If you or a loved one sustained injuries in a car accident in California, seek legal assistance immediately. Obtaining fair compensation from the party responsible for your collision can alleviate your burdens and give you peace of mind.
A knowledgeable car accident attorney can provide the highest quality legal representation to get you a well-deserved case result. Time is limited to file a compensation claim. Contact Reiner, Slaughter & Frankel LLP today.
Why Choose Us?
Suffering injuries in an accident can put you in an unfavorable situation. Not only are you left to deal with your recovery, but you’ll likely also face the financial struggles brought on by medical treatment and other losses. Fortunately, you do not have to go through these challenges alone. A California car accident lawyer can take on your case to pursue the best possible outcome.
The legal team at Reiner, Slaughter & Frankel LLP has more than 150 years of combined experience representing injured clients. Our time as personal injury lawyers has given us the skill to handle all legal, medical, and insurance matters related to car accidents.
Our lawyers know how to deal with insurance companies and how they operate. We can ensure the insurance company does not exploit you and get their way.
Allow a car accident lawyer to be your strongest ally during your legal battle. Contact our firm today for your free consultation, and let’s begin working on your case.
Car Accidents in California Often Result in Catastrophic Injuries
At Reiner, Slaughter & Frankel LLP, we’ve obtained financial recovery for our injured clients for over four decades. During this time, we’ve truly seen it all. We know how much harm car accidents can inflict.
Vehicular collisions can result in a multitude of different injuries.
Some of the most common include:
- Broken bones
- Burns
- Cuts and lacerations
- Head and neck injuries
- Traumatic brain injuries (TBI)
- Back and spinal cord injuries
- Internal injuries
The significant trouble with car accident injuries often isn’t just the injuries themselves and the potential long-term consequences. Depending on the injuries you sustain and the severity, you can face additional issues, including paralysis, cognitive problems, and permanent nerve damage, just to name a few.
Unfortunately, the greater your injuries, the more care you’ll need. More medical treatment means higher costs and additional financial strain. In situations like these, pursuing recovery becomes a bigger priority, especially when you require medical care for your accident-related injuries in the future.
Getting you the best possible outcome is our greatest goal. We’ll do everything necessary to accurately calculate the value of your case, obtain evidence to prove your losses, and negotiate for a beneficial case result.
Important Parts of a Car Accident Claim and How a Lawyer Can Help
There are many moving parts to a car accident case. Our experience and skills allow us to efficiently handle every case-related task, specifically the critical ones on which the success of your case rests.
Common Car Accident Causes
At the beginning of your case, your car accident lawyer will investigate to get as much information about your collision as possible. During this investigation, your attorney hopes to get more clarity on specific details, including the exact cause of your crash.
Car accidents can happen for many different reasons.
Often, they happen due to a driver’s negligent or intentional actions, including:
- Driving while distracted
- Driving under the influence
- Speeding
- Fatigued driving
- Failure to yield
- Unsafe turns and lane changes
- Following too closely
- Street racing
- Reckless driving
- Failure to follow California traffic laws
Other factors can also contribute to the cause of your collision, including dangerous road conditions, inclement weather, and defective or malfunctioning auto parts.
Collisions can also happen in many different ways. We have represented clients who have suffered injuries and losses in:
- Rear-end collisions
- Head-on accidents
- Multi-car crashes
- Sideswipe collisions
- Rollover accidents
- T-bone collisions
Your car accident lawyer can get to the bottom of what caused your accident, as this detail plays a crucial role in your case. Knowing the cause of your collision provides further clarity on liability.
Liability
The party that caused your accident is financially liable. The success of your case partly rests upon establishing fault.
Liability for car accidents often rests on a theory of either negligence or strict liability. Most often, negligent actions are to blame for your collision and resulting injuries.
Proving liability requires establishing four critical elements:
- Duty: You must show the other party owed you a duty of care. For example, drivers owe others on the road a duty of care to drive safely and responsibly.
- Breach: Proving a breach requires showing how the other party’s actions violated their duty of care. If a driver collided with your vehicle while texting, they breached their duty of care.
- Causation: Proving causation means showing the link between the driver’s wrongful actions and your accident. The driver’s actions must have caused your collision.
- Damages: You must show the injuries and related losses you suffered from your crash.
Establishing liability is one of the most challenging but necessary parts of a car accident claim.
Damages
Determining how much your case is worth helps ensure you get the settlement you deserve. If you try to handle your case alone, you risk failing to correctly calculate the value of your damages and settling for much less than is fair.
Our car accident lawyers know how to interpret monetary and non-monetary losses and determine your case’s value.
We can pursue damages on your behalf to cover your injuries and financial burdens, including:
- Medical expenses for the present and future
- Property damage
- Lost income
- Decreased earning potential
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Permanent scarring and disfigurement
- Disability
- Loss of enjoyment of life
Our car accident attorneys can carefully review details to more precisely calculate your damages.
Some of the factors that heavily affect the value of your case include:
- The extent of your injuries
- How your injuries will affect your life in the future, and whether you’ll need continued treatment
- The total cost of your medical care
- Whether your injuries required you to take time off of work, and if so, the total of your lost earnings
- How your injuries have affected your mental and emotional state
Calculating damages can be difficult, especially if you’re unfamiliar with the value of certain losses. This is one of the areas where personal injury attorneys are most skilled.
You will not usually know the full magnitude of your damages immediately. You’ll need to start your medical treatment, see how you progress, and wait as your losses accumulate. This is where insurance companies often target unrepresented victims and try to settle cases quickly without victims knowing the actual value of their claims.
Having a car accident lawyer on your side can help avoid missing your opportunity for fair compensation. We won’t back down until we reach the best possible outcome.
Evidence
Evidence can substantially help strengthen your claim. Simply making statements regarding liability and damages is insufficient, so you need evidence to support your claims.
Your car accident lawyer can request and obtain the necessary evidence.
Some of the evidence most often used in collision cases include:
- Surveillance footage
- Photos and video
- Police reports
- Witness statements
- Medical reports and bills
- Traffic cam footage
Not only can your attorney request pertinent documentation and evidence, but they know how to use it to your case’s advantage.
Pursuing Compensation after an Auto Collision
Based on the specifics of your case, you may have more than one avenue to secure compensation.
California drivers must carry auto insurance. Therefore, you may begin by filing an insurance claim. California is a fault state, meaning the person at fault for an accident must pay. Therefore, you can file a third-party collision claim under the responsible driver’s auto insurance.
Our lawyers can identify the claims you need to file for maximum compensation.
Dealing with insurance companies is one of the hardest parts of auto accident cases. If the insurance company approves your claim and agrees to settle for what your case is worth, your case will conclude, and you do not need to take further action. However, in many cases, it’s not so easy.
If the insurance company fails to approve your claim for the fair value, your car accident attorney can take action by sending a demand letter. In a demand letter, your lawyer asks the insurance company for compensation covering the extent of your damages.
They include:
- Information regarding your accident
- Details that indicate the other party’s fault
- Specifics concerning your injuries and financial losses
Your car accident attorney ends the letter with a dollar amount representing your damages and asks the insurance company to take action. Additionally, your lawyer puts the insurance company on notice that should they fail to settle, they’ll take further legal action.
Taking additional legal action means filing a personal injury lawsuit. Filing a lawsuit in court allows you to continue your pursuit of financial recovery.
While a lawsuit can require more time, it can give you the best opportunity of getting the compensation you deserve. The longest part of a lawsuit is usually the discovery phase, which allows both parties to the case to request and obtain information and evidence for their cases.
Some of the tools lawyers regularly utilize in discovery include:
- Depositions
- Requests for production
- Interrogatories
Once both sides sufficiently collect what they need, they can revisit settlement negotiations. Most personal injury cases settle before they go to trial, helping save time, money, and further aggravation.
However, if the insurance company is still unwilling to settle fairly, your car accident attorney may decide that going to trial is the best option. Even if your case goes to court, you can rely on your lawyer to provide quality representation until the very end.
Time Is Limited to Take Action
If you need to take legal action for your claim, you have a short time to do so under state law.
California’s statute of limitations for personal injury cases is two years from the accident date. If you fail to file your case on time, you may miss the opportunity to obtain the compensation you need and deserve.
While you might still have the chance to file your case after the two years are up, it’s unlikely to succeed. The insurance company’s attorneys won’t miss their shot to point out the expiration of time to a judge to have your case dismissed. Once the court dismisses your case, you won’t have another opportunity to pursue monetary recovery for your accident.
When you hire a car accident attorney, you put your case in the most capable hands. Your lawyer can handle your case promptly and efficiently to get you the most favorable result.
Don’t Wait – Contact a California Car Accident Lawyer
Russell Reiner, Car Accident Lawyer
If you’ve recently been in an auto accident, do not hesitate to seek legal guidance from a seasoned car accident attorney as soon as possible. The lawyers at Reiner, Slaughter & Frankel LLP are ready to assist you.
Every accident case is unique; therefore, we approach every case as such. We treat every client with the care and kindness they deserve while we aggressively fight to protect their rights and get beneficial results. We keep you informed of the status of your case and are available to address concerns and answer questions.
Contact our firm today at (530) 241-0290 for your free consultation and get started on your case. Case evaluations are always free with no obligation, so never wait to begin learning about your legal rights.
