When it comes to the sheer number of cars, the roads in the United States are some of the busiest in the world. Nearly 200 million motorists take to the roads on a daily basis across the country. With this many cars, it is easy to see why car accident cases are the most common form of personal injury claim in Texas.
With the speed and force that is involved in a car, truck, or motorcycle accident, the potential for serious injury and fatality is extremely high. Texas also sees an unusually high number of drunk driving accidents, with one occurring every single 20 minutes, that’s 72 drunk driving accidents every single day. With the reduction in reaction times and the effect that alcohol has on a driver’s judgment, these accidents often cost the lives of those involved and can steal a loved one from a family forever.
If you have been involved in a car accident or you have lost a loved one because of the negligent behavior of another driver, you deserve compensation for your grief, mental trauma, and injuries, and you deserve to pursue the recovery of any damages you have suffered as a result of the accident, such as medical bills and repair costs.
The laws in Texas surrounding personal injury claims can be complex, and navigating them is best done with a reputable lawyer behind you. They deal with claims like this every single day.
Here at Chris Morrow Law, PLLC, as a personal injury law firm, we handle a lot of car accident cases. This means we have dealt with countless cases similar to yours and have won favorable outcomes for numerous clients.
Once we take over, we investigate on your behalf, we calculate your damages and negotiate a settlement, we file all paperwork, and most importantly, we give you room to focus and prioritize what is really important, your own health and mental wellbeing.
Chris Morrow Law, PLLC – The Attorney That Works
The best personal injury law firms have a strong spearhead. Our founding attorney, Chris Morrow, has proven his reputation for fierce advocacy is well deserved. He has numerous first-chair trials under his belt and has a strong approach to the client-attorney relationship. His dedication to his client’s needs, paired with his exceptional litigation prowess, is a combo that is hard to beat.
One of our main goals here at Chris Morrow Law, PLLC, is to provide reliable representation to all victims. We don’t want victims to suffer without legal advice because they are worried about extortionate legal costs.
Our services are risk-free. We offer a free case evaluation as part of the free initial consultation that we offer to all new clients. This means you can at least obtain legal advice about your situation. You can choose to walk away afterward if you like. There are no strings attached, and at least you will be more informed than you were before.
We also work on a contingency fee basis, meaning we don’t charge fees for our initial consultations, and we don’t charge anything if we cannot win your case. If we win you a settlement or in court, we take our fees from your settlement figure.
What Different Types of Compensation Are Available to Me Following a Round Rock TX Car Accident?
There are a lot of different costs that you can suffer following a car accident. For starters, you may need to replace your car. You may also need medical attention and to take time off work. On top of this, you could be dealing with the pain of the injuries and the emotional trauma and distress of being in a car accident.
With your lawyer, you will be able to pursue the recovery of all the damages you have suffered due to the negligent parties’ actions. The calculation of these damages is one of the most important jobs they carry out. The more experience they have and the more successful cases they have worked on, the better they will be at this task. When damages are calculated in a fair and reasonable way, they become exceptionally difficult to dispute or argue against.
The first stage, when it comes to calculating what your damages are worth, is to consider how much your economic damages equate to. Your economic damages are the ones that have cost you money, and this makes them the easier of the two to calculate. Your lawyer will simply collate all the physical costs and support them with the receipts and bills you provide.
Next, your lawyer will need to work out how much your non-economic damages are worth. These damages will be down to your lawyer to consider, and they will not have a clear figure attached.
Once they have been worked out, they will form the basis of your settlement offer that you send to the other party and will be the core of your lawyer’s arguments when it comes to negotiating on your behalf.
Economic Damages
If you have paid or will have to pay a physical price tag, it is economic damage. Common examples of your economic damages are medical bills, lost wages, and repairing or replacing your car after an accident.
These claims are easy to support and hard to argue as there will be an invoice, bill, or receipt to back up your claims.
Non-economic Damages
Your non-economic damages are much more complex. These damages include the things you have suffered that do not have a clear price tag attached to them. For example, working out how much you should be compensated for the pain you have been through or the loss of enjoyment of life you have suffered.
Here are some of the non-economic and economic damages you should make yourself aware of:
Claiming for Medical Bills in Round Rock, TX
Medical costs are often the most immediate and the most worrying damage you will face. Even if you are lucky enough to have a premium level of insurance, you might be surprised by how fast you exceed it if you have serious injuries or require long-term treatment.
If you exceed your medical coverage, you may have to pay for your medical costs yourself, and this can be a terrible situation, one where people may not even be able to afford the medical treatment they need.
You can claim all past and future medical costs in a personal injury claim. You need to make sure you keep records of your treatment and all the costs, as well as the receipts and invoices.
It is also a smart idea to keep a daily diary of your pain, mood, and medical treatment that can be used as a timeline of your treatment by your car accident lawyer.
Claiming for Income Lost Due to the Recovery Process Following Your Round Rock, TX Car Accident
In the days, weeks, and months that follow a car accident, it is likely that you will need to take a period off work. This might be down to physical injuries or mental distress. For most people, this will result in their wages being affected to some degree.
If you have lost wages or income due to an accident that wasn’t your fault, this is not fair, and you have the right to recover these through your claim. You can claim for all past and all potential future lost wages too. This means your lawyer might need to work with a medical expert to consider what your future treatment might look like.
It also means that if you have suffered an injury, that means you will never be able to work again in the same capacity; your car accident lawyer may consider what a lifetime of lost wages looks like and pursue this in your claim.
Claiming for Pain and Suffering in Round Rock, TX
Your pain and suffering damages encompass all suffering and all physical pain. This can take a wide variety of different forms, such as:
- Anxiety around cars/roads.
- Post-traumatic stress.
- Emotional distress.
- Depression.
- Sleep issues.
- Flashbacks.
Claiming for Property Damage in Round Rock, TX
If your car has been damaged by the accident and you need to replace it or repair it, the cost of doing so can be recovered. You have the right to have your car repaired in any garage of your choice, so do not let the insurance company persuade you otherwise.
Claiming for Losing a Loved One in Round Rock, TX
Car accident lawyers often have to deal with wrongful death claims. These are the worst-case scenarios and can steal a loved one from their family forever. There is no compensation in the world that will ever bring that person back, but through a wrongful death claim, you can ensure that your family has financial security and that funeral arrangements for the deceased are covered.
What To Do After A Car Accident In Texas
Accident victims are often left in a state of shock following car accidents. In this state, they may apologize or say things that they do not mean, and this can cost victims their cases later down the line. You should never apologize or admit fault in any way at the scene of the accident. The other party will tell their insurance company what you said and will use it against you.
If you are at the scene of the accident, here are the steps you should follow to guarantee your safety and protect your chances of making a claim at a later point.
If you are reading this at the scene of the accident, the following is a list of the steps you should follow to make sure you remain safe and preserve your chances of seeking maximum and full compensation for your injuries.
Check Injuries and Move To Safety if Possible
The most important thing for all car accident victims is to prioritize safety over all else. That means checking yourself for injuries first. If you have hit your head, feel pain in your spine or shoulders, or cannot feel your legs or arms, remain calm and remain still. Do not let anyone move you until the ambulance team turns up, as you could cause further damage.
If you are confident that your injuries are mild enough that you can move to safety, and you are in further danger, for example, from oncoming traffic, move to a place of safety. If you are in the position to, and it is safe, check others for injuries too.
Call An Ambulance
If there have been any injuries whatsoever, your very first call should be to call for an ambulance to attend the scene. Even if the injuries seem minor, you cannot guarantee that shock isn’t hiding symptoms or that there are no injuries without outward symptoms. Internal bleeding may not show itself until it becomes a serious problem. The same is true with head trauma, as adrenaline can further mask any obvious signs.
The ambulance team will be able to address all of these issues, and they will also fill in a form that can be used as evidence later on down the line. This report is an unbiased view of the accident scene, and the injuries suffered.
Receiving medical attention at the scene also makes it easier to prove one of the four important elements of a personal injury accident, which is causation. If you have been injured by a car accident and the ambulance has confirmed your injuries happened as a result of the accident, causation should be easy to prove.
Call The Police
When it comes to car accidents, the police should always be called to the scene. With their training, they can make everyone involved a lot safer. They may close the road, divert traffic and calm down any aggressive parties. If there was a driver involved who was under the influence, this is a criminal offense, and they will administer the blood alcohol test and handle the criminal aspect of the accident.
Collect Evidence
If you have ensured that the police and ambulance teams have been called and your injuries are not life-threatening, you should consider collecting some evidence while you are still at the scene of the accident.
Our advice on how to do this is to record a video of the scene. Walk around the scene slowly if you are not in danger, and record a voice statement over the top of what happened in your own words. The closer to the accident you record your statement, the better. Taking photos of the more important aspects, such as the injuries and cars involved, is also a good way to collect evidence.
Exchange Information and Witness Statements
For those that have been involved in a car accident where there are witnesses on the scene, you should get their details and a small statement from them as soon as possible. Often, witnesses who seem helpful at the scene become unreliable when your car accident lawyers chase them up at a later date.
Your round Rock Car accident lawyer will find it a lot easier to track down and confirm a witness statement than it is to get a witness to remember and provide a statement later on down the line.
Make sure you collect as many contact details as the witness is willing to provide.
Seek Medical Attention
If the paramedics did not need to attend to you at the scene, you should still get checked out by your doctor at your earliest convenience. Proving the accident caused your injuries is an important part of the personal injury process, and the closer to your accident, your injuries are recorded by a doctor, the easier it is to do this.
It will also ensure that the shock and adrenaline did not mask any injuries that could prove serious later on.
Call Your Insurance Company
Your insurance company will need to know that you were in an accident, and many of them have a time period in which you should call them to inform them of the accident. When you speak to them, keep it brief and tell them you will be employing a car accident lawyer who they can liaise with going forwards. Do not say you feel fine, and do not accept any liability in the accident.
Hire A Round Rock Car Accident Lawyer
When it comes to seeking the full and maximum compensation for your accident, the sooner you get your car accident lawyer involved, the better your chances of success. This is because they will need time to investigate and build your case, and the sooner you get in touch, the longer they will have to do this.
It is a smart idea to call them on the scene so that they can remind you what not to do and what not to say. They will also remind you to collect some evidence and may even send their own crash investigators to the scene.
Investigating Your Accident
After your initial consultation and once you have agreed to representation, your car accident lawyers will now look to investigate what happened and build up as much evidence as possible. With this evidence, they will build a strong case on your behalf. The stronger this case, the better their position when it comes to negotiating with the other parties’ insurance company.
If the other insurance company and your lawyer cannot reach a settlement agreement, the case may need to proceed to the courtroom, and the stronger your case is, the easier it will be to convince the courts that you deserve to be awarded what you are seeking.
The main key to winning your case after a Round Rock car accident is to prove the responsible party acted negligently.
To begin with, here are some important questions your car accident lawyer might ask:
- Are there any witnesses to the accident who are willing to testify?
- Did the other party ignore any traffic rules, for example, by engaging in dangerous or reckless driving?
- Was there an official ambulance or police report filled out?
- Did the other driver admit fault or say anything that could be seen as an admission of liability?
- Was the other driver under the influence of alcohol or drugs?
The 4 Elements to Prove in a Car Accident Case
There are four elements to a personal injury case that need to be proven. If these four elements can be proven and supported by evidence, your case will be valid and strong. In the early stages of the case, your lawyer will be looking to prove all four during the investigation. This will help them negotiate from a place of strength, and if the case proceeds to the courtroom, they will have the evidence ready, which the courts will expect.
These are the four elements:
- Duty Of Care — First, for someone to act negligently, they must owe you a duty of care. A duty of care can be assumed for a number of reasons, such as the duty of care doctors owe to patients and businesses owe to their customers. When it comes to motor vehicle accidents, all drivers automatically assume a duty of care to the other users of the road.
- Breach — The other party must have breached this duty of care by acting in a way that is different to what a reasonable person would have acted. Ignoring a red light or stop sign and causing an accident is negligence. Any reasonable driver would stop at a red light or stop sign.
- Causation — You sustained car accident injuries as a result of the other party breaching their duty of care.
- Damages — You suffered economic and/or non-economic damages as a result.
Here is an example of what this might look like. In this example, a driver has ignored a stop sign and has crashed into a car at an intersection.
- Duty Of Care — All drivers assume a duty of care to other road users. This means the driver owed a duty of care to the car and its passengers.
- Breach — Now we have established that the driver owed a duty of care, we now need to prove they breached it with their behavior. To do this, the behavior must be different to how a normal sensible person would have acted. Running a red light or ignoring a stop sign is an example of negligent behavior. A normal driver would listen to the road signs.
- Causation — After the accident, the ambulance was called to the scene and they dealt with injuries that were clearly caused by the crash.
- Damages — The driver of the other car had to have reconstructive surgery and this had clear medical costs, he was in a lot of pain and he could not go to work for several months. These damages were caused by the injuries that occurred during the accident.
In this situation, the case is a pretty clear one and the liability obviously lies with the other party.
Negligence Explained
It is important to familiarize yourself with what negligent behavior is in terms of a car accident, as it is one of the most important aspects of your personal injury case. Having a strong knowledge of what negligence is and what constitutes it will be beneficial.
Negligent behavior, according to WEX Legal Encyclopedia:
A failure to behave with the level of care that someone of ordinary prudence would have exercised under the same circumstances.
The behavior usually consists of actions, but can also consist of omissions when there is some duty to act (e.g., a duty to help victims of one’s previous conduct).
This might look complicated but broken down, it is relatively simple. If you act in a way that is different from how you should act (how a reasonable person would act in the same situation), you are acting negligently.
Truck Accident Lawyers
Auto accidents involving truck drivers and commercial vehicles are more complicated than those involving normal passenger vehicles. A fully loaded commercial truck can weigh up two 20x that of a regular passenger car. This means that the impact when they crash is generally far larger and the chances for serious injury or fatality is much higher.
For this reason, there are a range of additional rules and regulations that apply to commercial trucking companies and their drivers. They should monitor the time the drivers spend behind the wheel, should ensure they take proper breaks, and should ensure they are properly trained.
It is also down to the truck company to maintain their trucks to the highest standard. This means the liability in these cases may not always lie with the driver of the commercial truck. Instead, liability may lie with the trucking company.
To make things even more complicated, in some cases, the mechanic who maintains the trucks or, in rare cases, even the manufacturer of the parts used on the truck may be found liable. If you are unsure, you should contact a dedicated truck accident lawyer.
Round Rock Car Accident Injury Lawyer FAQs
The best way to know if you have a claim is to get in touch with a personal injury law firm. Personal injury cases have a lot of variables and will require a case evaluation. No law firm will tell you if you have a valid claim or not until they have asked some important questions.
The first settlement offer and any quick-fire settlement offers should be treated with caution. Often, the other insurance company will know their party is liable and will use tactics like this to lower their eventual payout. They will come to you with a quick-fire offer that is a lot lower than they expect they will have to pay out.
They play on the fact that it may seem like a large amount of money to you in your current situation.
You should always discuss any settlement offer with your lawyer, as once you accept it, you forgo the chance to seek any more compensation after that point.
We always advise you to discuss any offer of settlement with a car accident lawyer. Together, you will be able to consider if the settlement is a fair one.
Punitive damages are awarded when you can show that the driver acted with gross negligence or malicious intent. They are awarded when the judge wants to punish the driver and make an example of them. You will need to work with your lawyer to prove that the driver deserves punishment in order to claim punitive damages.
With the number of variables and complexity of personal injury cases, the amount of time your case will take to complete will depend upon a number of things.
In cases where the liability is clear, the other party may decide to take the loss and pay your settlement out of court. They could, however, decide to fight in the hopes of avoiding a payout.
Simple cases that settle out of court could be over in under a year, but complex cases can take several years to finish.
You will need to check your own insurance company policy here because unless you have uninsured motorist insurance, your case will be difficult to deal with. You should speak to an car accident lawyer to discuss your options.
Usually, both sides will want to avoid a court battle as the costs can get expensive. This means if you can provide a strong case with evidence to back your claims, you have a good chance of winning a settlement.
If the liability is shaky or your evidence is not so strong, the other party might dig their heels in and fight the longer game. This often happens in cases where the payout is going to be a large one, as the other party might prefer to risk paying more in the hopes of winning and paying nothing.
This makes retaining a skilled, experienced Round Rock car accident lawyer crucial. They should be as skilled in litigation in the courtroom as they are in the negotiation stage. This alone may tip the scales in your favor as the other party may settle simply down to your lawyer’s reputation.
One reason why it pays to have an attorney is that your legal representation will take over liaising with all of the parties involved, including the other insurance company. This is beneficial as you will not fall prey to their underhanded tricks.
Call Chris Morrow Law, PLLC – The Attorney That Works
Dealing with car accident cases means you will be fighting against car insurance companies and their skilled legal teams. Car insurance payouts can be huge, and this means the insurance companies employ the best possible loss adjusters and attorneys to fight on their behalf.
By yourself, you will have to fight these legal teams alone, with no legal training, while injured or dealing with the aftermath of the accident.
Get in touch with us today and take advantage of our free consultation and case evaluation with a Round Rock car accident lawyer to ask the questions you need to be answered. If you feel confident in our abilities after that meeting, we can spring into action.
