After being injured in a motor vehicle accident, you may be eager to learn your legal options for obtaining compensation from those at fault. Filing a personal injury claim could ensure you are awarded damages for the effects of your injuries, but it requires evidence to demonstrate liability, as well as your losses.
If you or your loved one has been harmed in a car, truck, or motorcycle accident, contact Kopfler & Hermann, Attorneys at Law, today. Our skilled car accident attorneys could detail common evidence in motor vehicle accident claims and help you pursue the compensation you are owed.
In the aftermath of a car accident, physical evidence found at the scene of the wreck can be used to determine fault. Your attorney will likely obtain the crash report and any photographs of the incident, either from the injured party or from the investigating police officer. Footage may also include the responding officer’s vest cam video, dashcam video from the involved vehicles, and surveillance footage from nearby commercial establishments or homes.
Your lawyer may also visit the accident scene to measure skid marks, if any, and look for debris that may help determine who was responsible for the wreck and your resulting injuries.
In addition, photographs of your injuries, pieces of hardware used to treat your injuries, and orthopedic appliances used during your recovery could help prove the injury and its causation.
Evidence is not just found at the crash site, however. Your attorney must investigate your injury to demonstrate its impact on your life. Medical bills, any documentation from your health care providers, including emergency room and ambulance records, and records from treating physicians, physical therapists, chiropractors, radiologists, etc., may be helpful. Finally, it is essential to gather all of the bills for your medical treatments in order to value your claim.
Your own testimony can also determine who is at fault and how you have suffered in the aftermath of your wreck. Your lawyer may ask questions, concerning lost earnings:
When investigating the at-fault party’s liability, your legal counsel may ask:
These questions can be asked of all witnesses, and it is common to get a tape-recorded or handwritten statement to ensure they don’t change their story at a later date.
In cases involving catastrophic injuries resulting in permanent impairment, a plaintiff may be totally disabled or partially disabled and require costly, long-term medical treatment. Proving and valuing these expenses often involves special expert witnesses, such as vocational rehabilitation experts and economists used to calculate economic loss.
In more complicated motor vehicle crash claims, engineering experts or accident reconstructionists may be used. These are expert witnesses who can figure out how an accident happened indirectly using measurements of crashing data. Almost all vehicles today have black box data. When a crash occurs, this information can tell us the speed of a vehicle, when braking occurred, when seatbelts were engaged, and when airbags were deployed to help determine who was in what position on the roadway when it’s in dispute.
Every accident is different, and the evidence used in a lawsuit varies accordingly. Ultimately, evidence in a motor vehicle accident claim is used to show how the wreck occurred, prove that the other party is at fault, prove injury, and calculate damages. If you have been harmed in an accident caused by another individual’s negligence, contact Kopfler & Hermann, Attorneys at Law for help filing a claim.
