When a car accident happens, people say that filing a personal injury lawsuit is the best way to get compensation for lost wages, property damage, and medical bills. That, of course, is true, but it's easier said than done.
It's not just about filing a car accident claim and waiting for the other party to pay for everything. Even if it should be that way, negligent drivers will most likely deny what they did and try to get away with it. Therefore, victims need to prove what caused the crash.
How can they do that? That is exactly what this blog post is about. Here, people will understand all the concepts they need to know to prove the at-fault driver was liable for an accident and how to do it.
However, even if they understand the process, victims can't prove fault in a car accident themselves. Lawyers will help them do it and handle all the paperwork needed for the case. The Law Office of Carl Maltese can do that for people in New York.
Anyone in need of a New York car accident lawyer should call this law firm now to schedule a free consultation. This law firm has more than 50 years of experience in these cases and is willing to do everything it needs to get victims the compensation they deserve. As well as advise on how to prove fault in a truck accident in NY.
Things to Understand About Proving Fault in Car Accidents
Before trying to prove fault in a car accident, there are specific concepts victims need to understand. Starting to look for evidence or build a legal strategy without knowing could confuse them a lot and make them feel lost throughout the process.
Below are some of the most important terms victims should know to prove fault in a car accident:
Duty of Care
When someone talks about the "duty of care" of drivers, they refer to the responsibility everyone has to drive safely and keep accidents from happening. This is not a moral but a legal obligation to avoid foreseeable incidents. That includes following traffic laws and behaving reasonably.
Even if drivers follow all traffic signals, speeding or not focusing on the road while driving could represent a breach of the duty of care. Here are a few examples of what drivers should avoid to keep crashes from happening:
Speeding
Texting or eating while driving
Driving under the influence of alcohol or other psychotropic substances
Ignoring traffic signals
Lack of car maintenance
Overloading the vehicle
Negligence System
The negligence system in the United States is a legal framework that outlines who can seek compensation after car accidents and how they can do it. Legally, drivers are negligent when they breach their duty of care.
In this system, victims can file a car accident claim to get compensation for economic and non-economic damages. The former refers to medical bills, lost wages, and property damage while the latter includes unquantifiable elements such as emotional distress or physical pain.
That is the basic basis under which anyone in the country can seek compensation after car accidents. However, there are different types of negligence in this system. This varies depending on the state where the crash happened.
New York uses a comparative negligence system. Here, the injured party has the right to sue the other driver in a car accident case even if they were partially liable for it. The percentage of fault the victim has for the crash will be reduced by the final settlement.
There are many other types of negligence, such as the no-fault system. Also called no-fault insurance, it limits the situations where accident victims can sue the other party to make them focus on their own coverage through their insurance company.
Florida, Hawaii, and Kansas are a few of the states that apply no-fault insurance laws. New York, on the other hand, sticks to comparative fault. For more information, the best car accident attorney in Long Island may be able to help.
Evidence
The evidence in a car accident case is what determines if the other driver is liable for the crash. Hence, victims need to get as much as they can to win the case and get compensation.
In New York, the statute of limitations for a reckless or drunk driving accident is three years from the day it happened. Hence, victims have that time to find evidence to determine fault and base their claim on it.
When looking for evidence, victims need to keep in mind they must prove the other party was responsible for the crash and justify their financial losses. Many people say the case starts right when the accident happens.
Unless the victim needs to directly go to the hospital, they should get the other driver's personal information and call the police. Officer reports detail the scene, vehicle information, and driver statements. They could turn the tides of a trial if used well.
Police reports are documentary evidence. Other examples of it are medical records and bills, vehicle repair estimates, insurance documents, and employment papers.
Medical records are documentation of the victim's treatment after the crash. It can include doctor's notes, diagnostic tests, X-rays, and the medications prescribed to the patient. This proves the extent of their injuries and how expensive it is to heal from them.
Vehicle repair estimates or bills shows how expensive it will be for the victim to repair their car. As for the employment papers, they can quantify the loss of income the parties involved will suffer due to the accident.
Physical evidence includes photographs, traffic or security camera footage, and even debris from the accident scene. These are often meant to prove who caused the accident and how it did it.
Regardless of the health condition of the victim, lawyers should always be the ones looking for evidence. They know what may work best at trial and the strategies the other party may try.
Compensation
The main goal of filing a personal injury claim in New York is to get financial compensation. However, what is that money for? In a nutshell, for economic and non-economic damages.
Hospital bills, lost wages, and property damage count as economic damages because they are something with an actual price. Therefore, people can simply give proof of how expensive those things are and ask for that exact amount of money in the claim.
Non-economic damages, on the other hand, are the opposite of that. When an accident happens, people suffer both physically and emotionally. The problem with the latter is that pain and distress are not quantifiable.
Regardless of that, people do deserve compensation for the emotional damage they suffer after a car accident. Physical pain also falls into this description.
There's not an exact formula for quantifying non-economic damages after a crash, so it actually depends on the method the judge wants to use. The two most popular are the multiplier and the per diem ones.
As its name suggests, the multiplier method multiplies the victim's economic damages by a factor from one to five. The result of that is the additional compensation they will receive.
The per diem method assigns a daily value to the victim's non-economic damages based on the severity and life impact of the crash. People just need to multiply that value to the number of days the judge determines the injuries affect them to get to the settlement.
How to Prove Fault in a Car Accident in NY
When the investigation for a New York car accident starts, the victim mainly needs to prove the following:
Who caused the crash
How the crash caused the damages the victim wants to cover
How expensive it actually is to cover those damages
Once victims find evidence to cover those three topics, they can file a suit against the other driver. However, failing to check one of the boxes could make them lose the case or get less compensation.
Security footage of the street where the accident happened is an excellent piece of evidence for establishing fault. However, that will also uncover if the victim was partially at fault for the crash. Pictures of the scene and witness statements will be helpful too.
When victims have enough evidence to prove who caused the crash, they need to show the serious injuries they are going through. Right after an accident happens, victims should go to the doctor.
First, because getting a proper diagnosis on time will keep the injury from getting worse over time. Second, because medical records are the perfect way to prove the consequences of the accident. Hospital bills are also excellent for the job.
About the Insurance Company
Victims can ask their insurance company to cover the damages they are going through before filing a claim. However, this process may not be as effective as directly suing the other party.
It's common for an insurance company to stall compensating victims as much as it can when talking about big loads of money. Insurance adjusters may not cover damages after a crash or not as much as the injured driver would want it to.
When applying for compensation, the victims and the other driver's insurance company will start their own investigations. Lawyers could also help their clients negotiate the compensation they will receive.
Conclusion - Hire a Professional New York Car Accident Lawyer
When the insurance adjuster doesn't give the victim the compensation they need to cover the damages after an accident, the best choice they can make is to sue the other party. Doing this will prove effective if they hire a good personal injury lawyer.
The Law Office of Carl Maltese is highly experienced in these cases. It has been working on them since 1966, and it's still winning cases for its clients today. People can visit its website to learn more about its services and practice areas.
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