The injuries victims sustain in rear-ended accidents are among the most serious and most difficult to diagnose car crash injuries. Whiplash is a good example. The extreme motion of a rear-end wreck causes the neck to violently snap backward and forward. This movement usually affects nerves in the neck and spine. Since it is a soft tissue injury, standard diagnostic tests often don’t detect whiplash. If not promptly and properly treated, whiplash can lead to more serious problems in your spine.
Because of injuries like whiplash, a Pompano Beach personal injury attorney must quickly connect victims with doctors. That’s the only way to ensure proper treatment for your serious injuries.
Evidence in Rear-End Collision Claims
Usually, attorneys convince doctors to defer collection, or even billing, until the case is resolved. But these medical and other bills must be paid eventually. That is why it is important to seek compensation for these medical bills against the at fault party so you are not left with medical debt.
The evidence needed in making an injury claim from a rear-end crash claim usually includes some combination of the police report, witness statements, photos of the accident, medical records detailing the injuries, billing statements, theory of liability, and causation of those injuries.
Medical records usually include medical charts and medical bills. Charts reflect basic diagnosis and treatment, while bills indicate cost. The police accident report usually includes a narrative summary as well as a list of witnesses. This narrative summary is not always conclusive. Emergency responders must do the best they can with the evidence available. Additionally, these individuals are often unaware of legal doctrines that can be brought up in court. More on that below.
Frequently, witness statements are the glue that put these bits of evidence together. Even if the witness only saw part of the accident, that witness’s testimony can be critical.
Distracted driving often causes rear-end wrecks. Drivers simply aren’t looking where they are going. So, evidence like cell phone use logs could be important in these crashes as well.
Preserving Physical Evidence
Lawyers must act quickly to preserve physical evidence. Otherwise, the at-fault driver might “accidentally” delete the records. A spoliation letter is usually in order. This letter creates a legal duty to preserve all potential physical evidence, including cell phone use logs, for later inspection.
The evidence in a rear-end crash claim must not only be strong enough to build a damage claim, it must also be strong enough to refute some common insurance company defenses.
Liability Issues
Because of the serious injuries and property damage payouts involved in a rear-end collision, insurance company lawyers often pull out all the stops in an effort to reduce or deny compensation.
Legally, comparative negligence shifts blame for an accident from the tortfeasor (negligent driver) to the victim. So, in a rear-end crash claim, the insurance company might admit that its driver plowed into the back of the victim’s vehicle. But, insurance company lawyers might blame the wreck on the victim’s supposed illegal turn or lane change.
In these situations, jurors must examine the evidence and divide liability on a percentage basis, such as 50-50. Florida is a pure comparative fault state. If the victim was 75% percent responsible for the wreck, the tortfeasor is responsible for a proportionate share of damages; in this case 25%.
Rear-end crash victims can often sustain serious injuries. For a free consultation with an experienced personal injury lawyer in Boca Raton, contact Goldman & Daszkal, P.A. Virtual, home, and hospital visits are available.