If you get into a car accident, you sustain an injury, and you are not responsible for causing the accident, what happens afterwards is clear. You should get an experienced accident lawyer and go to court to get what you are owed in the costs for medical treatment, loss of job or income, or any other form of financial compensation. But you only get that financial compensation if you win your case in court, or the other party, knowing you have a strong case, agrees to a settlement outside of court to resolve the situation.
There are plenty of things you can do to ensure that you and your accident lawyer have a strong case that convinces a jury in court, or even convinces the other party not to go to court at all, and settle instead. But there are also things you can do that can seriously hurt your chances of success even if you’re in the right. Here are three things you should not to do if you don’t want to hurt your case.
Leave The Scene Without Reporting
This is probably the single biggest thing you can do to hurt your case. Car accidents in Florida must be reported to the police if the damage appears to be over $500, and/or injury or death is involved. Even if the accident is not your fault, and you feel that a passenger has been injured and you would like to take that passenger to the hospital, it is better to let an ambulance come to you, than leave the scene without explanation to go to the hospital.
You should only leave the scene of an accident once police that have arrived on the scene say it is safe to do so. Anything else, especially if injuries are involved, may actually incur criminal charges.
Fail To Get Properly Examined
If you are injured, or someone in the vehicle with you is injured, it is critical that you get examined and treated for two reasons. The most important is that a qualified doctor can give you the medical help you need, and is in a better position to diagnose possible long term side-effects that may not manifest right away.
The other reason is that you will need medical records in order to reinforce your case. If you go to court for a personal injury case, and then cannot actually produce medical evidence of a diagnosis and treatment, it’s very easy to claim you are faking your injury.
Accept Payments Prior To A Case
In some instances, shortly after an accident, you may be approached by people representing the other party who will make early offers of compensation. Should you sign the papers required in order to get this compensation, you are effectively cancelling out any future ability to go to court.
It’s a common tactic for some insurance companies to offer a check or require some kind of statement that they would like signed before a case can go to court. Accepting and signing any of these documents usually means a clause has been built in saying you now agree to drop all future legal action.
What you
should do, as your earliest convenience, is make sure you get a good accident lawyer that can advise you on all future moves. Once you’ve done that, the rest will fall into place.
