A car accident can change your life in seconds. In the days and weeks that follow, you may be dealing with insurance companies, vehicle damage, time away from work, and uncertainty about what comes next.
During this period, it is easy to make decisions that seem reasonable at the time but may affect your ability to pursue a claim later. Insurance companies may begin investigating immediately, and important evidence can disappear quickly.
If you or a family member has been injured in a car accident, here are five common mistakes to avoid.
1. Accepting a Settlement Too Quickly
After an accident, an insurance company may offer to resolve your claim relatively quickly. When medical bills are accumulating and an injury is keeping you from working, accepting an early settlement can be tempting.
The problem is that the full impact of a serious injury may not be known right away.
Some injuries require ongoing medical care, rehabilitation, surgery, or other treatment. An injury may also affect your ability to work or participate in activities that were part of your everyday life. Those consequences may become clearer only with time.
Once a claim is settled, you generally cannot return later and seek additional compensation because your injuries turned out to be more serious than expected.
Before accepting a settlement, it is important to understand not only what you have already lost, but what the accident and your injuries may cost you in the future. An attorney experienced in serious injury cases can evaluate those issues before you make a decision that may be permanent.
2. Waiting Too Long to Investigate the Accident
The scene of an accident does not stay the same for long.
Vehicles are repaired or destroyed. Debris is removed. Surveillance and traffic-camera footage may be overwritten. Witnesses become harder to locate, and memories can fade.
In serious accident cases, there may also be evidence that an injured person would not necessarily know exists.
For example, a commercial vehicle accident may involve electronic vehicle data, driver logs, maintenance and inspection records, company policies, employment records, cell phone information, or other evidence. Depending on the circumstances, some of that information may need to be identified and preserved quickly.
An attorney can begin investigating the accident, identify potential sources of evidence, and take appropriate steps to preserve information that may help establish what happened.
Waiting too long can make that investigation significantly more difficult.
3. Assuming the Other Driver Is the Only Potentially Responsible Party
After a crash, the most obvious question is often whether the other driver was at fault. In a serious injury case, however, that may be only part of the investigation. Depending on the circumstances, other individuals or companies could potentially bear responsibility.
If the driver who caused the crash was working at the time, for example, an employer may be involved. A commercial truck accident could raise questions about the trucking company, vehicle owner, maintenance providers, or other businesses.
The vehicle itself can also be important. A defective tire, brake, seat belt, airbag, or other component could contribute to an accident or make someone’s injuries more severe.
Determining responsibility in a serious accident sometimes requires looking well beyond what happened in the few seconds immediately before the collision.
An experienced attorney can investigate the circumstances surrounding the crash and determine whether there are additional parties, insurance policies, or legal claims that should be considered.
4. Giving a Recorded Statement Without Understanding the Consequences
Soon after an accident, you may hear from an insurance adjuster who wants to discuss what happened and how you are doing. You may also be asked to provide a recorded statement.
It is important to understand the purpose of those conversations.
Insurance companies investigate claims to determine responsibility and evaluate how much they may ultimately have to pay. What you say during those early conversations can become part of that investigation.
This can be particularly problematic when you are asked about your injuries before you know their full extent. You may genuinely believe you are feeling better, only to discover days or weeks later that an injury is more significant than you initially realized.
Similarly, seemingly simple questions about how the accident occurred can become important if responsibility is later disputed.
Before providing a recorded statement or signing documents you do not fully understand, consider speaking with an attorney about what is being requested and what your obligations are.
5. Trying to Handle a Serious Injury Claim Alone
Not every car accident requires a lawyer. A minor collision involving property damage and no significant injuries may be resolved through the insurance process without litigation. Serious injury cases can be very different.
When an accident results in catastrophic injuries or death, involves a commercial vehicle, raises questions about a defective product, or involves disputed responsibility, the factual and legal issues can become complicated quickly.
Meanwhile, insurance companies, corporations, and their attorneys may begin investigating the accident immediately.
An attorney can conduct an independent investigation, preserve evidence, identify potentially responsible parties, communicate with insurance companies, obtain and review relevant records, work with appropriate experts, and evaluate the full extent of the harm caused by the accident.
Perhaps most importantly, an attorney can help determine what a case actually involves before decisions are made that cannot easily be undone.
When a Car Accident Is More Than an Insurance Claim
A serious accident is not always simply a dispute between two drivers and their insurance companies. Understanding what happened may require examining the conduct of multiple parties, corporate practices, vehicle defects, medical evidence, electronic data, and other information that is not immediately apparent at the accident scene.
Cannella Snyder represents individuals and families in serious personal injury and wrongful death cases, including cases involving motor vehicle and trucking accidents and defective products. Our attorneys investigate complex cases to determine what happened, why it happened, and who may be legally responsible.
If you or a family member has been seriously injured in an accident, contact Cannella Snyder to discuss your legal options.
This article is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
