When a negligent motorist injures you in a car accident, you can't just bounce back to everyday life. If you sustain serious or catastrophic injuries, you may never return to your previous existence. Serious injuries often cause physical impairments that obstruct your recovery. You deal with a continuous flow of medical bills that challenge your financial wellbeing. If you're struggling to recuperate from car accident injuries, our Murrieta car accident lawyer can determine if you have a right to compensation under California law.
Whether you're recovering from minor or serious injuries, you need emergency medical care, doctor visits, and time away from work to heal. Catastrophic injuries often require extensive medical treatment, rehabilitation, and costly long-term care. When a negligent driver causes these life-changing complications, a Murrieta car accident lawyer can protect your legal interests.
The California Office of Traffic Safety tracks accidents and injuries in the state. The most recent crash data shows 15,248 injuries and fatally injured victims in Riverside County. This figure includes 361 victims who sustained injuries in Murrieta accidents. These statistics show data for accidents involving cars, trucks, motorcycles, bicyclists, and pedestrians. Many crashes occur when a driver commits one of the acts on the National Highway Transportation Administration’s risky driving list. These include:
Alcohol affects a driver long before they reach 0.08% blood alcohol concentration. They lose their ability to focus, their alertness diminishes, and they experience other emotional and physical changes.
Law enforcement officials can test to determine if a driver has used drugs. Any drug use, including prescription medications, has the capacity to impair a driver while they’re behind the wheel. Officials have no way of determining at what level a drug begins deteriorating a driver’s performance.
Drivers cause accidents when they use phones and other digital devices while driving. Distraction also involves eating, drinking, applying makeup, passenger interactions, and other factors inside and outside of the vehicle.
When a driver speeds, they reduce their reaction time and increase their stopping distance. Speeding isn’t just about driving higher than the posted limit. Drivers sometimes lose control and cause accidents when they fail to drive at a speed that considers weather, traffic, and road conditions.
When a driver doesn’t get enough sleep, it affects how they operate a vehicle. The NHTSA estimates that drowsy/fatigued drivers injured 50,000 people nationwide and fatally injured 800. They believe that drowsy/fatigued driving accidents are underreported.
When you sustain injuries in a car accident, the injury severity depends on vehicle size and speed upon impact. Seatbelts, airbags, and other safety features help minimize the potential for harm. A single crash can still cause a variety of injuries.
One of the first test a doctor will likely run is an MRI scan to assess the damage to your body. Those initial exams are key evidence for your claim. Before our Murrieta car accident lawyer initiates settlement negotiations, we review your medical records and doctor’s reports, and we discuss your prognosis. For a more accurate settlement value, we research recent court cases and examine verdict ranges for similar injuries. We learn from you how well you have recovered and whether the injuries still affect you and your family. All of this information contributes to evaluating and resolving your case.
Before we can recover compensation, we must prove the other driver’s negligence. We conduct an investigation seeking evidence that supports our negligence theory. We must prove the following:
Essentially, you and your Murrieta car accident lawyer are aiming to prove that the driver acted negligently, that their negligence was the direct cause of your accident, and that the accident caused you losses due to your injuries or property damage.
In cases where an accident is the result of neglignece from a common carrier driver, they and the company or enity owe victims a higher duty of care. Common carriers perform public services such as transporting goods or people from one place to another, therefore, they legal duty of care is higher.
When our Murrieta car accident lawyer negotiates a settlement, we seek compensation for economic damages and non-economic damages. If we try a case, we sometimes seek exemplary damages.
Economic damages are the out-of-pocket costs incurred during treatment and recovery. If you have continuing disabilities, an economic expert calculates future losses. Economic damages usually include:
The non-economic damages portion of a settlement considers psychological, emotional, and other non-numeric damages. These often include:
The final type is exemplary damages, or punitive damages. If the case goes to trial, a court can award punitive damages as a punishment to the at-fault party for behaving grossly negligent or out of malice. Punitive damages are not common.
California Code of Civil Procedure, Title 2. Of The Time of Commencing Civil Actions §35.1 gives you two years to make a claim for your injuries. If you don’t settle your claim or file a lawsuit before the deadline, you lose your right to make a claim.
Even if two years seems like a long time, you shouldn’t delay your initial legal consultation. When you’re recovering from serious injuries, you can easily lose track of deadlines. Also, your attorney must have enough time to investigate and prepare your case and attempt settlement before filing a suit.
At Kash Legal, we take every injury seriously. When we handle your claim, our car accident attorneys take immediate steps to protect your legal rights. We rely on our legal knowledge and our firm’s resources as we focus on recovering damages on your behalf.
We listen to your accident version for insight into conducting a meaningful investigation. We obtain official reports, photograph the accident site, talk to witnesses, and analyze all of the available evidence. When appropriate, we advise the negligent driver of your pending injury claims and confirm their insurance information. We begin preparing your case as soon as possible so we can proceed with our resolution efforts when it’s time.
Jonathan M. Kashani is the founder of Kash Legal Group, specializing in personal injury law with a commitment to providing personalized client services and high-quality legal representation. He holds a Juris Doctorate with honors from the University of West Los Angeles School of Law and is admitted to practice in all state courts of California and the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
When you’re recovering from car accident injuries, you need a legal representative looking out for your interests. Your Murrieta car accident lawyer at Kash Legal can resolve your claim issues while you concentrate on healing. We provide critical legal services but we don’t bill you until we resolve your case.
Contact us to schedule your complimentary legal consultation. To make your appointment, call us at (888) 527-4128, click our chat bubble, or leave a message on our contact page. Our office is located less than 15 minutes from the Murrieta courthouse.
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