The Reality of Daily Car Wrecks: Why You Need Legal Help After an Accident

Car accidents are an unfortunate yet common event in our lives. Over the course of the week, you probably see the aftermath of a car wreck, whether it occurred while you ran an errand or on the commute to or from work. We accept motor vehicle collisions as one of the inevitabilities of life, which can lead us to ask one question.

How common are car accidents, or in other words, how many car wrecks happen a day?

Compiling auto crash statistics in the United States takes a couple of years after the year in question. This means we have obtained car wreck statistics from 2019 and 2020. Keep in mind that the data gleaned from 2020 might be skewed because the pandemic significantly altered driving patterns across the country. Law enforcement agencies reported 5,250,873 car accidents in 2020, which turns out to be 14,386 car wrecks per day. One out of every 63 Americans got involved in an auto crash in 2020. Nonetheless, 2020 experienced a dramatic 22 percent decrease in the number of reported car accidents.  In 2019, almost 230 million Americans held a valid driver’s license. More than 1.2 million motor vehicles sustained some type of damage in 2019 as the result of a car wreck.

If you sustained one or more injuries and/or damage to your motor vehicle and other types of property as the result of a motor vehicle collision, you should act with a sense of urgency by contacting an experienced personal injury lawyer. For more than 35 years, the personal injury lawyers at Morgan and Morgan have represented clients in car accident cases. We have recovered more than $20 billion in compensation for our clients, with a substantial percentage of the recovered money coming from vehicle collision cases. The car collision lawyer assigned to your case By Morgan and Morgan helps you file a persuasive insurance claim, and if the other party committed at least one act of negligence, a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages as well.

Take action by scheduling a free case evaluation with a personal injury attorney from Morgan and Morgan.

What Are the Most Common Causes of Car Wrecks?

The key to proving that another party committed one or more acts of negligence while operating a motor vehicle is to first determine the cause of an auto crash. After more than three decades of representing clients in car accident cases, our personal injury attorneys have identified the three most common causes of car wrecks that resulted from an act of negligence.

Reckless Driving: From impatience to inexperience behind the wheel of a motor vehicle, reckless driving remains the most common cause of car wrecks. If another party violated a traffic law that caused a motor vehicle collision, the personal injury lawyer assigned to your case by Morgan and Morgan needs to gather convincing physical evidence, such as the footage captured by a traffic and/or security camera. Other types of physical evidence that helps prove negligence in a car accident caused by reckless driving are photographs of tire tracks and the damage done to both vehicles.

Speeding and running traffic lights represent the two most common types of reckless driving that cause auto crashes.

Driving Under the Influence of Drugs or Alcohol: Driving under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol reduces the reaction times of drivers. For example, a motorist operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated takes longer to react to a sudden change in the flow of traffic. Drugs and alcohol also impair judgment, which prompts intoxicated motorists to take chances they would not otherwise take. The physical evidence your attorney must obtain to prove this act of negligence includes the result of a sobriety test supported by video captured from a traffic and/or security camera.

Distractions: Operating a motor vehicle requires the driver to focus 100 percent on what transpires in front, in back, and around the car. Unfortunately, far too many motorists pay attention to other matters, such as applying makeup, eating a meal, and watching the scenery that passes by the vehicle. Digital technology has made cell phones the number one distraction for drivers and because of this, most states have passed some type of anti-texting and driving law. Proving another driver caused a car accident as the result of a distraction requires the support of witnesses in addition to the footage captured by a traffic and/or security camera.

Why Do I Need to Hire a Car Collision Lawyer to File an Insurance Claim?

Filing an insurance claim seems to be a straightforward process. You complete and submit the claim form, and then wait for the insurance company to determine whether to deny or approve the claim. However, much more goes into filing an insurance claim than simply submitting the claim form.

Hiring a personal injury attorney from Morgan and Morgan helps you improve the strength of your auto insurance claim.

Gather Physical Evidence: The first thing to do after an auto crash is to call 911 to activate the emergency response system. A team of law enforcement personnel should respond to the accident to fulfill two important responsibilities: To secure the crash scene and conduct a detailed investigation. Although a law enforcement agency conducts an investigation that leads to the submission of an official police report, the attorney you hire from Morgan and Morgan conducts a separate investigation to acquire more convincing physical evidence and interview more witnesses.

Morgan and Morgan assigns a properly credentialed investigator to work with your personal injury lawyer to gather the most compelling physical evidence possible.

Calculate a Reasonable Value for Compensation: The number one reason why insurance adjusters deny claims concerns the submission of an unfair value for compensation. Your personal injury lawyer from Morgan and Morgan calculates a reasonable value for compensation by first adding up all the tangible expenses, such as medical bills and the receipts associated with repairing property damage. Then, your attorney calculates a fair value for non-economic damages, which surround the costs associated with pain and suffering issues. Getting involved in a car wreck can trigger mental and emotional issues, including Post-Traumatic-Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Your lawyer calculates a fair value for non-economic damages by using a formula that includes the value of tangible expenses.

Negotiate a Settlement: If an insurance adjuster denies your claim, you have two options that can help you receive just compensation. First, you can file an appeal to overturn the original decision. The appeals process can take considerable time, which means option two is your best option. Option two involves negotiating a settlement with the insurance company. 

Your attorney submits an initial offer, which the insurance company can either accept or reject. If the insurance company rejects the initial offer submitted by your car collision lawyer, you might receive a counteroffer or a formal notice that ends the negotiations. Several rounds of counteroffers can follow the initial offer until both parties reach a settlement or decide to take your claim to the appeals process.

Act as an Intermediary: Hiring a personal injury attorney from Morgan and Morgan ensures the insurance company you have to deal with does not deny a valid claim or approve a claim for a value that is not worth the compensation that you deserve. Many insurance companies take advantage of policyholders that do not retain legal representation when filing a claim. By acting as your intermediary, your attorney gives you more time to focus on other matters, such as healing your injuries. Your car accident lawyer closely monitors the progress of your claim to keep it moving through the review process in a timely manner.

What Is the Deadline for Filing a Personal Injury Lawsuit?

How many car wrecks happen in a day? With more than 14,000 auto crashes happening per day, both the legal and insurance claim systems can become clogged with cases. If you want to file a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages, you should file your lawsuit as quickly as possible after a motor vehicle collision.

Each state has established a deadline for filing a personal injury lawsuit, with most states choosing to give plaintiffs between two and four years to take legal action. However, you might live in a state that grants plaintiffs as long as six years or as short as one year to file a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages. The clock starts to tick for a personal injury lawsuit on the date when you got involved in an auto crash, but you might receive an extension if one or more of your injuries developed delayed symptoms.

You have two other important reasons to act with a sense of urgency when filing a personal injury lawsuit. First, you need to be compensated to take care of rapidly mounting medical bills. Unless you agree to have healthcare providers place medical liens on an insurance claim and/or the monetary damages awarded in a civil lawsuit, you should file your claim quickly after a car accident. Second, your personal injury attorney needs to interview witnesses as close to the day of the car wreck as possible. Witness accounts tend to lose credibility the longer they are given after a personal injury incident.

If you fail to file a personal injury lawsuit before the expiration of the statute of limitations, you can expect the court clerk processing your case to dismiss it.

Why Is Morgan and Morgan the Right Law Firm for You?

You should consider several criteria before hiring a personal injury attorney, all of which Morgan and Morgan meets. Experience matters, but only if the experience translates into a proven record of getting clients the compensation they deserve. Morgan and Morgan has recovered more than $20 billion in compensation for our clients since opening our first office in 1988. You also want to work with a responsive communicator. You can expect the attorney assigned to your case by Morgan and Morgan to respond promptly to emails, phone calls, and text messages. One of the most important criteria to consider regards how involved your attorney gets in your case. Far too many personal injury lawyers delegate responsibilities to paralegals and less experienced attorneys. At Morgan and Morgan, the car collision lawyer assigned to your case works with you from the day of the first meeting to the day when your case gets resolved.

Schedule a free case evaluation today with a personal injury attorney from Morg