Car Accident Lawyers – Carabin Shaw Personal Injury Attorneys

Duty:
The initial requirement for a successful car accident case is to prove the defendant owed you a duty of care in exercising a certain standard of caution to make sure you would not sustain an injury. The law sets this level of duty of care that one person owes another, and it depends on the circumstances of the situation and the relationship between the involved parties. Proving the defendant owed you a minimal duty of care will most likely be straightforward because almost all drivers owe each other the duty to operate their car as a reasonable person would to keep others safe. This “reasonable person standard” will probably be applied to the defendant in your case.

Breach:
After you show the defendant owed you a duty of care, you’ll need to reveal how he breached that duty of care. Usually, this requires demonstrating the defendant drove in a way a reasonable person would not have driven. Your defendant can be held responsible for any consequences that resulted from his negligent actions if even for just a moment, he drove unreasonably. But proving the defendant breached his duty of care often requires you bring to court evidence to precisely demonstrate what the defendant did or failed to do. The jury in your case will consider your evidence and the evidence of the rest of the circumstances around the defendant’s actions to decide if the defendant’s behavior was indeed unreasonable. Actions such as driving while intoxicated, driving at nights without headlights on, speeding recklessly, or running through red lights, can all constitute a breach of the defendant’s duty of care.

Causation:
You’ll have shown the defendant in your case was negligent, once you’ve proven the elements of duty and breach. However, showing negligence is not enough to hold the defendant responsible for your injuries unless you also show the defendant’s negligence caused the wreck. Often there are several parties who could potentially be at fault in a car accident–pedestrians, other drivers, and even you could be framed as potential suspects by the defendant. Your defendant will probably do everything he can to avoid liability—he’ll try to convince the jurors that a third party caused the wreck, your injuries existed before the accident, or you caused the accident yourself. So it’s crucial you have sufficient evidence to prove it was the defendant’s conduct that caused you harm.

Damages:
Finally, after having proved the defendant’s liability, you’ll need to show how much in damages you are entitled to collect from the defendant. The term “damages” does not refer to your injuries—it refers to the monetary value of your injuries or the amount of money you will recover if you prevail in the case. You’ll need to determine exactly what you’re owed and give evidence of your injuries and losses to support those calculations, in order to prove what you’re entitled to collect. Losses such as loss of earning capacity, lost salary, medical bills, repair bills, and pain and suffering can all be recovered as damages.

As you’re calculating how much you think you’re owed in damages, your defendant will also be performing the same task. In a car wreck case, the amount of damages is usually a contested issue. If the jury finds the defendant was liable for the wreck, defendants calculate how much they think they owe accident victims. Defendants often allege they owe you much less than your calculations, and that you are unfairly asking for more than the real value of your injuries. So to show the jury the calculated amount is fair, and the defendant is simply making a last-ditch effort to avoid his negligence, you must have available evidence of your losses to substantiate your figures.

It’s important to figure the full amount of damages because you only have one attempt to demand all you are entitled to. Yet, unless you’re experienced, accounting for all these losses can be difficult—for instance, how do you calculate an amount for an intangible loss such as pain and suffering? When figuring lost earning capacity, how do you allow for possible raises and promotions you would have earned if still working? If your medical treatment is continuing, how do you summarize your medical bills? The car accident attorneys at our Law Offices understand how to make all these calculations and determinations so you can recover the full amount possible.

Insured and Uninsured Defendants
All drivers in Texas are required by law to carry insurance on their vehicles. However, many drivers choose to drive uninsured, thereby driving in violation of the law. Whether an insurance company is involved in your case can determine the legal process and ultimate outcome of your case against them.

Suppose both drivers involved in your wreck were insured and ultimately, an insurance company will be responsible for compensating you for your injuries. This actually can be beneficial to an accident victim because in most cases it means if you succeed in bringing your claim, there will be some amount of money available to compensate you for your losses. However drivers often carry minimal coverage on their cars, and if the accident was severe, the insurance policy may not completely reimburse you for your losses. And just because there is money theoretically available in an insurance policy to compensate you for the losses, doesn’t guarantee it will be simple to get your hands on the money. Any time an insurance company is involved in a case, you’ll be up against intimidating adjusters, accident recreation specialists, defense attorneys, and investigators whose goal is to see you don’t win your case.

On the other hand, the other driver involved in your accident may be uninsured and you don’t have uninsured motorist coverage either. If there is not an insurance company involved in your car accident litigation, you won’t have to deal with their aggressive lawyers, adjusters, and other professionals who are determined to see your claim is denied. However, you’ll need to worry about the other driver’s solvency, since he will probably be responsible for paying for your injuries. If the defendant is insolvent, it simply means he doesn’t have enough money to compensate you for your injuries. There’s usually no logic in pursuing litigation with an insolvent defendant, even when you can prove he is liable for your losses. It’s a sad fact of life that accident victims are frequently unable to recover compensation from insolvent defendants that can’t pay up.

Then sometimes a driver involved in an accident will try to hide his assets, just to give the illusion of being insolvent. If you have a suspicion this may be true in your case, the auto accident attorneys at our Law Offices can do an asset check on the defendant to discover how much he is actually worth. We’ll find money if it’s available, and then work to help you obtain your fair share of it.

This Blog was posted By The Carabin & Shaw Law Firm. principle Office in San Antonio, Texas