Atlanta Car Accident Liability Lawyer

Have you been hurt in a car accident? Are you seeking to prove that others were liable for your injuries while minimizing your own level of claimed fault?

Hiring your own car accident liability lawyer is a crucial step in maximizing the chances that you are able to receive a settlement for all the damages you have suffered.

Georgia liability laws make it clear when someone is responsible for the costs of your medical treatment and other losses you have suffered. At the same time, there is the potential for you to be exposed to some measure of liability, depending on your car accident’s circumstances.

The primary goal of The CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm is to seek to prove the full extent of liability others have while minimizing your own exposure.

Insurance companies will do everything they can to “muddy the waters” of who is at fault in your claim — attempting to reduce the potential size of the settlement they offer. We fight back against strategies like these using all available evidence and the laws and prior case rulings most relevant to your claim.

Give yourself the best chances of holding everyone accountable for the damages you have suffered by working with a proven Atlanta personal injury law firm. Find out how much your case could be worth, and get answers to your pressing questions during a free, confidential case review with no obligation.

Schedule your free consultation today when you call (404) 777-8800 or contact us online.

Benefits of Working With an Atlanta Car Accident Liability Attorney

“Liability” refers to the legal requirement that someone pay for something. In the context of personal injury law, someone is liable for the costs of your medical treatment, lost wages, vehicle repairs, and other losses when they have caused an accident through their negligence or wrongful behaviors.

In other words, because they have made a mistake, the law holds a negligent responsible for paying you back when it’s their fault that you had medical expenses and other damages in the first place.

Establishing liability is rarely easy. It can take knowledge of traffic laws and state statutes to firmly prove that someone else is responsible for the injuries you have suffered.

Further, other parties may try to “spread liability around” by accusing you or someone else of contributing fault to the accident in question.

An Atlanta car accident liability attorney aims to help you reach the optimal financial and medical position possible following your accident. They represent your interests, help you build a strong case, and negotiate on your behalf throughout the entire claim process.

If the other side refuses to settle, your attorney can be prepared to file a lawsuit — potentially even taking your case to court to get the damages you need to move on towards a more normal life once more.

By hiring an attorney, you can expect to gain the following services and benefits, all with the goal of maximizing the potential size of the settlement (or court award) you ultimately receive:

• Investigation of your accident and its causes
• Collection of all available evidence
• Estimation of your damages in full, including projected future costs
• Completion and review of your claim and proof of loss
• Negotiation of a reasonable settlement amount
• Representation through all stages of your case
• Preparation for litigation and possible trial if a settlement can’t be reached

How Is Liability Established in Atlanta?

Technically, there are only two ways to confirm liability in most states, including Georgia:

• A jury determines that the named party is liable after completion of a trial
• Liability is accepted through the act of paying out a settlement to the claimant

Importantly, not every settlement agreement (or paid insurance claim) is an express admission of liability or that the party caused the injuries to the claimant. Instead, it is a statement that it is in the legal and financial interests of the party to settle rather than face a possible finding of liability at the conclusion of a jury trial.

In the vast majority of cases, liability is accepted implicitly by an insurance company agreeing to pay out a set amount for the damages inflicted in the car accident.

Proving Liability

In a jury trial, the jury is asked to consider the question of liability by determining whether there is a “preponderance of evidence” indicating that the defending party is at fault. A “preponderance” simply means “a lot,” and it is often interpreted in common language as saying that “it is more likely true to be true than not true” that the named party is responsible for the listed damages.

After a finding of liability, the jury will then determine the appropriate amount of damages to award to the plaintiff (the injured party).

Fault is usually established on the basis of negligence. “Negligence” basically says that the allegedly responsible party failed to act in a way that was expected and that could have prevented the injury from occurring.

Negligence typically has four main parts to establish:

• Duty of care — A law or expectation placed upon the defendant that they would act in a reasonably safe manner and in compliance with any established standards in order to minimize the risk of harm to the injury victim
• Breach of duty — An act or omission (failure to act) that directly violated the expected standard of behavior
• Proximate cause — The defendant’s breach of duty must have been the most direct (or “proximate”) cause of an injury to the claimant
• Damages — The injury victim must have suffered losses, such as financial losses from medical treatments or personal pain and suffering, as a direct result of the accident the defendant caused

Each part must be established for someone (or a business) to be considered liable. For example, if the claimant can’t prove that their injuries were directly caused by the named party, then they may be unable to convince that party to offer a reasonable settlement.

Who Is Typically Liable in a Car Accident Injury Case?

There are any number of possible parties that can be named in an injury claim or lawsuit after a car accident. Some of the most common include:

• Other drivers on the road
• In commercial companies, when an employed driver causes an accident
• Vehicle or parts manufacturers, when a defect causes an accident or causes injuries to become worse
• Public agencies that design and engineer roads when road defects lead to or contribute to an accident
• Construction companies that built the road where the accident occurred, if their negligence or defective practices led to the accident
• Property owners, if the accident occurred somewhere other than a public road or when road hazards originated from their property
• Others involved in the accident who caused an injury or caused it to become worse

Note that, often, an insurance company will be named in a lawsuit rather than the party directly responsible since that insurer is expected to be the one to cover the damages under the language of its policy.

What If Multiple Parties (Including Me) Contributed to an Accident?

Georgia law (O.C.G.A. § 51-12-32) states that every party that contributes to an injury is responsible for paying their share of damages, according to the portion of fault assigned to them.

For example, if two people caused an accident that a third person was wrapped up in, and both were equally responsible for the accident, then they would split the damages owed to the injured party 50/50. If one party was more responsible than the other, they might split the damages 60/40, 70/30, etc., based on exactly how much fault they contributed.

This same law can reduce the amount of money an injured party is eligible to receive if they are responsible in part for their own injuries

Let’s say in the example above that all three drivers contributed fault, and the injured party was assumed to have been around 10% responsible for their own injury. In that case, the victim’s total eligible claim would be reduced by 10%, and the other parties would split the remaining liability between them.

Note, too, that Georgia law (O.C.G.A. § 51-11-7) bars victims from recovering anything after an accident when they hold the majority (51% or more) of fault.

As one might imagine, these situations can quickly get complicated when multiple parties are accused of contributing to an accident’s circumstances. It may be possible that a manufacturer of a defective vehicle part holds partial responsibility for the injuries, requiring a separate investigation and a reasonable estimate of how much liability each party holds.

There may even be completely separate claims, such as if a chain reaction accident led to multiple collisions that were seconds apart from one another.

The risk of confusion and complication in accidents involving multiple parties is why an attorney can be so beneficial to injury victims. Your attorney can help sort out exactly what happened and who contributed what after a thorough investigation and review of all applicable laws.

Work With a Proven Atlanta Car Accident Liability Law Firm

Establishing liability for a car accident isn’t always easy, and the damages inflicted aren’t always clear. An injury victim may end up leaving money on the table when they fail to account for how much the total costs of their treatment will add up to — or, worse when they accept partial liability for an accident despite not actually doing anything wrong.

Work with experienced and proven legal advocates who are ready to dig deep into the details of your case. Our primary goal at the CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm is to maximize the potential payout you receive while making the entire process of your case less stressful.

Find out why so many Atlanta locals trust us when they are hurt, and they are facing a mountain of potential bills. Reach out to us at (404) 777-8800 or contact us online to schedule a free, no-obligation case review today.