Atlanta residents are always on the go, but when they least expect it, they can be involved in a hit-and-run accident. Whether you find your car hit in a parking lot when you return to it, or you’re involved in a highway accident where the driver flees, it becomes a hit-and-run when the other driver leaves the scene.
Hit-and-run car accidents can become complicated very quickly. Leaving the scene of an accident is illegal and can lead to some severe civil and criminal charges.
If you were hurt in a car accident in Atlanta and the driver fled the scene, don’t let them get away with inflicting damages on you. Hire an Atlanta hit-and-run lawyer as soon as possible.
With the right team by your side, you can expect quality legal expertise as you navigate your legal options while seeking the settlement your case deserves.
The CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm is ready to talk to you. If you are ready to schedule your initial free consultation, call us at (404) 777-8800 or contact us online.
How an Atlanta Hit-And-Run Attorney Can Help
If you were in a car accident where the other driver fled the scene, you have the right to seek legal advice and fight for compensation for your injuries. Choosing to work with an experienced personal injury lawyer means that they can provide the following throughout your case:
- Care and counsel
- Legal guidance and strategy
- Legal representation and resources
In addition to the above, your hit-and-run lawyer will provide services to build your case. They will be able to calculate:
- The loss of wages due to time off needed to address medical needs or any inability to return to your former job duties
- The full medical costs related to the accident, including projected future costs
- Pain and suffering costs for both physical and emotional suffering
While your Atlanta car accident attorney handles these tasks, you are able to focus on recovering and seeking any necessary medical attention. Our sole goal is to make the recovery process easier for you while maximizing the potential damages you can receive.
Common Scenarios an Atlanta Hit-And-Run Accident Lawyer May Handle
A hit-and-run accident is where the aggressor leaves the scene of an accident without a second thought for the person they injured. Whether the negligent party leaves on purpose or due to an assumption that the accident they caused wasn’t severe, what they did is illegal and has serious criminal repercussions.
Hit-and-run accidents can stem from many causes, including the following:
- Speeding
- Distracted driving
- Driving under the influence
- Aggressive driving
- Drowsy driving without a license or insurance
Hit-And-Run Accidents Lead to Serious Injuries
Car accidents can lead to broken bones, lacerations, and even death. Victims of hit-and-run accidents may find that they will cope with recovering from injuries that can take weeks and even months to recover and can involve multiple surgeries, medications, and physical therapy sessions.
It is not a surprise that victims of hit-and-run accidents face brutal injuries:
- Car-to-car collision: The force of the colliding car can jolt someone in one direction and quickly back, causing head injuries, whiplash, lacerations, and muscle strains.
- Pedestrian-related hit-and-runs: When pedestrians are involved, their bodies can sustain multiple impacts. The injuries endured in these accidents can be brutal and even fatal. Victims will have broken bones, lacerations, brain injuries, and more. Their injuries will be more severe and take longer to recover.
Depending on the speed of impact, victims can find that their Injuries can take months, if not years, to heal from, with some injuries so bad that they are life-altering. These injuries can lead to the inability to work and create permanent disabilities like brain damage, loss of limb function, nerve damage, limb loss, and more.
The road to recovery in these cases can be brutal, with many doctor appointments, prescriptions for strong pain medication, surgeries, and physical therapy sessions. Victims will potentially face the loss of working hours, which can have significant financial impacts on their family’s lifestyle and stability.
They may even be unable to return to their former job duties again, creating a lifelong loss of income-earning potential.
Psychological Consequences of a Hit-And-Run Accident
The physical consequences of a car accident are not the only injuries that victims endure. There are psychological complications like depression, anxiety, and PTSD. Additionally, injuries to the head and brain can cause traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) that can lead to:
- A loss of consciousness when they are supposed to be awake
- A drastic change in consciousness anywhere from a few seconds to a few hours
- Decreased level of consciousness
- Mild to extreme confusion or disorientation
If at any point you suspect that you have a brain injury, immediately seek medical attention.
What Should You Do if You Were in a Hit-And-Run Accident?
Under Georgia law, you must report any accident that results in bodily injury or death when your insurance company requires it, when the city you’re in requires it, or when there is more than $500 in property damage. Since it is not always possible to eyeball a car and figure out how much it will cost to fix, it’s better to err on the side of caution and just report the accident. You and the other driver should also exchange insurance information if they stick around. Here’s what to do if the other driver keeps going after you’ve been in a collision:
- Pull over and stop if your vehicle isn’t already stopped. Try to move your car off the road and to a safe place if it is still driveable. If not, put your flashers on.
- Call 911 and explain the situation. They will send an officer to take a report and can dispatch an ambulance if you’re hurt.
- After you’ve called for help, write down anything you can remember about the vehicle that hit you and drove off. Make, and model are helpful, but if you don’t know those, you can write down the vehicle’s color and anything you noticed about what it looked like – did it have bumper stickers, was it new or older looking, did you notice it receiving any damage in the crash, etc. If you saw any of the license plate, write down that number as well. This information will be helpful to the police.
- Seek medical attention if you were hurt. Sometimes people feel okay right after an accident but may start to feel pain a few hours later. This is not uncommon, and you should still seek treatment.
- If you feel okay after the accident and can safely exit your car, look around to see if there were any witnesses to the accident.
- Georgia law also requires drivers to stop at the scene of an accident. If the other driver keeps going, they’ve committed a misdemeanor. However, if the crash caused an injury or death, they could be charged with a felony and receive 1-5 years in prison.
Of course, this requires that they are caught, so you should provide as much help to the police as you can. However, this is not possible in every situation. Sometimes, based on the particulars of the crash and the angle at which you were hit, there just isn’t any way for you to get a good look at the other vehicle. That’s okay – the police have many other ways to search for the hit-and-run driver, like examining traffic cam footage, talking to witnesses, or taking paint scrapings off your damaged car. If they are able to locate the driver, you will have the information you need to make a claim on their insurance.
What if They Cannot Find the Driver?
The police will do everything in their power to find the negligent party; however, sometimes, they are unsuccessful. It can happen when the driver cannot be found (i.e., the driver was operating a stolen car, for example).
Many people wonder if their own insurance will cover such a situation. If you have bought Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist (UM/UIM) coverage, it may cover your bills up to the limits of the policy. UM/UIM may cover the following costs:
- Medical bills not covered by your health insurance.
- Lost wages for any work you missed after the crash.
- Pain and suffering. This can be physical pain, like from a broken limb, or emotional/mental pain, like emotional distress, anxiety, depression, PTSD, insomnia, or loss of enjoyment of life.
- Property damage, usually to repair your vehicle or replace it if it’s totaled.
If police cannot identify the driver, contact your hit-and-run accident lawyer before filing any claims to your insurance company.
What About Pedestrian Hit-And-Run Accidents?
Watching a negligent driver take off suddenly can be upsetting and frustrating. But when a pedestrian is involved in an accident, it suddenly makes something from bad to worse.
The results of a car hitting a person can be catastrophic. It is even worse when the driver chooses to leave the scene with their victim left behind, brutalized, and fighting for their life.
Unfortunately, pedestrian fatalities in car accidents are not as rare as we would like them to be. Georgia has one of the highest pedestrian fatality rates in the US.
In 2021, there were 306 pedestrian fatalities in Georgia, with 41 cases happening in Atlanta alone. As a victim of a pedestrian hit-and-run accident, you should find legal advice and representation as soon as possible.
Wait Before Accepting An Offer From Your Insurance Company
If your coverage includes UM/UIM, your insurance carrier will likely make you an offer to settle the claim. Often people think this is good and want to accept it right away, but it’s better to wait. Insurance adjusters all have one job – to pay as little as possible on claims. They may make an offer before you even have any idea how much your medical bills are going to be or how long you will need treatment for. If you develop chronic pain as a result of your accident, you could need physical therapy and other treatments for years to come. Although you may be eager to get some money to help deal with your bills, it’s best to speak with a hit-and-run attorney in Atlanta before agreeing to anything the insurance company proposes.
An experienced attorney will consider your current bills, including medical expenses, lost wages, and vehicle damage, and may notice that your offer isn’t enough to cover everything. They may also realize that you are likely to require continuing care and will need a way to pay for that. If this is the case, your personal injury lawyer in Atlanta will skillfully negotiate with the insurance carrier on your behalf to help you get the compensation you deserve for your injuries.
What If You Don’t Have UM/UIM Coverage?
In this case, the best solution is to find the other driver so they can be held responsible financially. The police will do their best to find the driver, but they’re often busy with many cases and only have so much time. Unfortunately, it’s estimated that around 90 percent of hit-and-run cases go unsolved. An Atlanta hit and run attorney who reviews your case may have some ideas about tracking down the other driver. In some cases, a law firm investigator may have the time to look into your case more thoroughly. Sometimes by re-interviewing witnesses or going door-to-door in the neighborhood where the accident happened, they can find information that leads to tracking down the other driver. This kind of investigation should be done by a professional, and you shouldn’t attempt to do it yourself.
What If the Other Driver Is Found Later On, Can You Still File a Claim?
In most situations, Georgia has a statute of limitations on personal injury claims of two years from the date of the accident. If the driver can’t be located in that time period, you will most likely be unable to file a claim against them. For this reason, it’s best to find the driver sooner, if at all possible.
If you are filing a claim with your own insurance for UM/UIM coverage, the claim should be filed “promptly” You should check your policy for any specific deadlines, but in most cases, you will just be encouraged to file your claim as soon as possible. If the other driver is later located within the two-year period after the accident, you can still file a lawsuit against them.
In the meantime, it’s better to get your claim started as soon as you can. Most insurance companies allow you to file a claim online, and the benefit of this option is that you don’t have to have a lengthy phone conversation with your insurance adjuster while in pain or on pain pills. Sometimes insurance adjusters will ask you questions and try to use what you say as an excuse to deny your claim, so it’s better to let your Atlanta car accident lawyer speak with the insurance company after you file the initial claim.
Hire an Atlanta Hit-And-Run Accident Law Firm Who Knows Georgia Law
Our team of legal professionals knows Georgia law and how it can apply to your hit-and-run case.
Do not feel like you are alone in this terrible situation. The CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm team is here to guide you as we navigate the legal hoops to process your claim.
Being in a car accident is frightening and traumatizing, but seeing the negligent party leave the scene makes an already bad situation worse. Fortunately, victims of hit-and-run car accidents do not have to be left in the dark to deal with their injuries alone.
Hiring an Atlanta car accident law firm can make a difference in the kind of settlement you receive. Call an attorney immediately if you are hit by a driver who left the scene; you may be entitled to compensation.
When you choose to work with the CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm, you can expect expert legal advice from a team with decades of combined experience. Give us a call today for a free case review and consultation.
You can contact our team directly when you call (404) 777-8800 or contact us online.
