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Only experienced Attorneys can Help You Understand and Decide What to do After a Car Wreck

After a car accident involving you or a loved one, you must protect your legal rights against those who would deny you fair injury compensation. Car accidents are a common occurrence and can be little more than a minor fender bender in a parking lot. But just as often, they can be destructive wrecks that cause devastating injuries and deep scars, physically and psychologically. The lives of the victims and their families are thrown into chaos after a serious auto accident in which they were reluctantly involved.

After a serious accident involving injuries, you are entitled to seek compensation for the financial, physical, and emotional injuries you suffered from the car crash. But without intimate knowledge of your case it is impossible to compute the amount you may be entitled to, because the damages you have a right to seek depends on the unique circumstances of your case. We’re here to help you understand the clear need to hire an attorney, any attorney with demonstrated experience in personal injury, if you wish to receive the fairest legal damages. Now you’re welcome to try and handle this matter on your own if you wish, or hire your nephew who just passed the bar. What we hope to do is explain some of the basics of auto personal injury cases for you. And if you’ve been involved in a little fender-bender with no complications or injuries other than a headache, you can probably handle things on-your-own, so long as you’re cautious. But if you call your auto accident a “car wreck,” we strongly urge you to quickly retain an experienced local auto accident attorney who knows the ropes surrounding Texas car accident litigation.

Put our years of experience to work for you. If you want to know what your rights are, how to proceed with your claim, and how much compensation you can secure from your auto injury case, call the car wreck lawyers with our Law Firm for a free consultation and find out how we can help you recover the full fair value of the damages you have suffered through the negligence of another driver. You’ve already been made a victim once. Don’t let it happen again.

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Just Who do you have a Claim Against?

How do we know whether or not we have a successful personal injury case against a defendant who should reimburse us for our injuries? All true accident victims have a legal right to collect damages by proving the four elements of a car accident claim. Since you will be the one asking for compensation, the burden to you, the injured plaintiff, is to prove you are owed these damages by the defendants who only have to deny and disprove your claim.

There are four elements to proving injuries against a defendant. You must clearly demonstrate your charges are true. They are duty, breach, causation, and damages. A brief overview of each is below:

Duty – The defendant owed you a duty of care to exercise a certain level of caution in order to ensure that you would not get hurt. Texas Civil Codes and Procedures set the level of duty that a person or organization owes to another depends on the circumstances of the situation that are considered, within the relationship of the parties involved at the time. Proving that the defendant owed you at least some duty of care will probably be fairly uncomplicated since nearly all drivers owe each other the general duty to drive reasonably in order to keep others safe. Unless there are unusual circumstances, and there are a few, the chances are that a general “reasonable person standard” applies to the defendant (or defendants) in your case.

Breach – In a great majority of personal injury cases, plaintiffs and their attorneys need to clearly show that the defendant drove in a way that a reasonable person would not have driven. If the defendant in your case drives unreasonably only for the moments immediately leading up to your car wreck, he can be held responsible for the consequences of his negligent actions that caused you harm. Successfully proving that the defendant breached his duty of care is done when you and your attorney present evidence to the court to remove any doubt that what the defendant did (or failed to reasonably do) caused the car wreck. The jurors in your case will consider your charges of breach along with additional evidence that clearly illustrates the defendant’s actions (and malicious intent if it was present). Then during their deliberations, they rule the defendant behaved either reasonably or unreasonably. Offenses such as speeding, recklessness, driving at night without headlights, running through red lights, driving while intoxicated, and more can constitute a breach of the defendant’s duty of care, even if they may not have been legally charged for these offenses in criminal court.

Causation – You must now demonstrate that the defendant breached his duty of care through negligence. But simply showing that this person might have been negligent isn’t always enough to win your charges that the defendant is responsible for your auto wreck. Because in his attempts to deny causation, a defendant will often argue “unforeseeable circumstances” such as other drivers, pedestrians, or even you, caused the wreck instead. This is the last resort for an accident defendant to wiggle out of liability for your injuries. So expect them to swing from the floor and claim anything from a homeless person stepped in their way and forced them to hit your vehicle, to their toddler threw a bottle of apple juice at the driver. Maybe it happened, maybe it didn’t. But how do you disprove the defense? It’s up to you and your accident injury lawyer to thwart their excuses, or the happy defendant skips out of the courtroom. So it’s terribly important to have sufficient evidence to prove any defense that is thrown at you and nail down the defendant’s conduct that seriously hurt you.

Damages – It’s now time to establish the amount of money you are entitled to collect from the defendant and hand him the bill in court. The term “damages” isn’t limited to just your injuries and the bills that must be paid. It refers to the entire monetary value of your injuries (the sum of money) you’ll recover from the defendant if you win your case. Damages often include pain and suffering arising from your injury, present lost wages as a result of it, loss of future earning capacity if your injury leads to long-term disability and of course, the repair, or replacement bills to your auto and any items of worth that are also destroyed in the wreck. All these and even more might be available to surviving family members if the victim dies in the wreck. So you’ll need to calculate exactly what you’re owed and provide airtight evidence to support your calculations.

But you have your figure and the defendants have theirs (often less than your price tag). Damage amounts are almost always the most contentious issue in a car accident case or insurance claim. Defendants typically argue that they really owe you much less than you might claim (if anything at all). They’ll accuse you of asking for a handout and say your requested amount is far higher than traditional payouts. Often the accusation that you’re filing a frivolous lawsuit isn’t far away either. This is usually the last stand a negligent defendant makes. So you must clearly show the jury that your requested damage amount is realistic and proportional to the harm done to you and finish your case strongly with clear evidence that proves your losses are the true sum total of your damages.

Accurate determination of damages is as important as the other three burdens of proof since you have only got one shot to receive compensation from any single defendant. There are no do-overs. But computing every single loss is a challenge without an experienced auto wreck injury attorney who knows the value of personal injury losses and how to effectively calculate them. How do you accurately represent an intangible loss such as pain and suffering, or that of your child? When calculating the loss of earning capacity if you are permanently disabled, how do you account for hypothetical raises and promotions you would have earned had you continued to work, or gotten a promotion, or were hired away by another company at double your current salary? How can you calculate how much all of your medical bills will amount to if your treatment is not yet complete, and your doctor can’t tell how long it will last? We at our Texas Law Office know how to account for and calculate every one of your damages, and make doubly-certain that you recover as much as possible for your injuries.

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Insured and Uninsured Defendants

In Texas, and without exception, all drivers must have auto insurance. Powerful technology allows law officers to instantly know this important fact, and mete-out “street justice” by immediately towing non-insured vehicles and give them very expensive tickets. But still, one-in-four drivers remain uninsured. If an insurance company is involved in your case or not make a huge difference in the legal process and the ultimate outcome of your claim. But certain conditions surrounding your accident (and compensation) can become intricate, and contentious.

Suppose that both drivers involved in your accident were insured and an insurance company is responsible for compensating you for your injuries. This is generally good news for you because it usually means there will be some amount of money available to compensate you for your losses if you’re successful in bringing your claim. And yet, most drivers with “street legal-only” insurance carry minimum coverage on their vehicle, and the insurance policy may not fully reimburse you for your losses if your accident was especially severe. Additionally, just because there is money theoretically available under an insurance policy to compensate you doesn’t mean that that compensation check is easy to come by. Anyone who has carried minimum coverage understands that some companies pay better (meaning quicker) than others. And some, with claimants as well as customers in-general, aren’t generally very responsive to any process other than taking in premiums. And in just about any accident where an insurance company is involved, it means that you’ll be up against aggressive adjusters, accident recreation specialists, defense attorneys, and investigators who all work to see that you lose.

Then there’s the 25 percent chance (at least!) that the other driver involved in your wreck was uninsured. Hopefully you have uninsured/underinsured (UI/UnI) motorist coverage. But since the other driver is responsible for paying you for your injuries, you’re primary interest is, if he is uninsured or underinsured, will your insurer step up to the plate and cover you (or pay the difference) when the negligent driver comes up-short at compensating you. You also must know how solvent this negligent driver is. If a defendant is insolvent, it means that the defendant does not have the money to completely compensate you for your injuries: or even compensate you all. When a defendant is insolvent there’s little value in pursuing litigation against him, no matter how strong your case is in proving he should otherwise be held liable for your losses. This is a sad but regular reality that some accident victims are unable to recover compensation from insolvent defendants.

Sometimes, the other driver will take steps to hide his assets in order to appear insolvent. He might also try and hide this wreck from his insurance company that threatens to drop his coverage if he gets in one more. The car accident attorneys at our Texas Law Office traditionally perform an asset check on any defendant to find out how much he’s really worth and also get a clear picture of his actual insurance coverage. If there’s money available, we’ll find it and work to make sure you get what is owed you.

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The Odds are Nearly Even That Your Injury Claim Will be Denied: Regardless of the Insurer

A popular tactic of some auto liability insurers is to suddenly find an excuse to cancel the policy of its customers once they are involved in an injury-related accident. There are many for them to choose from. But some cancel them for no reason, or say that the monthly premium payment didn’t arrive before the wreck was reported, even if it did arrive a day or two later during the mandated 10 day grace period.

The Texas Department of Insurance keeps records on how insurance companies honor claims and they’ve recently revealed some very sobering data. One Texas minimum coverage insurer took-in over $271 million in premiums in one year. But it has a claims complaint index that is two-and-a-half times higher the state complaint average. Another took in $575 million and had a complaint index of nearly four times the state average. The TDI also has a “top 10” list of insurers that have the highest total complaints in the way they handle claims.

A recent analysis of the Insurance Department’s consumer complaint figures showed that 11 of the 25 largest auto insurers in the state, all of whom are supposed to be honoring over 100,000 policies, had a complaint index that was above average. Complaints that drivers filed with the state included such practices as delays in processing claims, “low-ball” offers and settlements, denial of claims, and liability disputes.

Another favorite trick of some insurance companies in denying an injured claimant is for an adjuster for the company to tell the injured party that if the claim isn’t paid, the person will have to hire a lawyer and will probably wind up with little money for the trouble. At that point, the driver feels forced to take 50 percent or less of the claim for damages. This excuse is patently false. But since the driver probably hasn’t talked to an experienced auto accident attorney, he’s probably unaware of this fact, feels that he’s alone against the big bad insurance company, and accepts the substandard offer.

In one year, Texas consumers filed more than 6,600 complaints against auto insurers. More than half were filed by drivers who said they were not at fault in an accident but had trouble getting an insurer to pay their claims. Texas Watch is a watchdog consumer group that has turned more of its attention to auto insurance issues and their trend of higher denials: but UM/UIM and the more reputable firms as well. The group says that unethical companies have an advantage because they undercut regular insurers on price largely because of their claims payment practices. A spokesman says “the business model is they drag their feet and make it as difficult as possible for the claimant to collect in hopes they will take a low-ball offer or give up.”

Texas Watch completed a survey of customer complaints when filing damage claims against auto insurers in Texas. The largest complaint types and their percentages were:

Delays in handling claims – 36.7%
Unsatisfactory offers – 21.8%
Denial of claims – 16.3%
Denial of claims – 16.3%
Customer service – 10.5%

In an underinsured motorist coverage claim, things can get very complicated for non-attorneys. In order for an underinsured claim to be valid you have to show that you exhausted the other available policies. In other words, if you have $100,000 in total damages and the negligent driver has only $60,000 to fully cover, you have to get all $60k or your UIM claim is viewed by your insurance company (if you have UM/UIM coverage) as invalid.

It is very easy for the defendant’s insurer to pay you only 70% of the value of their policy. But the fact that you didn’t collect full value makes it impossible for your UIM claim for the difference to be honored by your carrier. And there are a few well-known insurance carriers on that top-10 list that is kept by the Texas Department of Insurance; firms you would think would not be on that list.

In short, it is all the more important to have an experienced vehicle accident injury attorney help you with both claims (the liability claim against the other party and the UIM claim against your own insurance) since your success lies in collecting full damage value from both. In cases where you successfully get the other party to tender policy limits, thereby exhausting that policy, you still encounter the difficulties of your company’s insurance adjuster’s alleged ignorance with regard to Texas laws, particularly the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

So your claim then becomes a contract issue between you and your carrier rather than a tort issue. And our Law Firm knows how to leverage a TDTPA violation claim against an insurer (either the other guy’s or yours) to do the right thing and pay both of your legitimate claims when you have been hit by an underinsured motorist.

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Insurance Company Tactics are Designed to Deny Your Rightful Compensation

Insurance companies can be extremely difficult to negotiate with. And they take up a lot of your time without an experienced attorney on your side. Insurance companies are out to protect their own interests. Those interests are about premiums and paying out as little as absolutely necessary. And if you’ve been seriously injured, their interests are the opposite of yours. They’ll use adjusters to try to find ways to deny your claims. These adjusters may call you repeatedly, asking innocent-sounding questions about your accident. Their inquiries may seem at worst, harmless. But they’re usually calculated to induce you to say something that could be used against you to deny your claims. Whatever you say to them will probably be recorded and could come back to haunt you as evidence against your claim in the future.

Our clients quickly learn from us the best way to deal with insurance adjusters: and that’s just don’t deal with them at all. Adjusters don’t call our clients, but rather, us. And when adjusters can’t talk to our clients, they don’t have a chance to twist our clients’ words around to use against them.

Many times, especially if they know you have a good case, an insurance company pressures and even harasses you to settle your claim for less than your it is worth. Sometimes it’s much less. Now we believe accepting a fair settlement offer if it truly benefits an accident victim. But accepting an unfair settlement offer can be devastating for your legal rights. When you accept an offer, you forever waive your right to sue the defendant ever again. The settlement on the table is all that you will ever collect from that defendant (and his insurance company). So it’s important to not accept an offer unless it’s truly fair. And the only way to determine a fair settlement from an insurance company that wants to victimize you is with the assistance of an experienced car accident attorney.

Insurance companies know that most accident victims are everyday people who, as a result of this accident, are often strapped for cash. They have hefty medical bills and auto repair bills that need to be paid quickly. And perhaps they are unable to work as a result of their injuries so their reduced income is used for monthly expenses, which means there’s little, if any, leftover to pay accident-related expenses. So their obvious strategy is to entice accident victims with small amounts of fast cash that might get them back to even. But what if that’s not the end of your expenses? Insurance companies are banking on you not figuring that out until they’re out of the picture and off the hook. Don’t let the defendant in your case (and his insurer) get away with paying you less than you deserve.

Here are a few more insurance company tricks they would never try to pull on our clients.

They offer you a settlement before the full extent of the medical treatment you’ll need is known.
They offer you less property damage money than what’s due on your car loan.
The insurance company doesn’t offer you a rental car while your vehicle is in the shop being repaired.
The insurance company tells you they’ll pay your claim when you submit your bills, but then refuse either to do so or keep stalling you when you ask for payment. (by the way, we never submit original bills to an insurance company, only copies).
The insurance company takes too long to respond to your inquiries (this could mean that they’re investigating your claim behind your back or just “shining you on” and haven’t yet told you they’re not going to pay your claim).
The insurance company, usually the adjuster) tells you that a settlement offer is “all that you’re entitled to” or “the best you’re going to get”.
Can you think of another reason why you shouldn’t call an experienced Texas auto accident injury lawyer to shield you from insurance companies and fight for your fair compensation rights?

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Do or Don’t You Need an Auto Accident Injury Lawyer?

In most instances, it takes an experienced lawyer to make sure that accident victims recover the actual worth of their medical bills, pain, suffering, and damages to their vehicle and its contents. And as we said at the beginning of this section, depending on the circumstances surrounding the accident and its coverage level, it’s possible for a reasonably intelligent accident victim to handle his or her claim on their own, without the assistance of a lawyer. Aside from the general challenges presented by defendant insurers, below are a few more instances that illustrate how your interests are best served with the assistance of a local, experienced car accident attorney.

You’ve Suffered Bodily Harm in the Wreck – If you suffered any sort of bodily injuries in your accident, it’s best for you to have an experienced lawyer handle your claim. A good rule of thumb is whether you need to make a return visit to your doctor after being treated for your injuries. When you seek damages for bodily injuries, insurance companies don’t have to abide by any preformed guidelines when deciding how much to pay you. Because, by their very nature, insurance companies are more about premiums than claims, they can legally decide to pay you nothing by default. This is the first benefit of having a lawyer who is looking out for your interests regarding your claim. If you’ve suffered broken bones, head injuries, back injuries, or any other sort of injury in your wreck, do the smart thing and call a good attorney quickly.

The Other Driver is Hard to Deal With – It’s also a good idea to call an attorney if the other driver involved in your accident gives you a hard time either at the scene of the wreck or later, or if that other driver doesn’t want to give you his contact or insurance information. Belligerent accident “victims” usually have something to hide, either from the law or their insurance company. This could be an early indication that he’ll make it as difficult as possible for you to recover what you deserve. If you dealt with this kind of behavior, this could be a big red flag that you need to seriously consider hiring a lawyer, or at least have a serious visit with one.

You Can’t Afford to See a Doctor or Pay your Medical Bills – Many people don’t have health insurance which would help them afford the treatment they need after they’ve been involved in a wreck. Even if an accident victim does have health insurance, the odds become less every day that their treatment needs may not be covered under their health benefits. Whether or not they have health insurance, many accident victims are reluctant to get treatment for their injuries because they don’t think they can afford to take the time off of work that they’ll need to see a doctor, or they have higher-than-normal deductibles which preclude even using their health insurance.

Seeing a doctor and getting treatment for your injuries after an accident is not only essential to your health, it’s absolutely necessary to your injury claim or lawsuit. If you can’t afford treatment, or if you already have medical bills that you can’t pay, there’s probably something that our personal injury lawyers can do to help. We regularly work with doctors and healthcare professionals and can hook you up with the right doctor who will take your personal situation into consideration. We have helped many of our clients receive necessary medical care after an auto accident at no out of pocket cost to them. Additionally, we can explain how the time you take off from work to get medical care may be computed in the damage compensation owed to you by the defendant in your case.

If you’re lucky, and none of those circumstances applies, the odds are pretty good that you can handle your case on your own, without the assistance of a lawyer, and reasonably resolve it. Sometimes, plaintiffs can successfully protect their own rights when they’ve been involved in a wreck which resulted in property damage only. If your car was harmed, but you’re not injured, insurance companies are bound by strict guidelines that tell them what they have to pay you in compensation for the damage to your car. Since these guidelines give them little wiggle room, insurance companies have very little opportunity to rip you off when they reimburse you for your repair bills. But if there are serious injuries, no guidelines exist. And that’s when you need legal help in defending your compensatory rights.

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How to Choose the Local Personal Injury Lawyer who’s Right for Your Case

There are many car accident attorneys in Texas. How can you decide which one is right to handle your case? Our respected auto accident attorneys recommend interviewing at least two or three attorneys before choosing the lawyer that you want to hire. Ask each one about his track record for settling and litigating car accident cases. Find out what each attorney thinks the strengths and weaknesses of your case are. See if the lawyers can provide you with the names of former clients whose cases were similar to yours. Ask if you can contact them. And then reach out to them and ask the same question you asked the prospective attorney. If you do all of these things to your satisfaction, then you’ll be able to hire an attorney whose experience in handling cases like yours gives you confidence, as well as peace of mind that this is the lawyer you can trust with your case.

The auto accident injury lawyers at our Texas Law Office have been handling car accident insurance claims and civil cases for over 30 years. We’ve won favorable verdicts and settlements against nearly every major auto insurer in the state. Insurance companies recognize our name. And the reputation that precedes us is very helpful in securing special attention to our clients’ claims from these insurers. Our goal is to make sure that you recover as much as possible for your injuries and make this sometimes complicated legal process as easy as possible for you.

Put our years of experience to work for you. If you want to know what your rights are, how to proceed with your claim and how much compensation you can secure from your auto injury case. Call our Law Firm now for a free consultation and find out how we can help you.

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Our Law Firm Helps You Understand What to do After a Fatal Car Accident in Texas

If you and your family are suffering, and dealing with the loss of a beloved family member after a fatal car accident, our hearts go out to you. Dealing with the sudden loss of a loved one, regardless of the circumstances, is an ordeal that none of us deserve, but many must endure.

But in the midst of your grief, it is likely that this sudden loss was caused by negligence by the driver, or someone else. And though it might seem inappropriate to think of anything but mourning your loss, this accident is certainly affecting you and yours financially. And contrary to what your family might think, it is certainly appropriate to consider how your family will be appropriately compensated for your damages and those that your deceased loved one suffered. Someone needs to help you handle this part of your family’s business before someone who doesn’t care about those interests does and victimizes your family during its time of profound sorrow.

Most of us drive responsibly. We obey traffic laws, use our seatbelts and child car seats, and are alert to our surroundings when driving. But no matter what we do to keep ourselves, our families and other motorists safe, that responsibility is not always shared by other drivers. Drivers who are thoughtless, careless, drunk, tired, or distracted can come crashing into our lives with no warning, no matter what we do. All we can do is watch out for them and hope to avoid them in time when they come careening, out of control, into our lives.

So after an auto accident that kills someone you love, there’s a lot you can do to protect your rights with the help of the right fatal car accident attorney. You can rightfully seek compensation for the financial, physical, and emotional damages surrounding the tragic fatal auto accident that took your loved one from you and yours. But in fighting for that right you are opposed by powerful forces. They have one goal in mind, to deny the rightful financial remedy you and your family deserve, by law: rights that, with the help of an experienced fatal auto injury lawyer, you can effectively protect and keep you safe from the fiscal disaster this wrongful death can become.

If you wish to receive the fairest legal damages that your insurance claim or civil case can bring, we hope this Web page will help you understand the clear need to hire an attorney, any attorney, who has experience in personal injury and wrongful death auto accident cases. Some might try and handle this matter themselves, or hire inexperienced counsel who talks a mean game. But we feel obliged to explain some of the basics of wrongful death auto accident cases as a service to our visitors.

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What Compensation Damages are Available after a Fatal Car Accident?

If your loved one has been taken from you because of a fatal car accident, whether they were with you in your auto or in someone else’s, you are entitled to seek monetary damage compensation for that horrible loss. We truly understand why no amount of money can compensate a family for the loss of a beloved member in a tragic car wreck. But money is the only remedy that the law can provide, especially if no criminal charges are filed against the other driver or drivers. And given the high price of funeral expenses and medical bills alone, the civil remedy is a useful tool to help families get back on their feet after a heartrending fatal car wreck and give their loved one a fitting memorial. But even more: recovering damages from a defendant punishes them for his or her negligence. It also serves as a reminder of the financial and legal consequences to which negligent people expose themselves when they drive irresponsibly, and it can inspire them to never do it again.

In a fatal vehicle accident lawsuit, there are two types of damages. They are wrongful death damages and survivor damages. Below is a general overview of both.

Wrongful death damages are those directly incurred by the family members that have lost a loved one due to a fatal accident. These damages can be sought by multiple immediate family members such as a spouse, parents, or children, either separately or collectively. Wrongful death damages will often, but not always, include compensation for items such as the deceased family member’s medical bills prior to death and funeral expenses, along with a family member’s pain and suffering due to their loss. Also included in wrongful death damages is the loss of financial support that had been provided by the decedent and loss of consortium (or unique familial love that is lost). Sometimes that consortium can be both personal and professional if, for example, a father was in business with his wife, or his son, or all members were part of a family business. They include:

Compensation for mental and emotional distress caused by the loss of a family member.
Compensation for loss of companionship.
Compensation for loss of the financial support of your deceased family member.
Compensation for funeral and medical expenses your family member incurred due to the accident.
Survivor damages are collected from the defendant by a surviving family member, usually on behalf of the entire family in the name of the deceased family member. Survivor damages are those that the victim would have been able to sue the defendant for, had he or she survived. And those are damages that any personal injury plaintiff may file against a negligent defendant. But in this case, only one family member can seek survival damages since that family member effectively acts as a proxy for their deceased relative in a wrongful death case. In Texas, It the family member who seeks survival damages can also seek wrongful death damages, which isn’t the case in many other states.

Survivor damages include:

Compensation for lost wages due to time spent in the hospital after the accident.
Compensation for loss of earning capacity.
Compensation for medical expenses incurred due to the accident.
Compensation for physical pain and suffering.
Compensation for emotional and mental suffering.

Your insurance claim or civil case will most likely demand that you seek damages for both wrongful death and survival. The proof required for these two types of damages is discretely different. The wrongful death attorneys at our Texas Law Office are skilled and experienced in developing cases to prove all the damages our clients are entitled to, and maximize your opportunity to recover all the damages you and your family rightfully deserve on behalf of your deceased loved one

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The Four Required Elements of a Successful Fatal Auto Injury Accident Insurance Claim or Lawsuit

If you’re reading this, you certainly want to know whether or not your family might have a successful personal injury case against a defendant who must reimburse you for the loss of your loved one in a fatal car wreck. In most auto accident cases, the victim, or in this case, the victim’s surviving family has a legal right to collect damages. But Texas law says that rightfully asking for, and actually collecting, damages are two different things. As plaintiffs you have the burden of proving all four necessary pillars of defendant liability for the fatal car accident claim in court. In the U.S, we all know that all defendants are innocent until proven guilty. So all who will judge your case (or evaluate your insurance claim) must clearly understand why you are owed these damages by the defendants. And all your opponents have to do to win is effectively deny or disprove any one of these four elements to get off the hook.

In civil law, each of these four essentials of proving rightful civil liability against a defendant must clearly demonstrate your charges are true and appropriate. They are duty, breach, causation, and damages. Below, we’ll briefly discuss each of these elements in order to give you a better appreciation what it will take to prove that you’re entitled to damage compensation.

Duty: The first task thing your fatal auto injury lawyer must do is prove is that the defendant owed your loved one a duty of care. This means the defendant must exercise an acceptable level of caution in order to prevent people from being hurt or killed as they drive. Texas Civil Codes and Procedures establish the level of the duty of care that a person or organization owes to another in personal injury cases. This duty depends on the circumstances of the situation in-question that are considered relative to the relationship of the parties involved. Proving that the defendant in your case owed your loved one at least some duty of care is relatively straightforward since nearly all drivers owe each other the duty to drive as a reasonable person would in order to keep others safe. Unless there are unusual circumstances (and there are a few) the chances are that a moderate “reasonable person standard” applies to the defendant (or defendants) in an auto accident case that caused your loved one’s untimely death.

Breach: If the defendants drive unreasonably only for the moments immediately leading up to the fatal car wreck, they can be held responsible for their negligent actions that caused this tragedy. Offenses such as speeding recklessly, driving at night without headlights, running through red lights, driving while intoxicated, driving while distracted (by cellphone or texting) and more can constitute a breach of the defendant’s duty of care, even if they may not have been legally charged for these offenses in criminal court. Proving that the defendant breached his duty of care is typically accomplished when your attorney presents evidence from an investigation that removes any doubt what the defendant did, or failed to do in causing the fatal car wreck. The jurors in your case will consider your breach of duty evidence along with additional evidence that clearly illustrates the defendant’s negligence. Many times this element can be the most difficult to prove, and calls for a great deal of investigation by your lawyer. But once that breach is successfully proved, the rest of your civil action might not be so difficult.

Causation: Simply showing the defendant might have been negligent isn’t always enough to win your charges that the defendant owes your family a long list of damages arising from the fatal auto wreck. Because if a defendant is forced to deny causation (a term used in proving breach of duty), often he will argue “unforeseeable circumstances” such as other drivers, pedestrians, or even your loved ones were the actual cause of the fatal wreck. Most often, this tactic is the defendant’s last stand if he or she hopes to wiggle out of being held liable for legal damages. So expect the defendant’s lawyers to claim anything from the sudden appearance of an obstacle in the road that forced them to violently swerve and hit your loved one’s car, to their toddler threw a bottle of apple juice at them while they were otherwise driving safely. You know that this is untrue. But how do you expose this defense for what it is? And what happens if they introduce a perfect driving record, no accidents or tickets, that dates back to the Reagan Administration? It’s up to you and your Texas fatal auto wreck lawyer to prove your accident claim, and disprove any untruthful defense. This is why it’s terribly important to have more than sufficient evidence to disprove any defense that is thrown at you, and that it was the defendant’s conduct behind the wheel that caused the car accident that took your loved one.

Damages: The term “damages” isn’t limited to just the actual cost of injuries and medical or funeral expenses of your loved one. It’s a legal term that refers to the total monetary value (the actual sum of money) the defendant owes you and your family in the wake of your loved one’s fatal auto accident. So in addition to the above expenses, damages might also include your deceased loved one’s pain and suffering, present lost wages (present and projected earnings), you and your family’s pain and suffering and, of course, the repair or replacement bills for any vehicle or items of worth that are destroyed in the wreck. In order to prove what you’re entitled to collect, you and your attorney must correctly calculate exactly what you’re owed by the defendant and provide clearly irrefutable evidence of all your family’s injuries and losses in order to clearly support your damage claim.

While you and your fatal car accident lawyer establish your true damage amount, the defendants also work on the very same thing, but they call it “totaling up our losses.” Civil damages-owed can be the most contentious issue of any personal injury case. Defendants use their own “creative accounting” to determine how little they think they owe fatal accident victims in the event that the jury finds that they are responsible for the wreck. They’ll accuse you of asking for a handout and beg the court to see that your requested amount is unreasonably higher than traditional payouts in similar cases. This very convenient defendant argument is also often accompanied by a charge that you are bringing a frivolous lawsuit against them. This is where you must clearly show the jury that your requested damage amount is realistic and proportional to the actual harm done to you and your family by the negligent defendant. Contesting the compensation amount is usually their last gasp at wiggling out of paying reasonable damages. You must strongly finish your case with clear evidence that proves your family’s losses are true, and that the amount requested is the full and reasonable sum total of your damages.

Determining the proper amount of damages can be as important as the other three elements of proof because you are approaching the end of your family’s quest. And you have only one shot to receive fair compensation from any single negligent defendant. But computing every single loss can be challenging unless you have an experienced auto injury attorney who knows the value of personal injury losses arising from fatal auto accidents and how to effectively calculate them: both tangible and intangible. How do you put a price tag on a beloved family member? In calculating loss of earning capacity how do you account for hypothetical raises and promotions your loved one would have earned had he or she continued to work, or been promoted, or hired away by another company at double tomorrow’s salary? These and other damage calculation issues are a reason why you need an experienced Texas fatal car accident attorney with our Law Firm who knows how to account for and calculate every damage claimed as a result of losing a loved one to a fatal auto wreck.

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Whether the Defendant is Insured or Uninsured Greatly Impacts your Case

State law clearly mandates, without exception, that all drivers must have auto insurance. Law enforcement has incorporated some powerful technology in order for them instantly detect whether a motorist is insured or not. Many literally dispense “street justice” by immediately towing non-insured vehicles and giving the drivers very expensive tickets. If the driver has been previously convicted of driving without insurance, he or she can lose their license for a long time and possibly even go to jail, especially if they are involved in a wreck.

But even when they know they’re apt to suffer the consequences if they drive without proof of liability insurance, at least one-in-four Texans still try to get away with it. Whether or not an insurance company is involved in your case makes a huge difference in the legal process and the ultimate outcome of your fatal auto accident claim. Some of the conditions surrounding your accident (and damages compensation) can be complex and often contentious. But other elements of the fatal car wreck can be relatively straightforward once you get past the initial complexities.

If both drivers involved in the accident are insured then the company covering the driver that caused the accident is responsible for compensating your family for all legal damages up to policy limits. Whether they actually do or not is one thing. But generally, this can be good for plaintiffs; because in most insured cases there will be at least some amount of money to compensate your family for the tragic loss of your loved one. And yet, most drivers with “street legal-only” liability insurance carry minimum coverage. Those minimums are 30/60/25. Each number is in thousands. The 30 is bodily injury per person, the 60 is bodily injury per accident and the 25 is property damage (the value of the vehicle that was hit). Such policies typically fail to fully reimburse your family for this deep wrongful death loss. Notice there is no provision for pain and suffering or other survivor damages. So just because the money is theoretically available through the negligent driver’s policy doesn’t necessarily mean that you will be able to easily recover it; especially if the negligent driver carries minimum coverage.

Additionally, anyone who has dealt with “minimum coverage insurance carriers” understands that only a few of them pay better (and quicker) than others. Many however, are less than responsive with claimants (not to mention their customers’ in-general, even if they still take-in those monthly premiums like clockwork). And in just about any fatal auto wreck where an insurance company is involved and with so much money at stake, you’re certain to encounter aggressive insurance company adjusters, accident recreation specialists, defense attorneys and their investigators as well. All are working to see that you lose your case, should you choose to sue that driver’s insurance company in order to collect your rightful damages.

And sometimes, a driver who has been involved in a wreck will take steps to hide his assets in order to make you think he or she is insolvent if your requested damages exceed the amount of their insurance coverage. Or he might try to hide the fact that he is insured altogether because of fears that his carrier will drop his coverage if there’s another car wreck on his ledger. Regardless of the reasons behind this defendant’s behavior, the Texas fatal car accident attorneys at our Texas Law Office perform a thorough asset check on every one of the defendants – including the value of their insurance – in order to find out how much he or she’s really worth. If there’s money available, we’ll find it and work to make sure you get the compensation you deserve for the loss of your loved one.

It’s also a good idea to immediately call an experienced auto accident attorney if the driver who caused the accident is less than forthcoming either at the scene of the wreck or later. Or maybe the other driver doesn’t want to provide his contact or insurance information. Belligerent accident “victims” such as these usually have something to hide, either from the law or their insurance company. This behavior is also a very good early indicator that he’ll also make it difficult to recover the damages you deserve because of his or her negligence in causing the death of your loved one. If the other driver displays this kind of behavior, treat it as a big red flag that you need to quickly talk to a lawyer.

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Insurance Companies Will Constantly Pressure you to Settle for an Unfair Amount

Even on a good day, insurance companies can be extremely hard to negotiate with. It seems impossible to get either the straight story, or a reasonable sum of money out of them. Why waste your time and patience with their tactics designed to frustrate you at every turn? Let your lawyer handle the insurance companies that are out to protect their own interests. If you’ve lost a loved one in an auto accident and seek legal damages, their interests and yours are polar opposites. They’ll use adjusters to try and deny your claims, even if they appear to be on your side. our Law Firms’ former accident injury clients have learned through experience that the best way to deal with insurance adjusters, especially during your time of unfathomable grief over the sudden loss of your loved one. Their remedy is to simply ignore them. Adjusters don’t call our clients. Without exception we make them call us instead. When adjusters can’t talk to you, they don’t have a chance to twist your words around and use them to deny your legal rights.

Many times an insurance company will try to pressure you to settle your claim or lawsuit for less than it is worth: sometimes, much less. Under some circumstances our attorneys believe that accepting a fair settlement offer is beneficial to the grieving victim’s family. But an unfair settlement can be devastating, especially if that same grief is used to victimize surviving family members. And don’t forget that when you accept a settlement you permanently give up your right to sue the defendant again if it turns out that more was justified. The settlement is all that you will ever collect so it’s important not to accept an offer unless it’s fair. And the only way to determine a fair settlement from an insurance company that wants to victimize you is with the assistance of an experienced fatal auto accident injury lawyer.

Insurance companies know that most families of accident victims are most likely bleeding cash due to all those unanticipated expenses arising from the fatal wreck. They have hefty medical, funeral, and other emergency expenses that need to be paid quickly. And if their loved one was also earning family income, their budget is suddenly much smaller and there’s little, if any, left over to pay these new, and very large, accident-related expenses.

An insurance company wants to entice you with just enough fast cash that might get you back to even. But what if that’s not the end of your financial distress? Settlements you accept from an insurance company before you have an experienced lawyer on your side never benefit your surviving family in the long run. Don’t let the defendant and their insurance company get away with paying you less than you deserve for your wrongful auto accident fatality claim. Reach out to our Law Firm quickly to learn what your case is really worth. Then you’ll know whether the defendant’s insurance company’s offer is truly fair.

If you have a bad feeling about how the insurance company appears to be handling your case, trust your instincts. You’re probably right. In spite of their protests to the contrary, insurance companies aren’t really in business to help people, but to make money. And the more creative they are in finding ways to deny legitimate claims, the more money they make. This is especially true with most insurers who aggressively market themselves as “minimum coverage” firms, who take in premiums but drag their feet when it’s time to pay a legitimate (and full) claim, although we have been able to deal fairly with a few of them. Regardless, it’s best for you to call a lawyer, sooner than later, if you have a bad feeling, or if any of these circumstances apply.

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With Stakes This High, You Need an Experienced Attorney to Defend Your Family’s Rights

Almost any lawsuit is more effective when it is argued by an experienced attorney, but a claim as serious as wrongful death can especially benefit from a lawyer’s assistance. If you experience any of the following after the accident, it is probably a harbinger that successfully winning legal damages through either an insurance claim or a civil lawsuit, may be much more difficult than you expect.

If the other driver doesn’t want to give you his insurance information, contact information, or file a police report, he or she is probably uninsured. Or the other driver might claim to be insured, but you’ve never heard of his insurance company. The negligent driver’s insurance company might quickly offer you a settlement that seems unreasonably low or unfair, or its adjuster keeps calling you to ask you questions, wants to record all of your answers, then tells you nothing.

Among the insurance company’s most effective tactics are bombarding you with questions and trying to badger you into signing a settlement agreement while you and your bereaved family members are still trying to recover from the shock over your loved one’s death (and before you’ve had the opportunity to consult with an attorney). It’s important that you never sign anything an insurance company puts in front of your without talking with an attorney first. You’re just asking for trouble if you do.

And, if you have a relative or friend who is a lawyer, even though he or she might be looking out for your best interests and is inspired to fight hard for you, it might be a good idea to reconsider retaining anyone who might have a difficult time emotionally disassociating him or herself from your emotional case. A pragmatic attorney best serves his clients when he focuses solely on the facts of a case and is cool under fire. Too much empathy is not always a good thing if it clouds one’s thinking.

What happens if that friend or relative attorney doesn’t win the case, or accepts a less-than-fair settlement because he knows how badly you need the money now, and leaves even more on the table than an experienced attorney would not? How will you feel about your friend or relative then?

When we take a case, we handle every aspect of it. Our Law Firm deals directly with the insurance company so that you won’t be bothered by their tricky and harassing tactics. We conduct a thorough investigation of the accident scene, determine which defendants were at fault, and know whether they have the ability to pay a reasonable claim. Then we file claims against everyone responsible. We calculate your damages and send a demand packet to the defendants. We aggressively negotiate with all liable defendants and their insurance companies to get the rightful settlement you and your family deserve from your loved one’s shocking and untimely fatal auto accident. But we’re also prepared to litigate your case to the end, and keep you informed of every development. We know your case is important to you. It’s important to us as well.

If you’d like to learn more about fatal car accident law, or you have questions about what we can do in your particular case, call our Law Firm to arrange a free consultation. We are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to serve you. Our Texas fatal auto wreck lawyers understand why this is a most tragic time for you and your family. And we want to do everything it takes to make sure that you are fairly compensated for you and your family’s unnecessary and tragic loss; without the fiscal fear that only delays the healing process that you and your family deserve.

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legal car 3/26/2020 6.0 website content – gtg

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