Why Do You Need an Auto Injury Lawyer?

Someone rear-ended you at a stop light. You were sideswiped going through an intersection. Someone turned left in front of you when you had the right of way. These situations may seem simple and straightforward when it comes to determining who was at fault, but often there are complexities within the court system that make them a little more difficult to award compensation. If you want to be sure that you receive the compensation that is due to you or your loved ones, hiring an auto injury lawyer may be in your best interest. 

In 2009, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that there were over 30,000 fatalities in over five and a half million traffic accidents in the United States alone. Two million of those survivors suffered injuries as a direct result of the accident with direct repercussions on the rest of their lives. The people in these accidents may have been at fault or may have been at the mercy of another person’s ignorance, error, or drunk driving. Many of these people turned to an auto injury lawyer in order to ensure they and their family would receive the compensation that they deserved.

In order to understand why you should hire an auto injury lawyer, it is important to understand the basics of what happens during a court case involving a motor vehicle accident. There are laws that can vary from each state to state and it is important to have someone within your state that understands the rules and the system. When attempting to determine fault, the court system can find a driver guilty of pure comparative fault, modified comparative fault, or no fault states.

Pure comparative is a type of fault that finds the driver responsible for a portion of their part in the accident. For example, if a driver is found to be fifty percent responsible for causing the accident, they can be liable for fifty percent of the costs. Modified comparative state faults are used if a driver is found to be responsible for more than half of the fault in the accident. If a court determines that no fault has occurred, each driver will be responsible for paying for their own damages. Each state in the country has a different type of fault coverage that determines how court cases after vehicle accidents are handled. 

If you feel that the vehicle accident you were involved in was the fault of the other driver, your auto injury lawyer must prove that a duty was owed, the duty was breached, that breach of duty lead to injuries, and that the injuries that occurred are deserving of compensation. You can see that at any point in that process, the defense may be able to break down the prosecution’s arguments.