Automotive

Your Rights and Responsibilities after a Car Accident

After that car crash, you’ll be in pain and overwhelmed, not knowing what to do next. However, by understanding your rights and working with a car accident attorney in Toledo, you can know how to handle the financial distress the accident plunged you into and focus on recovery instead.

Your Rights

As a Toledo resident, you may seek compensation for damages if another party’s negligence caused you harm. Typically, the compensation will result from settlement with the liable driver’s insurer. It’s uncommon for car accident claims to go to trial, and so you are likely to get compensation without stepping in court.

Your Responsibilities

To collect full compensation that you deserve, you should take particular steps after the accident. The steps are documenting the scene of the crash, getting the police abstract, seeking medical attention, and more.

Document the Accident Scene

You need to show that the other party contributed to the accident, and you can achieve this by documenting the scene. Using your phone, take photos of the two vehicles involved, the visible injuries on you and the road condition.

Don’t forget to request any witnesses for contact details and their explanation of what transpired. Witnesses can buttress your case and help to prove the other party’s liability.

Get a Police Abstract

Unlike what most people believe, you should obtain the police abstract. It can serve as an extra piece of evidence and detail useful information about your accident. This document may contain:

  • The date, location, and time of the crash
  • Witness accounts
  • Contact details of all parties involved including their names, addresses, insurance details and telephone numbers
  • Damaged area of the vehicle
  • Citations
  • Weather and conditions
  • A diagram of the incident

Seek Medical Care

After the situation, you may feel fine and not see a reason to visit the doctor. However, in a car accident, some injuries don’t manifest immediately, which is why you should seek medical treatment immediately.

If you don’t go for medical care or delay before doing so, you may hurt your claim. This applies even if you develop serious health conditions attributed to the accident later on. The liable driver’s insurance company may argue that you’re making up those symptoms or that the crash probably didn’t cause them. Such a response from an insurance company implies the difficulty in getting a full and fair compensation.

Find out if the Liable Driver is Insured

The law requires all Ohio drivers to have liability car insurance. In spite of this, most drivers operate cars without insurance. If the other driver isn’t insured, you should may need to cover for damages using uninsured motorist protection. If you lack this protection, you may file a lawsuit against the liable party.

Don’t Deal with the Liable Party’s Insurance Company Directly

Like every business, insurance firms are in it for money, and they will do anything to deny you the claim or reduce the settlement’s value. Because of their treachery, allow a skilled car accident lawyer to handle the negotiations and other communication with the insurer.

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