If needed, seek medical attention immediately.

At the scene of the accident, it’s important to stay calm as much as possible and think about what you can do to lay the groundwork for a personal injury case. Do not speak to the other person(s) except to exchange contact information and insurance information. You do not want to unintentionally accept liability for the accident.

Take pictures of your vehicle, the product, your injuries, and the scene of the crash. Get video footage and photos from multiple angles if possible.

Seeking medical treatment is crucial if you want to build a strong personal injury case after an accident. Not only could you have life-threatening injuries after an incident, you need to prove that any injuries you sustained were caused by the accident. If you go to the doctor a week or two after the accident, for example, the other side could argue that your injuries weren’t really all that serious or they were not related to the accident. They can’t do that quite as easily if you go to urgent care or the emergency room immediately after an accident.

Once you begin receiving medical care, keep all of the documentation and bills you receive. Follow your doctor’s treatment recommendations and do what you can to mitigate the severity of your injuries. Ignoring your doctor’s treatment recommendations can seriously weaken your case.

Protect your rights immediately.

Never Leave The Scene

As a general rule, you should never leave the scene of an accident. In some cases, this could be treated as a hit-and-run, and you’ll face charges. The only time you are justified in leaving the scene of an accident is when you require emergency medical treatment. And even in cases like this, you should only leave in an ambulance and not with another bystander, family member, or friend.

Call The Police

Your safest bet is to call 911 immediately after an accident and request that the police come to the scene. If the police do show up, getting a police report filed is the best way to have an official record of the accident, which is something generally used by insurance companies to determine fault.

Get Medical Treatment

If anyone is injured in the accident, it’s important to seek medical attention as soon as possible. Even a minor fender bender can lead to serious and life-changing injuries. The sooner you seek medical treatment, the better it will be for your case since you will have reliable documentation of your injuries.

Collect Important Information

Even though the police will collect information at the scene of the accident, you should do this as well if you are physically able. In addition to taking pictures of the scene and damages with your phone, be sure to get the names and contact information of the other drivers, any witnesses, driver’s license and license plate numbers of vehicles involved, and insurance company information.

Call Your Insurance Company

You are required to report motor vehicle accidents to your insurance company as soon as possible, generally within 24 hours. What you don’t have to do is sign any release forms, give a recorded statement, or make any statements regarding fault. Make sure that you report the accident as required, but don’t go any further until you speak with an attorney.

Each state has laws regarding the statute of limitations for a personal injury case. In Alabama, you must file a case within two years of the date of your accident. If you miss this deadline, you will be unable to recover compensation. If your claim is against the government, you must meet even stricter deadlines. A claim against a municipality has a six-month statute of limitations, and a claim against a county has a one-year statute of limitations.

Distracted Driving

Driving while distracted is practically ubiquitous these days, especially with the rise in hand-held technology.

Drunk Driving 

Another top killer on Alabama’s roadways is that of drunk driving. Drunk drivers take numerous lives every year, and cause injuries to many more. Drivers can also cause collisions when they operate a motor vehicle after using drugs, including illegal drugs, over-the-counter medications, and prescription drugs.

Speeding

When drivers speed or drive at a speed that is unsafe for conditions (even if at or below the actual speed limit), the risk of being involved in an accident is increased. Not only does speed increase the risk of an actual collision, but it also increases the severity of damages should an accident occur.

Driving Aggressively

Drivers may commit other acts of negligence when behind the wheel, most of which can be classified as aggressive driving. These acts include tailgating, illegally changing lanes, running red lights or stop signs, cutting off another driver, and more.

Drowsy Driving

Another increasingly dangerous possibility on the road. In some cases, car accidents are caused by factors outside of the realm of driver negligence. These factors include defective roads or dangerous road conditions, defective automobiles or auto parts, and adverse weather conditions.

Waiting Too Long

The longer you wait to file a personal injury claim, the less evidence you have at your disposal. It’s best to meet with an attorney right after your accident so they can investigate, gather evidence, and move forward with your claim.

Going Public with Your Injury

Whether you post about your accident on social media or go to the news about it, you could be seriously damaging your case by going public. While it may be difficult, limit your discussion of your claim to your attorney until it is settled.

Not Knowing the Terms of Your Settlement

If you do negotiate a settlement, make sure you completely understand its terms. Victims will sometimes take a settlement, and then try to go back to the liable party to ask for more compensation. This is almost guaranteed not to happen.

Underestimating Damages

In some cases, victims underestimate their damages. When trying to calculate medical bills, they might look at the bills coming from the insurance company and simply calculate them that way. They don’t realize that the other party’s insurance company may have to pay the whole bill, not just the part that their health insurance doesn’t cover. They forget to calculate in the cost of going to and from doctors’ appointments, medication expenses, ambulance bills, and other expenses. This is one reason you should work with an attorney during this process.

Ignoring Medical Advice

If you are seeking compensation for your injuries, there’s an expectation that you have a vested interest in having your injuries healed. If you go to the doctor but fail to attend follow-up appointments, skip physical therapy sessions, or don’t do your range of motion exercises, it may appear to the other side that you are dragging out your injury just to get more money out of them.

Not Hiring an Attorney

This is easily the most expensive mistake that accident victims make. People skip hiring an attorney for a number of reasons. They might be worried about the cost, which isn’t an issue because most personal injury attorneys work on a contingency basis. They may worry about the stress of going to court, which isn’t an issue because the vast majority of personal injury cases are settled out of court.

Statements from Involved Parties

Both parties will give statements to the police and to their own insurance providers. Don’t give a recorded statement to the other driver’s insurance company—this is likely to backfire on you. If there are discrepancies in the statements, the insurance companies may use those inconsistencies against you.

Witness Statements

A third party who witnesses the accident can be extremely helpful in a car accident case. As long as they don’t have any connection to either driver, their statements can clear up any inconsistencies in the drivers’ statements. However, their statements may be a little bit less trustworthy if they were with either driver at the time of the accident.

Expert Witnesses

While expert witnesses are not used in every car accident case, they are often called upon in complex cases. These experts are helpful both in determining fault in an accident and explaining the ramifications of a victim’s injuries.

Photographs and Video Footage

The more physical evidence you have of the accident, the stronger your case may be. If you take photos and video footage of a crash scene, make sure that you make backups as soon as possible and send copies to your attorney. You don’t want a tech glitch to cause you to lose your most valuable evidence.

Police Records

This is just one reason that it’s important to call the police when you are involved in an accident—the police report is a crucial piece of evidence for your insurance company and attorney. The police will take statements from both parties, look at the vehicles in question, and try to determine whether or not any laws were broken.

Medical Records

Part of building your car accident case is proving the severity of your injuries and showing how they have affected your life. Medical records are an essential part of this. Provide copies of all of your medical bills and reports to your attorney. You may also want your doctor to include information on how your injuries limit you or affect your daily life.

Even if you know just how expensive medical care can be, it’s difficult to get a full overview of just how much your crash will cost you. You’ll need a prompt medical checkup, and if you’re severely injured you may need to be transported via ambulance. That’s thousands of dollars right away. From there, add on the cost of diagnostic testing, pain management, medication to treat your injuries, surgical care, follow-up appointments, physical therapy, and follow-up testing to check your progress.

And  the expenses extend beyond your medical treatment. Even after a minor collision, it’s likely you’ll need at least one day off of work. For more severe injuries, you could be out of work for days or weeks. Those with catastrophic injuries may find that their ability to work is permanently compromised. This adds to the cost of your accident through lost income, lost earning potential, and lost career advancement opportunities.

Don’t forget the cost of property damage. A totaled car can leave you tens of thousands of dollars poorer, and even if your vehicle is not worth much, you still have to replace it. This can be prohibitively expensive for many people, especially while out of work and without an income.

There are also accident-related costs that are harder to calculate. Your pain and suffering have value, even though it’s hard to put a precise number on them. You may also be owed money for your mental trauma, your family’s loss of consortium, and other immeasurable losses.

Assumption of Risk

Assumption of risk refers to the fact that every activity comes with some level of risk. If you choose to engage in that activity, you are essentially accepting that risk. The level of risk for an indoor trampoline park, for example, is different than the level of risk that comes with going for a walk around the block.

Compensation

Compensation is money paid from a negligent party or a negligent party’s insurance company to a victim of their negligence.

Damages

This refers to any type of loss you have suffered as the result of an accident caused by someone else’s negligence. For example, your damages might include lost wages from time off of work, medical bills from your injuries, and property damage. You will need to document damages to get compensation.

Duty

If someone has a duty or duty of care to someone, they have an obligation to limit damage to them. A good example is the duty of care a driver has when they are on the road. They have a duty of care to everyone else on the road, so if they text while driving or drive drunk, they are violating that duty.

Gross Negligence

When someone violates their duty of care, it is considered gross negligence if they blatantly and recklessly disregard the other person’s health, wellbeing, or property.

Liability

Liability refers to a legal obligation one has. In personal injury law, it typically refers to one person’s obligation to pay for damage caused in an accident.

Litigation

When you decide to move forward with a lawsuit, you are engaging in litigation. This isn’t always the end result of a personal injury claim, since many claims are settled during negotiations.

Negligence

When someone violates their duty of care to another person, they are engaging in negligence. Many people use this term to refer to the carelessness shown by one individual in an accident.