Being hit by a negligent driver could change the course of your life in an instant, leaving you with serious injuries that warrant compensation from the liable party.
Motor vehicle accidents generally happen because of a driver’s negligent or reckless conduct. For example, they might speed, drive drunk, make reckless turns, or run through stoplights, breaching their duties of care and harming victims. This typically entitles victims to compensation for their economic and non-economic damages, depending on their injuries. After a collision, our attorneys can take the appropriate steps to preserve evidence and prepare a strong complaint, making sure to file it within the statute of limitations. Once your lawsuit is filed, we can prove your deserved damages and recover them from a settlement or jury award in Irvington.
Call Agrapidis & Maroules, P.C. for help with your case from our car accident lawyers at (201) 777-1111.
Determining Car Accident Causes in Irvington
Car accidents occur for many reasons, though most boil down to driver error. Those who operate motor vehicles must abide by a duty of care, and breaching it could cause devastating collisions that entitle victims to compensatory damages.
For example, following posted speed limits is crucial. Driving too fast poses many dangers, such as being unable to slow down when approaching a stopped car, losing control of the vehicle when making turns or merging, or making other risky maneuvers.
Driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol can reduce an operator’s reaction time or cause them to engage in reckless driving. Drunk drivers might speed excessively, fail to use their headlights at night, or blow through stoplights and T-bone victims in intersections.
Other common collision causes include distracted driving, drowsy driving, and general reckless driving. Even if you clearly remember the accident’s sequence of events, our lawyers may involve a reconstruction expert in your case. Such professionals can assess evidence from the scene, police reports, witness statements, and photographs to make crucial determinations. These include the negligent driver’s speed, direction of travel, and if they initiated the crash. When reconstruction experts present their findings in court, their testimony may sway juries and convince them of a defendant’s fault.
What Goes into Preparing Car Accident Complaints in Irvington
In addition to confirming the accident’s cause, our lawyers may prepare other aspects of your case before ultimately filing it within two years of the crash date, as required under N.J.S.A. § 2A:14-2.
One of the first steps we will take is preserving evidence. As we compile photos taken at the scene by victims, police officers, and eyewitnesses, we will also look for possible camera footage from nearby security systems. Footage can be powerful evidence but could be deleted with time, so we will not delay this step.
We can also help you obtain and review the police report for the accident, provided you called 911. New Jersey requires mandatory police reporting for collisions that cause death, bodily injury, or more than $500 in property damage. Police reports serve as crucial accident documentation, so always call the police, even if the other driver involved does not want to.
Our car accident lawyers will promptly contact eyewitnesses to schedule interviews, during which we will obtain their statements regarding the crash and assess their relevance to your case. Whether lawsuits go to trial or settle out of court, eyewitness statements can be the evidence necessary to get victims the compensation they deserve.
Your type of personal injury protection insurance will dictate if you can file a lawsuit with or without meeting New Jersey’s serious injury threshold under § 39:6A-8, and our attorneys will confirm how and if this impacts your case early on.
All of this must be done within two years to avoid missing the statute of limitations for your lawsuit. Ideally, our attorneys would file much sooner to hasten your recovery and allow you to move on from the matter faster. Victims who delay their claims might face questions about the cause of their injuries and if they need compensation, which we can help avoid by filing quickly.
Organizing Proof of Damages for Your Irvington Car Accident Case
Proving your losses from a collision requires concrete evidence, such as hospital bills, documentation of missed wages, and invoices from specialized treatment. We can immediately start tracking and itemizing your damages in anticipation of your lawsuit in Irvington.
Medical damages come directly from the treatment you have received since the crash. We can make copies of all bills from hospitals and providers so we can offer a timeline for your physical recovery and medical care. Stopping this care for any reason before you are fully healed could lead to obvious gaps in your medical records that raise questions about your need for compensation, so avoid this at all costs.
To prove you cannot return to work immediately because of your injuries, we may have your treating physicians testify in court. Using income statements and paychecks, we can prove your previous income before the accident so that the jury appreciates your lost wages. Physician testimony can also aid victims’ recoveries of future lost wages, particularly if they have suffered permanent injuries during car accidents.
You could incur many other economic damages from a collision, such as property damage costs, transportation accommodation expenses, and even home modification costs. We can help you consider all the ways the accident has affected your life so we can identify all expenses that you incurred because of the defendant’s negligence.
Proving non-economic damages requires different tactics, as these losses are subjective. Having victims give statements describing the pain and suffering they have dealt with can be compelling, as can testimony from mental health professionals with experience treating victims under similar circumstances.
For Help with Your Car Accident Lawsuit, Call Our Irvington Lawyers
Call the car accident lawyers of Agrapidis & Maroules, P.C. for a free case analysis at (201) 777-1111.