Auto Accidents Law Firm
If you are involved in a motor vehicle accident, the physical, emotional and financial consequences can be staggering. While you are trying to heal and coping with painful and debilitating injuries, you and your family must also deal with the stress and anxiety caused by limitations on your ability to work and participate in normal family activities. If you are the family breadwinner, staggering medical bills and the loss of family income can add to your stress and impede your recovery.
Our experienced team of attorneys at Jacoby and Meyers Law Offices understand the challenges that motor vehicle accident victim’s face. We are committed to relieving the stress and burden of dealing with insurance hassles and legal headaches so that you can focus on what is important – recovering so that you can reclaim your life and care for your family.
Motor Vehicle Collisions Exact High Toll in Catastrophic Injuries and Wrongful Death
Despite the fundamental role that motor vehicles pay in every aspect of our lives including commuting to work, taking our kids to school and shopping for our daily needs. Their value is matched by the devastation that they can cause when a careless or reckless driver causes a collision. There are many types of motor vehicles that can be involved in deadly motor vehicle accidents including cars, pickups, SUVs, tractor-trailers, motorcycles, buses, pickup trucks, and passenger vans just to name a few. Basic physics means that when these large masses of steel collide they exert enormous force on the human body, which it is simply not equipped to withstand.
There are approximately 10 million motor vehicle accidents per year. Over thirty thousand people die, and 2.3 million people are treated annually in emergency rooms for injuries incurred in motor vehicle accidents according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC). CDC data also indicates that the financial costs of motor vehicle accidents in terms of property loss, lost hours in the workforce, medical costs and other financial costs is a staggering $70 billion.
At Jacoby & Meyers, our law firm has been helping motor vehicle accident victims rebuild their lives since 1974. Our commitment to find affordable and cutting edge litigation strategies to obtain the best possible outcome for our clients has helped us develop a reputation as one of the most recognizable law firms in the country. Our compassionate and tenacious team of attorneys is committed to employing exhaustive investigation techniques, innovative litigation strategy and zealous advocacy on behalf of our clients.
Though our law firm is among the most well known law firms in the country with offices in California, Miami and New York, we treat each of our clients with the respect and individual attention that we believe clients deserve. We understand that each of our clients is much more than simply a “personal injury client” or “motor vehicle accident case file”. Our clients are fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, grandparents or close family members to those who love them.
Causes of Motor Vehicle Collision Personal Injury Lawsuits
Those who suffer injury or lose a loved one in a motor vehicle accident caused by the negligent or reckless conduct of another may have a right to file a personal injury lawsuit. Negligence in its most simple terms is the failure to show the same care in one’s behavior that a reasonable person would exercise. If the unsafe behavior is the cause of your injuries or the tragic death of a loved one this may form a basis for a personal injury claim or wrongful death lawsuit. Typically, an accident is caused by the careless or unsafe driving behavior of another driver. Some of the most common examples include:
- Speeding
- Text messaging while driving
- Drunk driving
- Running stop signs and disregarding stoplights
- Aggressive driving behavior
- Following too close (tailgating a vehicle)
- Cutting in and out of traffic
- Talking on a cell phone while driving
- Driving while under the influence of drugs
- Reckless driving (street racing)
- Driving too fast for road conditions
Although motor vehicle accidents are most commonly caused by unsafe drivers, there are other parties that may also be at-fault for causing a motor vehicle accident. If your vehicle malfunctions because of a defect in the design or manufacture of the vehicle or a component part, the company that designs or manufactures the vehicle or failed component part my be liable for your injuries or loss in a products liability lawsuit. Sometimes you do not have to show negligence when bringing a product liability lawsuit for an auto defect. Depending on the specific circumstances of your case, the manufacturer, designer or retailer may be strictly liable (meaning the presence of a defect must be proven but not negligence that caused the defect). However, the large corporations that manufacture and sale automobiles, trucks, SUVs and other motor vehicles have massive litigation resources and a stable of engineers, expert witnesses and attorneys to fight product liability lawsuits. When faced with this type of litigation war chest, our law firm has the experience and resources, to balance the scales of justice.
Rather than the vehicle being defective, the roadway itself may be unsafe in its designed or maintenance. Roadways may pose a dangerous hazard by having sharp unmarked turns, potholes, steep road drop-offs, poorly marked construction zones, roads that trap water in roadway grooves or surfaces that become unreasonably slick because of defective road surfacing. Personal injury lawsuits against public entities that build unsafe roads are subject to special procedures and typically shorter timing requirements for pursuing a motor vehicle accident injury claim. It is essential that you seek legal representation immediately if you believe that a governmental entity’s poor road design, construction or maintenance may have contributed to your motor vehicle accident.
Providing Effective Representation to Catastrophic Injury Victims in Car Crashes and Other Collisions
Because we have been representing motor vehicle accident victims on a national basis for nearly four decades, we have successfully handled virtually every type of motor vehicle accident on behalf of our clients. A few of the types of motor vehicle accident that we handle include the following:
- Single car accidents
- Motorcycle collisions
- SUV rollover accidents
- Bus accidents
- Tractor-trailer overload or shifting load collisions
- Multi-car pileups (chain reaction crashes)
- Head-on Collisions
- Jackknife big-rig collisions
- T-bone intersection accidents
- Sideswipe crashes
- Backover accidents
- Golf cart accidents
- ATV rollover collisions
- 15 passenger van collisions
- Rear-enders
- Run off the road collisions
- Trucking accidents
- 15 passenger van rollovers
- Tire blowout accident
If you are involved in any of these types of motor vehicle accidents, the actions you take immediately following the collision can have a significant impact on your motor vehicle accident claim. It is imperative that you seek immediate medical attention and treatment including accepting ambulance transport to a hospital if paramedics recommend that you do so. Tragically, many motor vehicle accident victims fail to obtain immediate medical care, which may result in a poor prognosis and may mean that significant injuries are not immediately diagnosed. If you get immediate medical care, the medical provider may take X-rays, CT scans or MRIs that will provide objective evidence regarding the nature of your injuries. Insurance companies often try to argue that a plaintiff’s injuries were not caused by the accident but were the product of a pre-existing injury or incurred during activity after the accident. An immediate medical exam where you report all symptoms no matter how minor and agree to all diagnostic scans can help preempt this insurance defense strategy.
Preserving Your Motor Vehicle Accident Claim
There are other key steps that should be taken at the site of a motor vehicle accident to avoid compromising your claim including:
- Summoning the police to the scene of the accident so that they can conduct an investigation
- Taking pictures of any injuries, vehicle damage, position of the vehicles and surrounding area
- Obtaining the names and contact information of any witnesses
- Exchanging insurance information and contact information with the other driver
- Providing the officer with details about the motor vehicle accident including facts that support liability of the other party
- Requesting the name of the officer taking the accident report along with the report number
- Do not admit fault or make statements like “I am sorry” that can be construed as admissions of fault
Motor vehicle accident victims that follow these simple guidelines provide the strongest foundation for a successful motor vehicle accident claim. This is important because many motor vehicle collisions result in serious or even catastrophic injuries including:
- Closed head injuries
- Traumatic brain injuries
- Spinal cord damage resulting in paraplegia or quadriplegia
- Compound fractures and broken bones
- Serious internal organ damage
- Head, back and neck injuries
- Amputation of limbs
- Fatalities
If you are involved in a serious motor vehicle accident, the experienced and dedicated personal injury attorneys at Jacoby and Meyers can help you seek the financial compensation that you need to cope with skyrocketing medical bills and disability from employment. Our tenacious litigators may be able to help you obtain a broad range of damages:
- Past and present lost wages
- Medical expenses, including but not limited to hospital bills, diagnostic exams, prescriptions, surgical costs, rehabilitation expenses and ambulance costs
- Pain and suffering including compensation for the impact on your quality of life
- Disability and disfigurement
- Property damages (i.e. vehicle damage)
- Funeral/burial expenses (wrongful death lawsuit)
- Loss of consortium (impairment of spousal companionship and services)
Our experienced motor vehicle accident lawyers have built our motor vehicle accident law firm on a reputation for thorough investigation, skilled negotiation, zealous advocacy and almost forty years of experience and expertise. Our motor vehicle accident law firm understands the physical, emotional and financial challenges that confront those who suffer serious injury or the loss of a loved one in a motor vehicle accident. Our empathetic and aggressive legal team can investigate your claim, analyze fault, estimate potential damages and outline potential litigation strategies. At Jacoby & Meyers, our litigation philosophy is to prepare the strongest possible personal injury case for trial so that we can negotiate with insurance carriers from a position of strength. Because insurance carriers know that we are prepared and ready to seek a substantial verdict at trial, they are more inclined to offer our clients a fair settlement. We invite you to contact us today to find out how Jacoby & Meyers can help you with all of your legal needs. We have offices nationwide, including Southern California, New York, Alabama, Florida, and Arizona so call us at 1-800-411-4LAW to see how we can help.
