A Newark car accident lawyer could help you hold the negligent party responsible for your losses if you got injured in a car accident in Newark, Ohio, or the surrounding areas. You should not have to bear the financial cost of medical bills and lost wages if someone else’s carelessness caused the crash.
You do not have to empty your savings to get our help. We handle car accident injury claims on a contingency-fee basis, which means that our fees come out of the settlement proceeds or award at the end. You do not have to pay upfront legal fees.
Our car accident team gets the job done. We have a reputation for treating our clients with warmth and compassion. You can call Bressman Law today at (614) 538-1116 for a free consultation. There is no obligation.
How We Determine Who Is Liable for a Newark Car Accident
We cannot sue everyone else involved in the car accident. Before we can hold someone responsible to pay money damages, we have to prove all four of these factors of liability:
Duty of Care
The defendant (the person we sue) must have owed you a duty of care. This legal obligation is straightforward in car accident cases because, per Ohio Revised Code 4511.12, everyone who operates a motor vehicle on public roads must obey all traffic control devices.
Breach of the Duty
When a person violates the legal duty of care, it is negligence. Perhaps a car ran a red light. This conduct is negligence because it breaches the duty to follow driving regulations, which include complying with traffic control signals.
Causation
The careless act must be the thing that caused the accident that hurt you. Perhaps when the defendant ran the red light, he crashed into the side of a car that was in the middle of the intersection legally. The passenger suffered significant injuries from the impact. The negligence caused the accident and injuries.
Measurable Damages
Usually, you must have quantifiable damages to pursue a claim for compensation in a personal injury case. Physical injuries satisfy this element. If you are lucky enough to experience a “near miss,” however, with no collision or injuries, you would not meet the requirements of this factor for liability.
You do not have to sort out all of these legal concepts on your own. A Newark car accident lawyer at Bressman Law can handle your case so that you do not have to do so. You can call us today at (614) 538-1116 to get started.
For a free legal consultation with a car accident attorney in Newark, call (614) 538-1116
The Amount of Money Damages You Can Get for a Newark Car Accident
We cannot state a number that represents the amount of compensation you are likely to collect for your losses because every case is different. We would have to talk with you and investigate your situation to determine the value of your claim.
You might have more severe injuries than another person in the car with you. One of you might experience complications that the other person does not have. Many different factors can influence the amount of compensation you can go after for your injuries. There is no “flat rate” amount for these cases.
The money damages that you can pursue will depend on the facts of your situation. Some common categories of compensation in car accident injury claims are:
- Medical bills
- Lost wages
- Pain and suffering
- Other intangible losses, like disfigurement and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
You might have additional losses to add to your injury claim.
Newark Car Accident Attorney (614) 538-1116
How a Lawyer May Be Able To Help You Avoid These Pitfalls
It can be treacherous trying to navigate through the claims process on your own. Multi-billion-dollar insurance companies have thousands of employees whose jobs are to pay injured people as little money as possible. The less that the insurer has to pay on claims, the higher the profits for the corporation.
Here are a few suggestions of things to avoid because they could decrease the amount of money damages you might collect:
- Do not settle before you complete your medical treatment: it can be tempting to grab the check the claims adjuster dangles in front of you, but you should not wrap up your claim until you know whether you will heal completely. Imagine what will happen if you settle your claim and later discover that you will need surgery to heal better. The insurer will not pay those medical bills.
- Resist lowball offers: most people do not realize that they have to pay all of the medical bills out of that one settlement check. By the time that you deduct what you owe to the doctors and hospital and reimburse yourself for lost wages, there might be nothing left. Some people end up with a stack of medical bills they cannot afford to pay because they accepted far less money than they deserved.
- Be aware of the deadline: Ohio Revised Code 2305.10 only gives you a short time to file a lawsuit seeking compensation for your losses. If you miss the deadline, you cannot go after the at-fault party or his insurer for compensation. Claims adjusters know this, and sometimes they drag out negotiations with people, hoping to trick them into waiting too long to take legal action.
- Stay off of social media: until you resolve your injury claim, you might want to stay off of social media entirely. An innocent photograph of you having fun with your family might give the insurance company an argument that you are exaggerating your allegations about being in pain. The picture would not reveal that you were putting on a brave face for the camera and that you were on pain medication.
- Remember the claims adjuster’s job is not to help you: some of these people try to charm you into trusting them and not hiring a lawyer. Remember who pays the adjuster’s salary. The adjuster will not keep his job long unless he settles injury claims for as little as possible. You might not want to trust someone whose job conflicts with your best interests.
A Newark car accident lawyer could help you go after the compensation that you deserve. You did not ask to get hurt in a collision. The person whose negligence caused the accident should pay for the harm they caused.
Click to contact our Newark Personal Injury Lawyers today
Getting Help From a Newark Car Accident Lawyer
At Bressman Law, it is our passion to help people who get hurt because of the carelessness of others. You can call us today at (614) 538-1116 for a free consultation. There is no obligation.
Call or text (614) 538-1116 or complete a Free Case Evaluation form
