Home to parks and shopping centers, North Druid Hills is an unincorporated area in DeKalb County and part of the Atlanta metro area. Bounded on one side by Interstate 85, it’s also sometimes the site of car accidents.
If a negligent driver causes a collision, you could find yourself in both physical and financial pain, struggling with medical bills and lost income while trying to treat your injuries. How can you be sure the insurance company will give you a fair settlement?
Contact a North Druid Hills Car Accident Attorney Today
It would be nice to rely on the at-fault driver’s insurance adjuster to properly address your claim, but unfortunately, that’s not a realistic expectation. The insurance adjuster will look for any and every way to cut costs, which could include blaming you for the accident (at least partially) and/or undervaluing your claim.
You need the assistance of a knowledgeable car accident attorney who can fight for your rights to appropriate compensation.
That’s where founding attorney Ali Awad and the CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm come in. The CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm offers free consultations for anyone with questions or concerns about a car accident or personal injury situation.
If you don’t know whether you need an attorney or even have a case, please contact us for a free case review. We’ll study the accident details, answer your questions, and lay out your options for pursuing damages.
What Damages Should You Expect After a Car Accident?
Never rely on an insurance adjuster to tell you what your damages are. An experienced car accident attorney will ask you questions about your injuries and how they’ve altered your life. We’ll then calculate a value for each of the following categories:
- Medical and injury-related expenses. This includes everything from the bills your health insurance wouldn’t pay to prescriptions, physical therapy, and making your home more accessible. You may also be entitled to travel expenses if you had to travel a significant distance to see a specialist. If you pay for in-home nursing or assistance with household tasks you can’t do because of your injuries, we’ll seek to recover compensation for those bills.
- Future medical costs. We don’t want you to have more bills in the future that aren’t covered by your settlement. For that reason, we usually wait until the client is completely done with treatment to settle their claim. However, in some severe cases where the injured person will require long-term care, we can estimate future expenditures and include these.
- Lost income. Any time you miss work counts as lost income, even if you had paid time off. If you had to use your PTO to recover from your car accident, then it is no longer available for your vacation or other uses. Additionally, more severe injuries may result in a permanent disability or chronic pain condition that prevents you from working or from doing the same kind of work as before. This results in a loss of future earning potential that should also be compensated.
- Pain and suffering. Your physical pain and mental or emotional anguish are both valid damages in a car accident case. While some people recover quickly, others might experience pain and discomfort for weeks, months, or indefinitely. Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, is also common after motor vehicle accidents and may cause distressing thoughts, flashbacks, and other symptoms. Anxiety, stress, or trouble sleeping may also follow a car collision.
- Permanent disability or disfigurement. Outside of the effects on your work and ability to earn income, any permanent injury that substantially affects your quality of life is a valid damage.
- Property damage. If you’ve never priced bodywork for your car, you may be in for an unpleasant surprise. In more severe accidents, the car might be “totaled” by the insurance company and require a replacement. Many people feel their car hasn’t been accurately valued when the insurance company totals it, and your attorney will carefully review the insurance company’s decision to ensure you receive a fair amount. If you need a rental car while yours is being repaired, the insurance company should also provide assistance with a comparable rental vehicle.
- Wrongful death. The passing of a loved one is always a crushing loss. While processing your grief, you shouldn’t have to worry about the financial repercussions. We’ll seek damages such as loss of financial support, loss of companionship or consortium, final medical bills, funeral or burial costs, and more.
Should You Calculate Your Own Car Accident Damages?
We don’t recommend it. Often, we find that our clients have underestimated their own damages, overlooking some costs or guessing the value of those that don’t come with a bill.
At the same time, the insurance company is likely to undervalue your claim. Many people accept these lowball offers from the insurer because they don’t know the true value of their case.
Claim valuation is a complex process that a knowledgeable expert should perform so you can be sure the final estimate is accurate.
Can the Insurance Company Reduce Your Settlement Because You Were Partly at Fault?
Yes. Aside from undervaluing the damages, insurance companies employ this tactic to save money.
Georgia uses modified comparative negligence statutes, a system for handling the many personal injury cases in which both parties have some fault. If it appears that both drivers made mistakes, one or both insurance carriers will assign a percentage of fault to each party.
When both parties have made claims on the other driver’s insurance, the two carriers will usually negotiate with each other to decide each motorist’s level of culpability. If only you made an insurance claim, the other driver’s insurance adjuster might make the decision alone.
Perhaps they decided the other driver was 80 percent to blame, but you contributed to the accident by 20 percent. In this situation, you would still be able to recover because Georgia uses the 50 percent bar to recovery rule.
In other words, if you are 50 percent or more at fault, you can’t recover damages from the other party, but if you are less than 50 percent responsible, you can. Your own percentage of fault is deducted from your final settlement so that you would lose 20 percent.
The main concern in these cases is whether the insurance adjuster or adjusters have accurately estimated your share of responsibility. Some people tell us they don’t believe they had any fault. Perhaps the other driver told the responding officer they failed to signal or made another error they didn’t actually make.
In other situations, the client may have indeed made an error, but the insurance adjuster has inflated how much their actions contributed to the collision. For instance, maybe you were only 10 percent at fault instead of 20 percent. If you had $10,000 in damages, that could cost you $1,000.
That said, your claim becomes more complex when you consider that the insurance adjuster might have underestimated your damages in the first place.
What if you really had $12,000 in damages, but the adjuster calculated $10,000, then subtracted 20 percent? They might offer you $8,000 when you should receive $10,800.
If you had a more severe accident with a larger claim value, such as $50,000 or $100,000, your losses would be even higher.
Fortunately, an experienced car accident attorney will accurately value your claim, estimate any culpability you have, and work to acquire a fair settlement for your damages. We’ll investigate your accident, gathering additional evidence like witness testimony, photo or video evidence, and electronic data if available.
When we have enough information, we’ll create a plan to demonstrate the other driver’s culpability and secure the most compensation possible in your case.
Are You Out of Luck if You Had a Single-Car Collision?
People sometimes assume they have to bear the costs of a single-car accident because there is no other driver who might be at fault. However, that is not always the case.
There are a number of situations beyond a driver’s control that can cause or contribute to an accident:
- Weather. You should always slow down and drive as carefully as possible when weather conditions worsen, but sometimes, even cautious drivers have accidents due to slick roads or poor visibility.
- Animals or wildlife. A deer on the road is a common cause of car accidents, but any large animal in the path of your car can lead to body damage and sometimes more severe losses. Experts say you should try to slow down or stop when you see the animal, but don’t swerve, as this can worsen the accident.
- Obstacles in the road. Aside from wildlife, all sorts of objects find their way onto roads. Large items like furniture or boxes sometimes fall out of a pickup truck bed, while the wind can push lightweight items like empty boxes onto the street. Debris isn’t the only possible problem—potholes or other issues with the road itself also contribute to collisions.
- Mechanical difficulties. Some accidents occur because of an unexpected engine failure, a problem with the brakes, a blown tire, etc. Keeping up with regular maintenance and promptly addressing any problems can help reduce the risk, but even so, a sudden mechanical failure is always a possibility.
If you believe your crash was related to a problem with the roadway or your vehicle, we recommend talking to a lawyer to determine if a liable party might exist. For instance, if you just had your brakes fixed and they failed for no reason, it’s possible the mechanic who fixed them made a mistake that led to your accident.
Alternatively, they might have unknowingly installed a defective component, which could be the component manufacturer’s responsibility.
Will Your Own Insurance Pay for a Single-Car Accident?
Single-car collisions may be covered with Collision, Comprehensive, and Medical Payments (MedPay) coverage. These policies are optional but will pay for car repairs/replacement and medical expenses in situations that were your fault (such as going too fast on icy roads) or beyond your control (such as an animal leaping into your path or hail damage).
Collision and MedPay are also helpful in two-car accident situations where you might not be at fault, but despite our best efforts, we simply can’t find the evidence to prove it.
If you don’t have these policies and we can’t find a liable party, you may not be able to recover your damages. However, we recommend checking with an attorney to be sure there are no options for recovery.
Whose Insurance Pays for a Pedestrian or Non-Motorist Accident?
If the driver is at fault or at least primarily at fault, we will seek to recover your damages from their liability insurance. As with multi-car accidents, the driver or their insurance company could dispute fault or overestimate your contributions, so we will work to establish the driver’s responsibility.
In some situations, the driver who hit you may be uninsured, their insurance might not cover all your damages, or they may leave the scene (a hit-and-run collision). When this happens, we may be able to make a claim on your uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage (UM/UI) even though your car was not involved.
Where Can You Turn for Help From a North Druid Hills Car Accident Law Firm?
Please contact the CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm for a free consultation about your car accident or other personal injury case. If there’s a way to recover your damages, we’ll find it.
There is no obligation, and if we represent you, there are no fees until we win or settle your case, so you don’t have to worry about upfront charges.
Attorney Ali Awad founded the CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm and rapidly expanded it into one of the fastest-growing law firms in the country. He and his legal team have over twenty years of combined experience in personal injury law and have recovered millions of dollars in compensation for injured people and their families.
When he’s not fighting for his clients in the boardroom or the courtroom, Mr. Awad posts informative videos about legal topics for over a million followers on social media. You can work with his team of experts when you call (470) 323-8779.
