Our attorneys help injured drivers and passengers get the compensation they need after serious car accident injuries. Whether you faced whiplash, a broken bone, a brain injury, or paralysis, our lawyers can fight for full compensation.
We are not afraid to take insurance companies, trucking companies, and other businesses to court over your injury case. We fight to hold drivers responsible and get maximum compensation from their insurance policies.
For a review of your possible case, call the car accident lawyers at The Reiff Law Firm today at (215) 709-6940.
What Evidence Do I Need for My Nazareth Car Accident Claim?
Depending on where your accident took place, different evidence might be available.
In-town areas in Nazareth may have stores, other businesses, and homes with security cameras that could have caught the accident on video, providing great evidence of what happened. Crashes on backroads and in rural areas likely have no such video unless you or the other driver had a dashcam.
Otherwise, most of the evidence you can collect at the scene and in the aftermath of the accident will be the same:
- Photos of the crash scene
- Driver info (contact info, insurance info, vehicle info)
- Witness contact info
- Roadway, weather, and lighting info
- Police reports
- Medical records
- Repair bills/appraisals
- Medical bills and other records of costs
- Pay stubs and other records of financial loss
- Your own testimony.
Our lawyers can collect some of this evidence – such as police reports and medical records – for you. We can also seek out experts when their testimony and reports might be relevant, such as when a vehicle defect contributes to the crash.
Can I Sue for a Car Accident in Nazareth?
Your ability to sue is sometimes limited if you have a “limited tort” policy. In Pennsylvania, we get to choose which insurance we want:
- A cheaper “limited tort” policy that requires drivers to use their own insurance for coverage unless they have “serious injuries” or other qualifying accidents.
- A more expensive “full tort” policy that lets drivers sue or file an insurance claim against the at-fault driver no matter what.
Accidents typically qualify for a lawsuit if you faced “serious injuries” involving “permanent disfigurement” or “substantial risk of death,” among others. You can also sue drunk drivers, out-of-state drivers, and drivers causing intentional crashes, among others.
If you have a full tort policy, you do not need to worry about any of this; our car accident lawyers can take the defendant straight to court.
Can I Sue Other Outside Parties?
In some car accident cases, other people beyond the driver will be liable to some extent.
This is most common in commercial accident cases, where the driver’s employer can be held liable in their place. This might allow you to sue companies hiring delivery drivers, taxi drivers, truckers, bus drivers, and even people driving between job sites in a company vehicle.
You can also sue the owner of a dangerous vehicle if that is not the driver. For example, if someone borrowed or rented a car with serious issues, that could be the owner’s fault.
Lastly, auto part manufacturers are sometimes liable for auto defects. For example, a defective airbag, self-driving system, or ignition switch could be the company’s fault.
Proving Fault in a Car Accident Case
Otherwise, your case will be filed against the driver who caused your crash. To prove their fault, you need to show that they breached a legal duty to cause your crash, and you must do so “by a preponderance of the evidence.”
Elements
Most car accident cases are based on negligence, meaning you need to show the defendant breached a legal duty. This breach often comes from “negligence per se” by showing a traffic violation.
A violation of any law put in place to keep people safe automatically qualifies as negligence, including…
- Speeding
- Drunk driving
- Tailgating
- Texting while driving
- Failing to yield
- Running a stop sign or red light
- Passing illegally
- Wrong-way driving.
Other breaches of duty come from a violation of general safe-driving rules, like distracted driving, failing to keep a proper lookout, or driving while tired.
Burden of Proof
The “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard might be familiar from criminal law, but the burden of proof in injury cases is lower. Instead, you have to prove the elements “by a preponderance of the evidence.”
This equates to winning your case by just over 50%, i.e., proving it is “more likely than not” that your claim is true. You do not need the jury 100% on your side to win.
What if I Am Partially at Fault?
Pennsylvania law accounts for the fact that not every car accident victim is perfect behind the wheel. As long as you were not more than 50% at fault, you can still get compensation in a car accident case.
Under our “comparative negligence” system, you can still get damages if you were partially at fault. However, the court assigns a percentage of blame to you and subtracts that percentage from the total damages.
For example, if you were speeding when the crash occurred, and your injuries were a bit worse because of it, the court might say you were 15% at fault. If your total damages were $100,000, then the defendant only pays you for their 85% share: $85,000.
However, the defense needs to prove you were partially at fault. If they do not have the evidence or what you did simply did not actually contribute, we can seek full damages.
How Much Are My Car Accident Injuries Worth?
Our lawyers have to examine the specific bills, statements, and injuries in your case to determine the value of your case. Serious injury claims can be worth tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, but it all comes down to what harms you suffered, how bad they were, and whether you have the evidence to prove them.
Once we get on your case, we can crack open the books, investigate, and help you determine a fair value for your injury case. Then, if the insurance company denies you that value, we can take them to court for full payment.
Call Our Nazareth Car Accident Attorneys Today
For your free case evaluation, call the car accident attorneys at The Reiff Law Firm at (215) 709-6940.
