Duluth Pedestrian Accident Lawyer

One minute, you’re out for a pleasant walk in your neighborhood, and the next, a reckless driver is crashing into you. Statistically, the driver is likely to be fine, but you may suffer severe injuries due to being hit by a two-ton vehicle. Even at low speeds, car collisions with pedestrians are disproportionately harmful to the person on foot.

Your problems might not end there. Necessary medical treatment could be expensive, and health insurance may not cover all of it. When you try to get compensation from the car driver’s insurance company, you could face difficulties such as a claim denial or a lowball offer that doesn’t begin to cover all your losses.

Contact a Duluth Pedestrian Accident Attorney for Assistance

When you’re the victim of a reckless driver, you shouldn’t get stuck with the bill for medical costs, lost income, and other damages. However, it can be challenging to convince the insurance company to pay the total value of your claim—or, in some cases, to pay anything at all.

A Duluth pedestrian accident attorney can help negotiate with the insurance carrier to get you the best settlement possible.

How Much Is Your Pedestrian Accident Claim Worth?

Correctly valuing your claim is one of the first steps your attorney will take. Every claim is different, and the exact value will depend on your specific damages, which may include:

• Medical expenses. We’ll ask questions to ensure nothing is missed. Aside from hospital and doctor’s office bills, you could have charges from physical therapy clinics, costs for mobility aids, travel expenses if you need to see a specialist, and more. Future expenses should also be considered if you’re still in treatment.
• Lost income. Often, our clients are unable to work for weeks or months while recovering from complex injuries like multiple broken bones, head injuries, back or spine injuries, and soft tissue damage. We’ll help you figure out how much income you have lost or will lose in the future.
• Lost earning potential. Sadly, sometimes pedestrian injuries are severe enough to cause permanent disability. If you can no longer work, or you have to cut back to a reduced schedule or a lower-paying job, you are entitled to damages for your lost earning potential.
• Any permanent injury, disfigurement, or disability. Even if it doesn’t affect your ability to work, a significant disability can still affect your quality of life.
• Pain and suffering. You also have a right to seek compensation for both physical and emotional or mental pain caused by the accident. We may ask about your physical injuries as well as any mental health effects, such as anxiety, insomnia, depression, or symptoms of PTSD.
• Property damage. If you had any valuables on you that were damaged, such as a phone or laptop, we can recover compensation for repairs or replacement.
• Wrongful death. Unfortunately, there were 342 pedestrian traffic fatalities in 2022, making Georgia one of the states with the most pedestrian deaths. If you lost a loved one in such an accident, you can seek compensation for funeral or burial costs, lost financial support, loss of consortium or companionship, and more.

You should be wary if the insurance company quickly makes you an offer after your accident. Frequently, people see this as good news, but in many cases, the insurance company is overlooking or ignoring some damages or undervaluing them.

We recommend reviewing your offer with a pedestrian accident lawyer before you sign anything.

What if the Driver Blames You for the Accident?

This is one of the more common reasons insurance companies reject claims from injured pedestrians.

Often, the driver believes the pedestrian is at fault, and the insurance adjuster will be inclined to believe the driver. If they argue that you were at fault, they have no obligation to pay your claim—but you still have medical bills and other damages.

Here are a few frequent causes of pedestrian accidents and ways the driver and pedestrian might disagree about fault:

• Right of way. One party violating another’s right of way is a leading cause of pedestrian accidents. But did you have the right of way—or did the driver? In most situations, pedestrians in a marked crosswalk have the right of way, and drivers should come to a complete stop until they pass. But sometimes there is disagreement about whether or not the pedestrian was in the crosswalk, whether the Walk sign was on, or whether the walker darted into the crosswalk too quickly for the driver to stop. When these disagreements come up, we will thoroughly investigate and collect as much evidence as possible to prove your case.
• Speed. It’s not unusual for the driver to recall that their speed was slower than it actually was. This underestimation can be a problem because the faster the car is going, the more severe the pedestrian’s injuries are likely to be. Speeding also makes it more difficult for drivers to stop in time if they see a pedestrian on the road. Fortunately, we can use the vehicle’s event data recorder or EDR to determine the car’s exact speed when the accident happened.
• Visibility. The more visible you are, the easier it is for drivers to see and avoid you. However, fault can lie with the driver or the pedestrian in these situations. Pedestrians should make an effort to be visible—especially when walking on or near a road at night. But drivers have a responsibility to slow down and be more careful in poor visibility situations, such as rain or fog.
• Intoxication. We all know that driving under the influence is unsafe, but walking while intoxicated can be dangerous as well. Alcohol can suppress your coordination and reaction times, making it more difficult to avoid a vehicle. The National Safety Council found that in fatal pedestrian crashes, the pedestrian is under the influence about 25 percent of the time, while drivers are intoxicated only 10 percent of the time. In about 6 percent of cases, both the driver and pedestrian were under the influence. Typically, the responding officer will perform sobriety tests on both parties at the scene, but sometimes, there may be issues with how the tests were conducted or how the evidence was handled.
• Distraction. Again, both drivers and pedestrians should avoid distraction. Whether you’re walking or driving, keep your eyes on the road and avoid the temptation to look at your phone. You should also avoid listening to music while walking because this can drown out the sound of an approaching vehicle.

In all of these situations, a pedestrian accident attorney can help protect your rights if the driver and/or insurance company claims you did something wrong and caused the collision. We’ll talk to witnesses, canvas the scene, seek out photo or video evidence, and review other electronic evidence like EDR data and smartphone records.

What is Modified Comparative Negligence?

In many of the situations described above, both parties actually contributed to the accident. For instance, you might not have been paying attention when you crossed the road, but the driver might also have been speeding.

When this is the case, you can still collect damages as long as you were less than 50 percent to blame, but you will lose your percentage of fault from the final recovery. Your lawyer will work to build a strong case illustrating that you had little or no responsibility for the collision so that you can get the most fair settlement possible.

What if an Uninsured Driver Hits You?

No one wants to hear that the driver who hit them is uninsured, but unfortunately, it does happen. The good news is that in many cases, there are still options for recovering your damages, including:

• Suing the driver. This is always an option, but it’s not always the right one for the situation. If the driver has no significant assets we can seize, it may not be worth the time, stress, and effort to go through a lawsuit.
• Using your uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage (UM/UI). This one often surprises people, but your car insurance covers you, not just your vehicle. If you’re hit by a car while walking or bicycling, and the driver doesn’t have insurance, you can make a claim on your UM/UI policy.
• Suing a third party. In a few less common situations, we may be able to recover damages from another party who also contributed to the accident. For example, if the uninsured driver was drunk, it may be possible to sue a bar or restaurant that served them if they were noticeably intoxicated already or underage.

How Can You Get Help From a Pedestrian Accident Law Firm in Duluth?

Please contact the CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm for a free consultation. We’ll review your case, answer any questions you have, and help you explore your options for seeking compensation.

There is no obligation, and if we take your case, you won’t pay anything until we win or settle it.

The CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm was founded by attorney Ali Awad, who rapidly transformed it into one of the fastest-growing law firms in the country. He and his team have more than twenty years of combined experience helping injured people and their families and have recovered millions of dollars in compensation for clients.

When he’s not fighting for clients in the courtroom or the boardroom, Mr. Awad offers no-nonsense legal advice to more than a million followers on social media. Work with his professional team today by calling 833-254-2923.