The United States is a nation of automobiles, and cars and pickup trucks are a beloved means of personal transport for nearly anyone. Most American adults own a valid driver’s license and may own a car, or at least lease one from a dealer. And ever since the 1950s, a vast network of highways has crossed the United States in addition to country roads and city roads as well. Unfortunately, the roads are not always safe, and traffic accidents are a common occurrence. When someone is in a car accident, they may be badly injured or even killed. And when someone survived a car accident with injuries, they may want to hire legal help, such as a car accident lawyer, to help them. A personal injury attorney may be hired from a law firm that specializes in such matters, and some law firms specifically work with car accident victims. A car accident lawyer may do a lot of good. How and why might such a car accident lawyer be hired?
Why Car Accidents Happen
Many drivers on American roads are safe and responsible, but many others are not, and they most often cause accidents. Drinking and driving is a common example, and alcohol will quickly impair a person’s capacity to drive safely. When a driver’s blood alcohol content, or their BAC, is 0.08% or higher, then they are driving drunk as the law sees it. This is illegal to do even if the driver does not get into a crash, and police officers may soon spot a drunk driver based on that driver’s sloppy and erratic movements. These drivers have impaired judgment and coordination, and may speed through red lights or stop signs and hit other cars or even pedestrians. The driver may be charged not only with drunk driving but also with any injuries or property damage that they cause. And some drivers incorrectly think that driving while “buzzed” is a safe alternative, but it is not. Only a completely sober person should be driving.
Other drivers may be unsafe because they are distracted with handheld electronic devices or even features on the car’s dashboard, and this may also result in a crash or property damage. Such drivers are not watching the road, and they will be too late to react to developments such as other cars, red lights, or pedestrians. For this reason, using handheld electronics is often illegal while driving. It may be noted that bad weather such as heavy rain or snow, especially at night, may impair vision and make the roads slick. Accidents may be more likely even if no one involved was drunk or distracted.
Using Personal Injury Law
An auto accident victim may want to reach out to a car accident lawyer as soon as they are able, and there are good reasons to seek this legal assistance. For one thing, the victim is probably in an emotionally charged and subjective state, and they may not have the clarity of thought needed for litigation against the at-fault party. A lawyer, however, will have the level-headed and objective view needed to use the law to build an effective case for litigation. What is more, the victim’s injuries may prevent them from doing paying work in the future, and figuring out that complex financial impact and working it into the case is best left to a car accident lawyer.
An interested client may have trouble using the full extent of injury law for their own case, so instead, they may look for local car accident law firms or similar personal injury law firms to find representation. The client may get consultations with the lawyers there (this may or may not incur a fee) and find one whose expertise, experience, success rate, and personality are to their liking. During litigation, a car accident lawyer can handle complications such as the at-fault party’s insurance company refusing to cooperate. Or in other cases, there may be multiple parties involved, and assigning blame and distributing settlement money may be difficult and complex without a lawyer’s guidance. This lawyer will know which relevant laws and arguments to use if an insurance company tries to stonewall them or any other complication.
