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Duluth Personal Injury Lawyer
Car accidents can happen for a number of reasons, from road rage incidents to drunk drivers to distracted motorists. But no matter how your car accident happened, you may have medical bills, lost income, and other damages related to the crash.
If you turn to the other driver’s insurance company to pay these bills, you could be met with resistance or receive a lowball offer that doesn’t cover all your expenses.
Get Help From a Duluth Car Accident Attorney
Few people enjoy dealing with an insurance company after a car accident. However, if the insurer has denied your claim or offered less than it’s worth, you may feel motivated to call the insurance adjuster and argue with them.
This is understandable but not advisable. Your insurance adjuster will most likely record the call, then dissect everything you say, no matter how innocent, in search of something that might indicate you were at fault.
More than one person has inadvertently made their claim more complicated by trying to straighten things out with the insurance company.
A car accident attorney can help you avoid these difficulties; first, we will investigate the accident and collect evidence to show that you were not at fault. Next, we’ll negotiate with the insurance company on your behalf and fight to get you the compensation you deserve.
Why Are Car Accident Cases So Complicated?
Not all car accident cases are complicated, but many are. Usually, the reason is related to disagreements about fault. Here are some common ways that things become complicated when determining fault:
- We often see cases where the client thinks it’s obvious that the other driver was at fault, but that person (and their insurance company) thinks the client caused the accident. The client may be right, but the other driver’s insurance company isn’t going to pay their claim without proof.
- On the other hand, there are also situations where one or both drivers admit they were at fault. Unfortunately, some people who think they are at fault are actually wrong. They might not have all the information about the accident, or they could be disoriented from the crash. For this reason, we always recommend that you avoid speculating about fault after an accident.
- Occasionally, both parties admit fault. There can still be disagreement between the respective insurance companies, however, about which party is more at fault. We’ll talk more about Georgia’s comparative negligence statutes and how they affect your case in the next section.
In all of these situations, we typically see two insurance companies that don’t want to pay for any of the accident damage. You might think that’s exactly what insurance is for, and you’d be right, but the fact remains that insurance company adjusters work to pay out as little as possible.
Liability insurance, which is required in Georgia, is only paid when the policyholder is at fault, so if the other driver claims you caused the accident, their insurance company will be inclined to agree.
It’s also important to understand Georgia’s comparative negligence statutes.
Under the comparative negligence doctrine, it is possible for both parties in an accident or injury to be at fault. However, someone still needs to be found liable, so each party is assigned a percentage of the blame.
The driver who is at least 50 percent responsible is considered to be at fault, and the other driver can collect damages from the at-fault driver’s insurance company. But there is one stipulation—the lesser responsible driver loses their percentage of fault from their damages.
For instance, if John is 20 percent at fault and Bob is 80 percent at fault, Bob’s insurance carrier would only have to pay John 80 percent of his damages.
Who Decides Fault in a Car Accident?
In the majority of cases, fault is determined by the insurance companies and/or the drivers’ lawyers.
Very few car accident cases are resolved in court. If neither driver has a lawyer, the insurance companies will argue about fault and eventually come to an agreement about who pays for what – a situation that is often detrimental to one or both drivers.
Here’s an example: You are in a car accident, and you believe the other driver is to blame. They point a finger at you.
The responding officer takes both your statements and examines the physical evidence at the scene, but there are no other witnesses, and the police report is inconclusive. After going back and forth for a little while, the insurance companies agreed that you were 30 percent at fault and the other driver was 70 percent at fault.
Your insurance company’s adjuster is happy with this outcome because it means they don’t have to pay anything. But you’ve lost 30 percent of your damages when you may only be 10 percent at fault or have no responsibility at all.
When you have the assistance of a lawyer, they will fight for you to get the total settlement amount you deserve. Your attorney will work to prove that you had little to no fault so that you can recover as much as possible.
How Can You Prove Fault in Your Car Accident Case?
The first step is to contact a car accident lawyer. Our investigative team will immediately go to work searching for more evidence in your case, including:
- Photo and video evidence. We encourage you to take pictures of both vehicles from all angles after the accident (but we understand if your injuries prevent you from doing so). Our investigators will also try to find video of the accident itself from sources like security or doorbell cameras in the area.
- Witnesses. When canvassing the area where the crash took place, we hope to find additional witnesses. Although the police will try to interview any bystanders at the scene of an accident, sometimes witnesses have already left by the time the officers arrive. In some cases, we may be able to locate another witness and get their testimony about what happened.
- Black box data. Using information from both vehicles’ event data records or EDRs (sometimes called black boxes), we can piece together a more clear picture of what happened. These devices record multiple data points, such as the vehicle’s speed, direction, and actions the driver took.
- Other electronic evidence. Sometimes, we request the other driver’s phone records, which can reveal if they were distracted by texting or otherwise using their phone at the time of the accident.
What if an Uninsured Driver Hit You?
The best solution in this situation is to make a claim on your own uninsured/underinsured motorist insurance (UM/UI). This type of coverage is not required in Georgia, but you will be happy you have it if you’re in an accident with an uninsured driver.
About 12.4 percent of Georgia motorists are uninsured—that’s more than 900,000 people driving around without liability insurance. If you don’t have UM/UI insurance, your lawyer will try to find other options, but in many cases, there simply aren’t any.
In some situations, we might be able to sue the driver directly, but this is only worthwhile if they have enough assets to cover the judgment. In less common circumstances, we may be able to sue a third party.
It is important to note, however, that in the majority of uninsured motorist accidents, UM/UI is the only way to recover damages. In addition, UM/UI may also cover situations where the other driver has insurance, but it’s not sufficient to cover all your damages.
Remember that Georgia only requires $25,000 in bodily injury liability per person and $25,000 in property damage liability. In some cases involving serious injuries, the injured person’s medical bills can easily exceed the $25,000 limit.
If this happens to you, a UM/UI policy that “stacks” on top of the at-fault driver’s coverage will pay additional damages.
As a final point, it’s easy to think of car insurance as being attached to your car, but you are still covered in some situations that don’t involve your vehicle. UM/UI policies will cover hit-and-run accidents (which have seen a 54 percent increase in Duluth in recent years) where the other driver is never found.
Accidents involving pedestrians or bicyclists hit by uninsured drivers are also included.
