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Injured In Austin And Not Your Fault?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 2.3 million people were treated in emergency departments due to injuries sustained in car accidents in 2009. This translates to a lifetime cost of crash-related deaths and injuries of $70 billion in a single year. Those are statistics. If you were injured in a car accident on the streets of Austin, you probably don’t feel like a statistic. You may be in pain and feel confused or frightened.
If you were injured in a car accident in Austin and someone else was at fault, you may be eligible for personal injury compensation from the at-fault driver and his or her automobile insurance company. Texas is a tort state. This means that in order to obtain the compensation to which you are due, you may be forced to go to court.
Obtaining Compensation After Car Accidents
We like to think that our insurance company is there to protect us, and that other drivers are adequately insured. The sad reality is that insurance companies seem to be equally interested in profits as they are in compensating accident victims. To obtain full compensation, you may need to prove fault. Fault comes in many shapes and sizes, including:
- Crossing the center line
- Distracted driving (texting or talking on the phone)
- Drowsy driving
- Failure to stop
- Failure to yield
- Speeding or careless driving
- Wrong-way driving
In Texas, as in many other states, fault can be shared. The opposing counsel or insurance company may try to claim that you were partially at fault for the Austin car crash. Your lawyer will seek to prove otherwise.
Obtaining compensation also means understanding the complete nature of the injuries. Some injuries, such as a traumatic brain injury, have a long recovery time. Other injuries, such as burns, may require multiple surgeries with time for healing in-between. An experienced personal injury lawyer will be able to guide you through the legal process so you know what to expect, and what is expected of you.
The types of injuries which may require lengthy litigation are those of a more serious nature, or those which tend to have complications. The serious injuries with which your attorney should be familiar include:
- Any injury requiring an amputation
- Burn injuries which require skin grafts
- Crush injuries
- Internal injuries which require organ removal
- Spinal cord injuries involving paralysis
- Traumatic brain injuries
Your Austin lawyer need not be a physician, but he or she should have medical knowledge. Your lawyer need not be a mechanical engineer, but should know when to call one as an expert witness. Your attorney primarily needs to have experience with personal injury litigation and work diligently on your behalf so you can obtain maximum compensation.
What Is Your First Step?
If you’ve been injured in a car accident in Austin due to someone else’s negligence, your first step is to seek medical attentions. After that, it may be a wise idea to obtain a personal injury lawyer with car accident litigation experience. Look for one with a track record of success. While past results are never a guarantee for future performance, it makes sense to work with someone who has been successful in the past.
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