Leandra’s Law: One Year Later
What Injuries Could You Suffer in a Car Accident?
Even low-speed automobile accidents can cause serious injuries. If you are injured by a negligent driver in a car accident in or near Rockland County or Westchester County, schedule a consultation immediately to discuss your right to compensation with a White Plains car accident lawyer.
What injuries are you most likely to sustain if you are involved in an automobile accident? What are your legal rights if the other driver was at fault? Will you have the right to recover compensation for your medical bills, lost earnings, and other damages?
What Injuries Are You Most Likely to Sustain?
Across the United States, the most common injuries sustained in automobile accidents are bruises, cuts and abrasions, broken bones, disfigurement, whiplash, spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), and partial or complete paralysis.
Whiplash, for example, is common in rear-end collisions. Most whiplash victims improve after a few weeks by adhering to a treatment plan that includes exercise and medication. Some whiplash victims, however, will continue to suffer chronic neck pain and other long-lasting complications.
What Should You Know About Traumatic Brain Injuries?
Even in low-speed accidents, someone’s head may be violently tossed back and forth, literally causing the brain to crash into the skull. If this occurs, a traumatic brain injury can be the result. TBI symptoms may include disorientation, blackouts, seizures, and the loss of memory.
Most TBI victims also struggle with concentration and cognitive skills. TBI victims and their families sometimes spend millions of dollars on surgeries, rehabilitation, and therapy.
A severe traumatic brain injury also increases the victim’s risk for epilepsy, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s disease, but it’s virtually impossible to predict the long-term effects of a traumatic brain injury on any individual victim.
What is Important to Know About Spinal Cord Injuries?
Spinal cord injuries may incapacitate victims for weeks, months, or sometimes permanently. When a TBI or an injury to the spinal cord is not detected or identified immediately, and the symptoms only emerge days or weeks later, a person’s condition by that time may be critical.
Traffic accidents are the number one cause of spinal cord injuries in the United States. The victims of spinal cord injuries and traumatic brain injuries may require care for life – care that may cost several million dollars over a lifetime.
What Should You Do When an Accident Happens?
After any automobile collision, seek medical attention first and immediately for yourself and anyone else who has been injured. Summon the police too. Their written accident report may become important evidence if you take legal action and bring a personal injury claim.
Exchange personal contact and auto insurance information with the other driver or drivers, and take photos of the accident site, the damage to the vehicles, and your own visible injuries. If there are eyewitnesses at the scene, ask for their names and their personal contact details.
Witness statements and photographs can be persuasive evidence in support of your injury claim. After you’ve been seen and treated by a medical professional, make the call to a Westchester County car accident attorney, and schedule a free case evaluation.
After Any Car Accident, a Medical Examination is Imperative
Untreated and undetected injuries can rapidly – or slowly – become serious medical conditions, so anyone who is involved in a car accident must be examined, and treated if necessary, as quickly as possible.
Even if you feel perfectly healthy, obtaining an immediate medical exam not only protects your health, but if you’ve been injured, it also puts you in the best legal position to recover compensation for your lost wages, medical bills, and related damages.
If you are not taken to the hospital or examined at the scene of the accident, obtain a medical examination – within twenty-four hours if that’s possible. If you are in fact injured, that examination will provide important evidence in support of your personal injury claim.
What Will Your Lawyer Do?
Under New York’s no-fault auto insurance laws, lawsuits arising from car accidents may be pursued only for economic losses that exceed no-fault limits, and for non-economic damages (pain and suffering, for example) only when a “serious injury” has been sustained.
If you qualify to bring a lawsuit, and if you and your White Plains car accident lawyer choose to proceed with legal action, your lawyer will review the evidence, speak to the witnesses, and begin negotiating for your compensation with the at-fault driver’s insurance company.
Most car accident claims are settled out-of-court, so most car accident injury victims aren’t even required to make a court appearance. However, if you are not offered a reasonable settlement amount, or if liability for the accident is disputed, your lawyer will take your claim to trial.
At a personal injury trial, your lawyer will explain to the jurors how the collision happened, how you were injured, and the severity of your injuries. Your lawyer will tell the jurors why they should decide in your favor and order the at-fault driver to pay you just compensation.
You will need to be represented by a Westchester County car accident attorney who is both an experienced trial attorney and a skilled negotiator.
When is the Time to Call an Attorney?
Usually in New York, the statute of limitations – the time limit – for filing a personal injury claim arising from a car accident in this state is three years from the accident date, but you should not wait three years or even three weeks to speak with a car accident lawyer. Be aware that the time limit is far shorter when dealing with a governmental entity as a defendant.
Call an attorney as soon as you’ve been treated for your injury. Over time, evidence can deteriorate or disappear, and witnesses forget details or become difficult to locate. Putting your lawyer on the case at once is the best way to establish a strong and persuasive injury claim.
According to the American Bar Association, more than 180,000 lawyers currently practice in the State of New York. If you have been injured by a negligent driver, how can you locate the attorney who will make your case a priority and advocate aggressively on your behalf?
Greenspan & Greenspan Fights for the Injured Victims of Negligence
For decades, the award-winning legal team at Greenspan & Greenspan Injury Lawyers has been fighting – and winning – for the injured victims of car accidents in Rockland County, Westchester County, and throughout the greater New York and now greater Philadelphia areas.
We handle personal injury cases on a contingency fee basis, so you’ll pay no attorney’s fee to Greenspan & Greenspan Injury Lawyers until we recover your compensation. If you have been injured in a car accident, we will provide an in-depth initial case evaluation without cost or obligation.
If for any reason our legal team cannot recover your compensation, you will owe no attorney’s fee. Learn more, or begin the legal process now by calling Greenspan & Greenspan Injury Lawyers at 914.946.2500.