Car crashes are probably the most common type of personal injury case. There are millions of vehicles on the roads of New Jersey. Which means that, sooner or later, most people here will be involved in some type of car accident. Unfortunately, many of those people will suffer an injury. Some will suffer a severe injury.
Nonetheless, there are several things that you can do to protect your potential car crash claim in the event that someone else’s careless driving injures you.
First, you should make sure that you have adequate car insurance coverage. If you don’t, then you might not be able to obtain full compensation for your injuries. I discussed some of the insurance you need in an earlier post. These include uninsured motorist coverage, adequate medical coverage (known as “Personal Injury Protection,” or PIP), and NO limitation on lawsuit threshold. Tragically, many people only discover that they lack adequate car insurance after they have an accident. At that point, it is too late to do anything about it.
Second, you need to know what to do at the scene of the car accident. What you do, or don’t do, immediately after the car crash, can make or break your injury claim. For example, you need to know what to say to the police officers who report to the scene. And also what not to say to them. Read my infographic, which tells you exactly what you need to know.
Finally, you need to consult a lawyer with a lot of experience in cases involving car crashes as soon as possible after an accident. I have even had people call me from the scene of an accident. I was able to tell them what they needed to do there and then, in order to preserve their claim.
Even if you can’t reach a lawyer while you are at the accident scene, it still pays to call a car accident lawyer as soon as possible. After everyone leaves the accident scene, there are usually still things that you can do to preserve your rights.
While car crashes are never pleasant, following the above steps will help maximize your chances for receiving fair compensation for your pain and suffering, lost income, vehicle damage and other out-of-pocket expenses.
