Los Angeles is a driving town if there ever was one, with drivers in the city spending as much as 119 hours a year on the highway, locked in traffic. With all these cars and all this time, the chance of an accident occurring at some point is high.
If you’re lucky, when this accident does occur, it will be relatively minor. Even then, a minor accident can bring a lot of questions to mind. What should you do if you get into some kind of fender bender?
Is it worth getting a LA car accident attorney involved, or can you handle it on your own? It can be difficult to make this kind of distinction. Read on and we’ll walk you through what you need to know about handling a fender bender accident.
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1. Serious Injuries Have Occurred
Even if a fender bender has done only moderate damage to your vehicle, that doesn’t mean someone in your car couldn’t have sustained some serious damage.
The whiplash that can be caused by even a minor accident like this can still lead to damage that can be inconvenient, painful, and more than anything – expensive.
As we all know, medical care in the United States can be awfully expensive. Even a minor injury could lead to bills stacking up when it comes to the care needed. It would be unfair to expect you to handle these costs on your own if the accident was due to another LA driver’s negligence.
If you’ve sustained any kind of injury during a fender bender, you have a right under the law to seek damages for this injury. Hiring a lawyer is a great way to ensure that you get the damages that you have this legal right to.
They will help to ensure you have all the evidence you need to support your claims, including reports from your doctor. They’ll also be able to help you evaluate how much you can claim for less quantitative damages like pain and suffering.
2. There’s a Dispute Between Drivers
Another sign that you might need to bring on an attorney to help with your case? If there’s any dispute about how to handle the fallout of the accident.
This dispute could take many forms. One of the most common would be a disagreement about who is actually at fault for the accident. While most fender benders are pretty clear in terms of fault, there may be situations where you and the other driver both refuse to take responsibility for the incident.
In this instance, you might need legal aid on your side to help prove your case and ensure you get the compensation that you deserve.
Even if the other driver agrees to claims of negligence on their part, other disagreements can arise. The other driver might not want to pay the full total of compensation that you have a right to, or they may want to handle things in a way that you would not prefer.
Often, drivers try to handle things off the books so as not to alert their insurance company. If this other driver refuses to comply with your requests, it might take the added heft of an attorney to help push them to do what is right.
A car accident attorney can help build a case and take the necessary actions to push the other driver to act.
You can view here for more about how a legal professional can aid in this process.
3. The Case Is More Complicated
While we most often associate fender benders with fairly straightforward accidents, this doesn’t mean it is always the case. There are many reasons why a simple fender bender case could get complicated to untangle when it comes to right and wrong.
For example, what if multiple vehicles were involved in the accident? It’s possible the negligent behavior of one driver led to a fender bender between two other drivers.
In this situation, deciding who is to blame and who owes who damages can be a lot more complicated. It will likely take the help of a LA car accident attorney to help untangle the web of fault.
What if there is another entity involved? For example, what if your fender bender involved a driver who is working for a larger company, like Uber or Lyft. All of a sudden, you’ll be working with a huge corporate entity when it comes to getting the compensation that you deserve.
That’s not likely something you’ll want to undergo without having a lawyer at your side. You can be sure a big company will have a team of lawyers themselves.
What if an accident happened because there was a product defect with the other driver’s car? In this instance, it might not be the driver but the car company itself who would be liable for the damages done.
As you can see, there’s a lot to be potentially untangled it what initially might seem like a very simple case. If you get a sense that your case might have these complications present, you’ll certainly want to contact an attorney.
Handling a Fender Bender in Los Angeles
Accidents happen all the time on LA highways, and it’s important to know what to do in the wake of them. Even if you’ve been in a simple fender bender, there’s a lot to be aware of and many actions to take.
The above points can help you to determine if you need to hire legal help to handle your fender bender case.
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