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When a simple drive turns into a life-changing disaster, a car accident lawyer can help you pick up the pieces. The injuries, damages, and losses of a car accident do not have to be yours to bear alone. The driver or party at fault for causing your motor vehicle accident may owe you compensation to make up for these losses. A lawyer from David Shapiro Law, PLLC can assist you in filing a claim to damages in Mesa, Arizona against one or more parties. Start by scheduling a free consultation. Call (480) 300-5405 24/7.
A car insurance claim should be a simple and straightforward way to recover monetary benefits for your property damages and medical bills. Unfortunately, this is often not the case. Insurance companies receive thousands of claims each year. To minimize their expenditures and maximize profits, insurance companies use tactics to convince clients to settle for as little as possible. It may take representation from a lawyer to force an insurance company to offer a reasonable settlement. A lawyer will know what negotiation tactics to use against a powerful insurance corporation. If your case needs to go to trial for a positive outcome, your lawyer can handle litigation for you as well.
Car accidents are a main cause of unintentional injuries and related fatalities in Arizona. Every year, thousands of victims end up in hospitals throughout Arizona with crash-related injuries. The Arizona Department of Transportation reported 129,750 car accidents (36,926 injury and 911 fatal) in 2019 alone. Collisions occur more often in Arizona’s cities than its rural areas. Identifying the cause of your wreck is one of the first steps toward obtaining compensation.
The cause of your Mesa car accident will point to the identity of the defendant or at-fault party. In Arizona, the driver or party who caused the car accident will owe other victims compensation for their damages. All drivers in Arizona have to maintain minimum amounts of car insurance to pay these costs. Some cases involve defendants who are not the other driver, or multiple defendants. A lawyer from David Shapiro Law, PLLC can analyze your car accident case to determine fault and who to name as the defendant(s).
There are various steps that car accident victims in Mesa should take in the immediate aftermath of the incident, as well as in the days and weeks that follow, to help ensure that they receive maximum compensation for their losses.
In the days and weeks that follow a car accident, crash victims must continue all follow-up medical care recommended by their doctor. Failing to do so could result in the insurance carrier delaying or denying the claim.
After a car accident, injured victims will face hurdles during the claims process. Injured drivers and passengers will have to deal with Arizona’s auto accident laws before obtaining fair compensation for their injuries. Car accident laws change from state to state. A car accident attorney can break down the laws in your state, as well as explain how they might impact your case. In the meantime, learn a few of the most essential car accident laws in Arizona.
These are three of the most important general laws that may apply to your car accident case in Mesa. Others could include product liability laws for a defective car part or tort claim laws for a case against a government entity. David Shapiro and his team can explain all the relevant laws for your particular insurance claim or personal injury lawsuit. Then, he can navigate them for you in pursuit of maximum financial compensation.
In the aftermath of a vehicle accident in Mesa, Arizona, crash victims may be entitled to various types of compensation if the incident was caused by the actions of another driver. At David Shapiro Law, PLLC, our dedicated team has extensive experience helping clients recover compensation for their economic and non-economic damages.
When working to properly calculate the total amount that a Mesa car accident victim should recover, an attorney will gather up all of the bills and receipts to calculate the economic damages. However, calculating the non-economic damages can be more challenging, and an attorney will typically use the “multiplier method” to do so. This means that they will take the total they added up for economic damages and then multiply that by a set number (usually a number between 1.5 and 5).
For example, if the total amount of economic damages was $10,000, an attorney may multiply that number by three to reach a total of $30,000 for non-economic damages. Overall, an attorney would send a demand letter asking for $40,000 in total compensation for their client.
Just as a car accident can cause thousands of dollars in damages, a successful personal injury claim could reimburse you for the property repairs, hospital bills, lost wages, and other losses connected to your crash. The value of your claim is an important matter for your family. It could decide your financial future. We can provide an estimate of how much we believe your car accident case is worth during a free consultation. All car accident claims, however, provide the opportunity to recover economic and non-economic damages in general. These can include out-of-pocket costs as well as physical pain and emotional suffering.
There is no set timeline for how long it will take a vehicle accident case to settle when it comes to the insurance carrier. Insurance carriers often make their own timeline in these situations. In general, the less the property damage and the less severe the injuries, the quicker a settlement offer will come forward. Sometimes, an adequate settlement offer can be made within a few weeks or a month after the crash. However, that is not always the case.
If there is any dispute about who caused the crash or how much money should be paid out, it could take months for a car accident to be resolved with the insurance carrier.
We do want to point out that crash victims should never settle their case until after they have reached with their doctor calls maximum medical improvement. This is the point where their condition is not expected to improve with any further medical treatment.
The vast majority of Mesa vehicle accident cases are resolved through settlements with insurance carriers. However, in the event the insurance carrier denies a claim or refuses to offer a fair settlement amount, it may be necessary for a crash victim to file a personal injury lawsuit against the alleged negligent driver.
Even after a civil lawsuit is filed, it is still unlikely that the case will go all the way to trial. Most vehicle accident personal injury cases are resolved after negotiations between attorneys for both the injury victim and the insurance carrier. However, if a fair settlement offer does not come forward, it may be necessary to take the case all the way to a jury.
Car accident victims in Mesa have a limited amount of time to file lawsuits in these cases. The Arizona personal injury statute of limitations is two years from the date an injury occurs. This means that Mesa car accident victims have a two year window with which to file a lawsuit against the alleged negligent driver in their case. Failing to file a lawsuit within this time frame will result in the victim being unable to recover the compensation they need.
However, we do need to point out that this statutory timeframe has nothing to do with the deadlines put in place by insurance carriers in the state of Arizona. In general, auto insurance carriers require that accidents be reported to them within a day or two after the incident occurs. Failing to follow these tight deadlines from the insurance carrier could result in a person’s claim being delayed or even denied altogether.
You are struck by an uninsured driver in the state of Arizona, this can certainly complicate the recovery of compensation. First, we do want to point out that drivers are not required to carry uninsured motorist coverage in the state of Arizona. However, we strongly encourage all drivers to consider purchasing this additional and relatively inexpensive optional coverage to help them in the event they are injured in a crash caused by an uninsured driver. There is a significant number of uninsured drivers on the roadways throughout Arizona, which is why we strongly suggest considering uninsured motorist coverage as part of your usual insurance package.
If a person does not have uninsured motorist coverage and they are struck by an uninsured driver, there are few options for recovery. The recovery of compensation will often depend on whether or not the at-fault driver has any assets to their name. For example, a crash victim could file a lawsuit against the uninsured driver directly, and they may very well secure a judgment against them. However, if a person does not have insurance on their vehicle, it is unlikely that they will have the assets available to cover any injury or property damage expenses caused by the vehicle accident.
In the hours or days following a car accident in Mesa, contact David Shapiro Law, PLLC for a free case evaluation. Our car accident lawyers will listen to your story and give our best advice as to how to proceed with a claim. We can help you from the very beginning for the strongest possible claim to damages. We offer free consultations so you can learn your rights at no personal risk. Call us today at (480) 300-5405 to speak to a car accident attorney near you.