifying any and all causes of a given accident is critical, as an injury victim can’t make informed decisions about their legal options until they know exactly what circumstances led to the collision that caused their harm. When investigating the cause of a crash, our team prides itself on the kind of attention to detail that gives our clients every opportunity to maximize the amount of compensation to which they are rightly entitled.
Although we do not make assumptions about causation at the outset of investigating car accident causation, chances are good that at least one of the following common reasons why motor vehicles crash played a role in your collision:
- Road conditions: When weather, poor visibility due to smoke and fire, and other “acts of God” cause accidents to occur, they are only legally actionable if another’s negligent, reckless, or intentionally dangerous conduct also contributed to the source of the crash. However, when inadequate maintenance of roads themselves causes crashes, those responsible for proper maintenance can potentially be held legally liable for any harm caused.
- Aggressive driving behavior: Speeding and other aggressive driving behaviors are exceedingly common on California roads. Note that another motorist can be held liable for speeding both if they have violated posted limits or if they were simply driving too fast for conditions. California Vehicle Code § 22350 states that, “No person shall drive a vehicle upon a highway at a speed greater than is reasonable or prudent having due regard for weather, visibility, the traffic on, and the surface and width of, the highway, and in no event at a speed which endangers the safety of persons or property.”
- Motorist “interaction” issues: Navigating traffic safely requires both attentiveness and consideration for the rights of others. When fellow travelers fail to signal, operate their vehicles in the blind spots of others, merge improperly, and don’t respect the right of way mandates of the road, cars crash. Similarly, when motorists do not grant each other enough space to operate their vehicles safely, rear-end accidents inevitably occur. California Vehicle Code § 21703 (also known as “The Tailgating Section”) states that, “The driver of a motor vehicle shall not follow another vehicle more closely than is reasonable and prudent, having due regard for the speed of such vehicle and the traffic upon, and the condition of, the roadway.”
- The Four Ds: In modern America, drunk, drugged, drowsy, and distracted driving behaviors cause a staggering number of car crashes annually. Although there are some limited defenses to these behaviors that can prove successful, in the vast number of cases wherein these behaviors serve as a catalyst for collisions, defendants are held liable for their negligent, reckless, or intentionally dangerous conduct.
- Mechanical defects: One of the reasons why it is so important to have an experienced legal team evaluate the cause(s) of your crash before you make any assumptions about the strength or weakness of your case is that some causes are initially “invisible.” For example, if your car has a defective electrical system that contributed to your crash, you may be able to sue the auto manufacturer. However, you wouldn’t know that you had a cause of action until your electrical system was checked in the wake of your crash.
Determining Fault When a Car Accident Occurs
Once the causes of your accident have been properly identified, our legal team will turn its attention to answering the question “Can anyone be held legally liable for the cause(s) of the crash?”. As explained above, some car accident causes are legally actionable, while others are not. Determining whether any of the causes of your collision will provide you with grounds to file a personal injury lawsuit involves answering three key questions in the affirmative:
Did the party responsible for contributing to the cause of the accident owe you a duty of care?
Did that party violate their duty of care towards you by behaving in intentionally dangerous, negligent, or reckless ways?
Did this behavior serve as a substantial factor in the direct cause of your injuries?
If all of these questions can be answered affirmatively, you may be able to sue other motorists involved in the accident, the employers of motorists injured while on the job, manufacturers of defective auto parts, etc.
Note that because California is a pure comparative negligence state, you won’t be barred from seeking compensation from others who have contributed to your harm simply because you may have been partially at fault for your accident. As a result, you shouldn’t hesitate to seek legal guidance about your legal options. Making any assumptions about whether your case is weak or strong before your circumstances have been objectively assessed by our team may cost you time, money, and stress unnecessarily.
Contact Our Firm Today for a Free Case Evaluation
Whether your accident was minor, significant, or catastrophic, it is important to connect with our firm’s experienced legal team today. Scheduling a no-cost, risk-free, confidential consultation will help you to make informed decisions about our approach to representation and your legal options. Once your case has been objectively evaluated, you’ll have a strong sense of what may have caused your accident, whether your situation is legally actionable, and if you could benefit from having our team negotiate with insurance representatives on your behalf, etc.
As an injury victim, you deserve to understand your legal rights and how to exercise those rights effectively. Allow us to help support you in making informed choices about how to manage the aftermath of your accident to your benefit. We look forward to speaking with you.