After a car accident, there are a lot of things that you need to attend to in a very timely manner. Most importantly, you need to be certain that you get to a safe place after the crash, such as on a median strip, breakdown lane, sidewalk, or somewhere else out of the line of oncoming traffic and additional crashes or injuries. The only exception to this is when you suspect that one of your passengers has suffered from serious fractures or a spine or neck injury. Contact 911 as soon as possible, and they will be able to help you through the situation until the EMTs, fire department, and police can get on the scene and begin to address all of the major issues.
Once you have addressed the immediate issues following the accident, you must be certain that you get medical attention for your injuries. In addition to ensuring that you are not suffering from any unseen injuries such as internal bleeding or hemorrhaging, your medical visits will begin to establish a record of your injuries that will be extremely useful if you are required to seek personal injury damages in a lawsuit. Because of your injuries and your expenses, it is also extremely important that you contact a car accident attorney as soon as possible to understand your options and how to navigate this complicated period of your life.
1800-Injured works with victims of car accidents and other personal injuries to connect them with aggressive, experienced personal injury attornies in Florida who can help them with their situation. When you are working under the direction of an experienced personal injury lawyer, you can be confident that each step of your process will be for a reason, and that these reasons will all come back to support you in the process of getting the money you deserve.
Filing an Accident Claim in Florida
According to Florida Statute 95.11(3)(a), a victim in a car accident has four years to file a claim. However, this is NOT recommended, for a variety of reasons. First, the longer you wait, the longer you will go before you are able to get any compensation for your injuries, meaning that you are forced to endure the financial burden of your accident and injuries until you have reached a settlement or a final ruling in a lawsuit.
In addition to the actual amount of time that you will need to wait before receiving any payment for your injuries, it is also important to note that the insurance company will use the length of time between the accident and your claim as an understandable reason to question whether or not your injuries were truly the result of the accident you were involved in with their client. In addition to this line of questioning, it is also very likely that the details of the accident will fade from memory rather quickly, meaning that you will have a difficult time recalling key points about the situation that led to the accident, what happened after the crash and more.
While it is likely that you will be relying heavily on documentation and paperwork to provide a clear picture of the accident to a judge and jury, having clarity about the memory of the accident and impacts will be extremely important as well.
Working With an Attorney After a Car Accident
Because of the points mentioned above, as well as a variety of other issues that have not been mentioned here, it is extremely important for victims of car accidents to work with personal injury attorneys, if for nothing other than legal advice from an experienced professional about how best to proceed.
In most, in not all, cases, an insurance company will work to limit the payments made to a victim in order to protect their financial interests while additionally protecting themselves and their client from the possibility of any future legal actions. This means that the offer an insurance company makes to a victim of an accident with their client is nowhere near the amount that they are truly owed and in order to get what they deserve the victim will need to undergo a series of negotiations, or ultimately seek these damages in the Broward County Courts.
No matter how simple or complicated you believe that your claims process will be, or how long it has been since the accident and resultant injuries, contact 1800-Injured today in order to be connected with a personal injury attorney in our trusted referral network. We focus on connecting victims of personal injuries with the right attorneys for their situation so that they can focus on recovery without the stress of choosing a lawyer.