Were you seriously injured while walking and have questions? Read our 4 pedestrian accident tips that may help your case, then call us today.
1) Mistakes to Avoid
The most common pedestrians make when they’re in a wreck with a vehicle is one, either they don’t seek treatment soon enough or they seek the wrong treatment, or they don’t follow the doctor’s advice and their treatment plan. My advice is to seek out medical treatment immediately from a competent physician. I want you to do exactly what the doctor asks you to do. If you don’t, the insurance companies may use that as leveraging you, take out a settlement, or mediation or even a trial. The second mistake pedestrians make is they don’t hire attorneys soon enough to help them investigate the case, preserve the evidence, and to help them deal with the insurance company. Insurance companies look for reasons to help you believe you need to sell your case when you don’t have to, so don’t give the insurance any power over you. You do that by hiring an attorney, direct all phone calls and correspondence to your attorney, which will protect you from insurance companies trying to trick you into selling your case.
2) Choosing the Right Attorney
One of the things you need to do when you’re a pedestrian and you’re involved in a wreck is you need to hire an attorney quickly. The question is, how do I go about hiring the right attorney? You need to hire an attorney who has experience with bicycle wrecks. You need to find an attorney you feel comfortable with, that understands you, that will talk to you and listen to you. You need to hire a lawyer or an attorney that will help you through this journey, to get you the competent medical treatment you need, to help you get to the specialist you need, and do everything in their power to help you get your health back. It’s not always easy to figure those things out, so you need to do your own research. You need to meet with several attorneys and you need to make a gut feeling what you think is the best for you and more often than not, your gut feeling is the right decision.
3) Benefits
If you were a pedestrian and you were injured by a vehicle, what types of damages and claims can you have? Well obviously, you can get your medical bills, your future and past medical bills. You can get pain and suffering, future and past. You can get your lost wages. You can get any type of compensation for permanent impairment or disability. You can get compensation for the loss of your hobbies, loss of enjoying your family. If you can’t return to your same lifestyle you had before, because of any physical deficiencies caused by this wreck, then you definitely can receive some type of consideration for those as well. To know all of the rights you have for your specific case, I would suggest you contact an attorney who has experience in pedestrian wrecks.
4) Liability
In a pedestrian vehicle claim, the fact pattern will dictate who was at fault or who is majority at fault. If a pedestrian’s in a crosswalk and he has a go light or a little sign that says you can walk, he is clearly within his right to be able to walk across the street without being hit by a car, and there, clearly, the vehicle would be at fault. However, there are cases where pedestrians don’t use crosswalks and it is fact- dependent on who might be responsible in those situations. You need to hire an attorney who can investigate the case and determine if you crossed the street, and you’re not in the crosswalk, and you’re hit by a vehicle, are you partially responsible for the wreck or not? Again, it all depends on the facts. It depends on what the driver of the vehicle is doing, what the pedestrian is doing. Were they distracted? Were they listening to music on headsets? I would suggest that if you’re in a wreck and you’re a pedestrian, and the car hit you, and you’re not in a crosswalk, I would suggest you contact an attorney immediately to do an investigation, so they can determine the type of claim you may have.
Were you or a loved one seriously injured by a motor vehicle while walking, running, or jogging and have questions? After reading our 4 pedestrian accident tips that may help your case, contact a Stillwater pedestrian accident lawyer at Murray Law Firm today for a free confidential consultation and case evaluation. Let our experience work for you.
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