How Is Compensation Determined for Accident-Related Injuries?

If you bring a claim for personal injury after an auto accident, one of the key things you'll need to do is to prove that your injuries were a direct result of the accident. A personal injury attorney in Augusta, GA can help you find all the evidence you need and put it together to show what truly happened. How Do I Prove My Injuries Result Directly From an Accident? Get Medical Help Quickly The biggest danger to your claim will be a delay between the accident and you getting medical help. There are various reasons that victims choose not to get medical treatment right away. Adrenaline races through the body in an accident, and adrenaline is very good at masking pain. Sometimes, victims are afraid of the medical bills and hope to be able to "tough out" whatever injuries they have. But even if you think you feel pretty good, it's essential to get evaluated as quickly as possible. The longer the delay is between the accident and the time you first get treatment, the easier you make it for the other side to claim that your injuries are unrelated to the accident or not as bad as you claim. Get Your Medical Records When you do get medical help, it's vital to explain to the doctor that you've been in an accident. If the doctors know this, they're going to do a particular kind of examination to look for the typical injuries that result from these accidents, and they'll order specific tests to make sure there aren't hidden injuries, such as internal bleeding. All the records that result from this will be important for showing the link between your injuries and the accident. These records and your doctor's notes may also verify that the personal injury you're suffering is typical of a car accident, and that will be very helpful, too. Evidence From the Scene If you took photos at the scene, hopefully you thought to take pictures of your injuries. The more pictures you have, the better, as these can be matched with your medical records to show that your injuries were directly a result of the accident. Witness testimony is also very important here. Hopefully, you got the contact information of all witnesses from the accident scene, and bear in mind that, even if someone didn't see the accident itself, if they came up on the accident afterward and saw your injuries, that can also be helpful testimony. Get the Police Report The police report should include details of what the officer saw when they arrived on the scene, and this will often have helpful information that can be used to verify that your injuries were caused by the accident. Work Closely With Your Augusta, GA Personal Injury Attorney Finally, it's important to work closely with your lawyer right from the beginning. Your lawyer will do an investigation of the accident if necessary to help verify all the details, and your lawyer will know how to use the evidence to show clearly what happened. For help with your personal injury claim after an accident, reach out to us at Davis, Chapman, & Wilder in Augusta, GA to request a consult.

Distracted driving is against the law in Georgia, which has had a hands-free law in place since 2018. This law makes it illegal to use a cell phone in any way in your hand or supported by your body while you're behind the wheel of a car: even if stopped at a light. If someone was distracted by their phone and caused an accident, talk to a personal injury lawyer in Augusta, GA about your rights and how to prosecute them under Georgia law. To get compensation from someone, you have to show that they are liable for what happened to you. Liability is determined by showing negligence. Negligence happens when someone has a duty of care towards you and fails in that duty. Drivers in Georgia are forbidden to drive distracted, and while this particularly applies to cell phone use, it can also apply to other things, like putting on makeup or eating while driving. Any driver who breaks a road rule, including driving distracted, has breached the duty of care that they owe to all other road users and has acted negligently. However there is nuance to this. For one thing, George has a comparative fault rule that acknowledges that more than one person can be negligent in a given situation and fault should be shared. You can only collect from the other driver if you were less than 50% at fault for the accident. So, for example, if you turn out into a road and fail to yield as required, you are still going to be held responsible, even if the driver coming down the road who hit you was distracted by their phone. Proving Negligence With a Personal Injury Lawyer The best thing to do in this situation is to talk to a lawyer as soon as possible. Your lawyer can help you build a case to show the negligence of the other driver and to make sure that you are not given any more fault than you actually deserve. The amount of fault that you are assigned will make a huge difference to your case, since your compensation will be reduced by the same percentage as your fault: and if you are 50% or more at fault, you can collect nothing at all. Insurance companies are very aware of the effect of fault and will do everything they can to blame you for as much as they can. Even a few percentage points of fault that can be transferred to you could mean hundreds or even thousands of dollars that they don't have to pay. A lawyer knows about these tactics and how to negotiate hard against them. Your lawyer will go to bat for you and find and use the evidence needed to prove the negligence of the distracted driver. For help with your distracted driving injury case, contact Davis, Chapman, & Wilder in Augusta, GA today for a consultation.

If you've been injured by someone else's negligence in an accident, you have the right to recover losses and damages, including your lost wages if you've been prevented from going to work as normal. An Augusta, GA personal injury lawyer can help you figure what wages you've lost accurately and make sure you get everything you are owed from the liable party. To get compensation, you will need to properly calculate your lost wages and be able to show that your time away from work was caused directly by the injuries you sustained in the accident. Calculating Your Wages It takes experience and evidence to properly calculate what it last wages you were owed. If you're only away from work for a day or two, the calculation can often be done simply by figuring how many hours you missed, but if it goes on much longer than that, you can have difficulties figuring out the precise amount. You'll need to be able to show how many hours you typically worked in a week and that those hours were available to you during the time you were injured. Your lost wages include more than just the wages themselves, however. Your loss wages also include loss commission commissions, bonuses, and even lost opportunity for overtime and promotions. To claim for these, you will need to be able to provide concrete proof of what kind of things were available to you and how the accident affected your ability to access them. For example, if you're claiming that you missed five hours of overtime each week that you were injured, you will need to be able to show that you typically took at least five hours of overtime on most weeks and that your employer would have offered you overtime had you been at work. Proving the Link The next important thing that has to be done is to prove definitively that the reason you were not at work and missed out on your wages and benefits was because of your injuries, and that these injuries were directly caused by the accident you suffered. You'll also need to prove that the accident would not have happened but for the negligence of the other party in order to hold the other party responsible for your losses.Proving all this requires showing that the other party had a duty of care towards you, which they violated, and this violation caused the accident. In other words, but for the other party's action or inaction, the accident would never have happened. Then you need clear medical proof that the injuries you suffered were sustained in that accident, plus you must prove that these injuries did indeed keep you from going to work. Get Help From an Augusta, GA Personal Injury Lawyer You can expect the insurance company to fight you at many points in an attempt to minimize their claims. Contact Davis, Chapman, & Wilder, LLC here in Augusta, GA today for experienced, determined representation to fight for your rights.