If another vehicle hits you while you’re driving, that might shake you up quite a bit. Some individuals contract PTSD after such an event. If the crash hurt you, it’s much more likely you’ll feel bewildered and possibly have some degree of psychological distress as well.
Some minor wrecks may not require legal assistance, but many of the more serious ones do. How can you categorize the one you experienced, though?
We’ll talk about that in detail in the following article.
Did the Accident Hurt You?
First, we should say that if you have questions following any car accident, then you can contact a lawyer. If you feel uncertain about anything, then you can probably consult with a car accident attorney free of charge.
You might not necessarily hire them, but they’re presumably experts in this area, and having them answer your questions will probably set your mind at ease.
If the accident hurt you or the other driver, it makes it more probable that you’ll want a lawyer on your side. Maybe you will consider suing the other driver, or perhaps they will bring a lawsuit against you instead. Either way, injuries complicate matters in a hurry, and it makes a lawyer’s help more desirable.
By contrast, if another car hit you, but it just dented the bumper very slightly and you suffered no physical harm, it’s not very likely you’ll need a lawyer.
Did the Crash Harm Anyone Else in the Car?
Maybe you have a situation where the wreck didn’t necessarily hurt you or the other motorist, but it injured someone in the car with you or in their vehicle with them. If so, that’s a situation where liability and a lawsuit could come into play.
Much like a vehicular accident where you or the other driver suffered some physical injuries, you’ll probably want to have a lawyer standing by. Car wrecks that cause injuries make lawsuits more likely, and that includes passenger injuries as well as driver ones.
Did the Crash Involve Several Vehicles?
You might also have a situation where the crash involved three vehicles, or four, or a dozen. That might happen in what cops call chain reaction crashes.
In these situations, a car might hit another one if the vehicle in front stops suddenly to avoid going through a red light. The impact from the driver hitting the vehicle in front from behind forces it into the intersection.
That, in turn, causes another impact, or several more. You might see this happen in intersections, but also out on the highway at much higher rates of speed.
Crashes that involve several vehicles will very likely bring about a lawsuit, if not more than one. Maybe you’ll file a lawsuit, but you won’t know who to sue. Your lawyer can help you with that.
They can have a car crash investigator look at the evidence and try to determine the sequence of events. Even if you don’t sue, you might have to appear in court as a defendant or a witness in one of these multiple-car accidents, and you’ll want a lawyer for that reason.
Did the Wreck Kill Anyone?
If the accident killed someone, whether in your car or another vehicle, you will almost certainly want to contact a lawyer immediately. Now, you’re in the legal area called wrongful death.
You will probably bring a lawsuit against the other driver if they caused a wreck that killed someone, such as a family member. Unless they lost control of the vehicle on a patch of ice, or something along those lines, you can probably bring a lawsuit against them and win.
That’s particularly true it the driver ingested alcohol before they drove or exceeded the speed limit.
Wrongful death cases can pay off in a big way for you. That won’t bring a loved one back, but perhaps you will feel marginally better if your lawyer can get you some money. At least you will feel like you got justice, even if you won’t have the deceased person in your life anymore.
Did the Accident Cause Extensive Property Damage?
Maybe no one died, but a car hit you and forced your vehicle into a storefront. Perhaps it forced your vehicle into a streetlight that subsequently fell over.
You will almost certainly want to contact a car wreck lawyer if anything like that happens. You will need to sort through who pays for the damage. Maybe your insurance can, but perhaps you must sue the other driver if you live in an at-fault state and the other motorist refuses to give you financial compensation.
Do You Have a Hit-and-Run Situation?
You will always want to contact a car wreck attorney if someone hit your vehicle and then drove away afterward without waiting for the police. That type of action constitutes a hit-and-run. That’s not just illegal, but it’s also a felony in all 50 states.
The police will have to hunt for the driver who hit you. Maybe they can find them if you give a description of the vehicle and driver, assuming you got a decent look at them.
Even if you didn’t, perhaps the police can locate them if they see the license plate number and make and model of the car on a traffic cam or in nearby store camera footage. Maybe someone caught the other driver fleeing with their smartphone camera instead.
The police can bring criminal charges against the other driver, but you’ll probably need a lawyer so that you can bring civil ones as well. If a driver flees an accident scene, maybe they’re young and inexperienced. However, maybe they fled because they don’t have adequate insurance. They may have no insurance policy on the vehicle at all.
An attorney will assist you in filing a lawsuit in that case. Remember, though: any time you’re unsure about what to do after a car accident, contacting a lawyer makes sense.
