Hawk Law Group | March 12, 2024 | Car Accidents
A car accident can have devastating effects—it can cause emotional, physical, and financial distress. In such difficult times, a car accident lawyer becomes your ally by advocating on your behalf. Car accident lawyers use their legal expertise to protect your rights, secure compensation for your losses, and give you peace of mind throughout the process.
Investigation of the Car Accident
A lawyer’s first task is to intimately learn the facts of the accident in which you were involved. A lawyer will investigate all aspects of the accident by gathering police reports, medical records, photographs, and witness reports. A lawyer will use the investigation to build a strong case in order to obtain a favorable outcome for you.
Negotiation with Insurance Companies
Many lawyers are skilled negotiators. They use those skills to advocate on your behalf when negotiating with the at-fault driver’s insurance company. A car accident lawyer’s job is to obtain compensation to cover your financial losses resulting from the accident. These losses include property damage, medical expenses, and lost wages. The goal of recovering such financial expenses is to help place you in the position you would have been in had the accident never occurred.
Filing a Personal Injury Claim
A lawyer may file a personal injury claim on behalf of the client. A personal injury claim is a claim brought against an alleged negligent person or entity to recover damages for the client.
Damages are money awarded as compensation for a loss. These losses can be economic or noneconomic. To prove economic damages, a lawyer gathers evidence like invoices and receipts showing the cost of expenses like doctor visits and hospital stays. Some accidents cause more than physical damage; they can profoundly affect a person’s life. In those cases, noneconomic damages may also be available.
Noneconomic damages cover losses that are personal to you and include your pain and suffering. For example, a car accident can cause post-traumatic stress disorder. A car accident victim may also experience a loss of enjoyment of life after the accident. Perhaps the victim was an avid swimmer before the accident and no longer enjoys that hobby because of the accident.
A skilled lawyer will present evidence to prove pain and suffering and recover those pain and suffering damages for the client. To show how the victim’s life has changed since the accident, the lawyer can present the testimony of the victim and his or her friends and family and introduce into evidence psychological evaluations of the victim.
A lawyer has specialized knowledge of the requirements to file a personal injury claim, including the deadline to bring the claim. To recover damages, a lawyer must prove negligence, which consists of four elements: duty, breach, causation, and damages. Generally, a claim for negligence following a car accident in Georgia must be filed within two years of the accident.
Litigating the Personal Injury Claim in Court
If you pictured what lawyers do in their everyday lives, chances are you might be imagining people wearing suits, holding briefcases, and walking into a courtroom. That is part of the job, but there’s a lot of work that happens behind the scenes before a lawyer ever steps into a courtroom.
Once the initial investigation is complete, the claim has been filed, and the legal research has been done, a lawyer will navigate the complex legal system to pursue a personal injury claim. The party that brings the personal injury claim is the plaintiff, and the alleged at-fault party is called the defendant. At this stage, the lawyer will typically represent you against an insurance company. Pursuing a personal injury claim requires expertise about the ins and outs of the law and all the procedural rules involved.
A personal injury case may require a lawyer to hire experts. For example, a lawyer may represent a client involved in a car crash where the biggest issue is causation. In other words, the biggest question the case presents is whether the defendant driver’s negligence caused injuries to the plaintiff.
In this scenario, a lawyer may hire an accident reconstruction expert to recreate the accident and show causation. This involves an analysis of the accident scene, such as the amount of damage to the vehicle and the tire marks on the road.
A Car Accident Lawyer Can Help With Your Claim
Many lawyers go to law school to help others, and car accident lawyers are no different. If you need a skilled lawyer to help you after a car accident, schedule a free consultation with a car accident lawyer. You can discuss your situation and ask any questions you might have as you protect your right to seek recovery from your losses.
Contact the Car Accident Lawyers In the Central Savannah River Area at Hawk Law Group for Legal Assistance Today
For more information, please contact the car accident lawyers at Hawk Law Group at our nearest location to schedule a free consultation today.
We serve throughout the Central Savannah River Area and its surrounding areas:
Hawk Law Group – Augusta, GA
338 Telfair St, Augusta, GA 30901, United States
(706) 722 3500
Hawk Law Group – Evans, GA
4384 River Watch Pkwy, Evans, GA 30809, United States
(706) 863 6500
Hawk Law Group – Thomson, GA
146 Railroad St A, Thomson, GA 30824, United States
(706) 361 0350
Hawk Law Group – Waynesboro, GA
827 Liberty St, Waynesboro, GA 30830, United States
(706) 437 9122
Hawk Law Group – Aiken County, SC
156 Laurens St NW, Aiken, SC 29801, United States
(803) 226 9089
We also serve in Edgefield County, SC.
