3 Things to Avoid After an Atlanta Car Crash Resulting in Personal Injury or Wrongful Death
There are several things people inadvertently do that can negatively affect the outcome of their personal injury case. If you are concerned about avoiding such errors, we invite you to speak to one of our experienced Atlanta motor vehicle accident lawyers at Montlick and Associates. We also encourage you to consider the following:
1. Do not fail to follow through on all diagnostic screenings, medications, follow up care and rehabilitation.
When you elect to skip recommended diagnostic screenings, this may delay or prevent detection of serious conditions which may adversely impact the outcome of your medical treatment as well as your legal claim because of a lack of objective medical evidence regarding your injuries. If you fail to complete your rehabilitation or skip follow up appointments, this too can compromise both your health and your personal injury claim (allows insurance companies to argue that you must not have been hurt that badly or you would have gone).
2. Do not post details about your car accident on social media websites or discuss your case with anyone other than your personal injury attorney.
When someone is involved in a serious motor vehicle accident, the incident is a significant event in the victim's life so there is a tendency to want to talk to friends and family about one's accident and injuries. As a general rule of thumb, you should not discuss such details with others nor post about them on your social media like Facebook. If you share details regarding your situation with your personal injury attorney, those facts will generally be protected by attorney-client privilege and confidentiality rules. However, family and friends can be subject to a subpoena so that they are forced to disclose what you tell them in confidence. There also are an increasing number of Atlanta car accident victims who post information about their accident, injuries or post-accident activities which is later used by the insurance company for the other driver. When you are messaged by someone on Facebook who you do not know, it is even possible that the individual is an insurance investigator trolling for information. Insurance companies are increasingly reviewing public information posted on social media sites for information that can be used to cloud the issue of liability or reduce damage awards.
For example, many auto accident victims recognize that it would not be advisable to post pictures depicting their participation in physically demanding activity like climbing a rock wall during a "good day" so they post such photos in the private area of their social media website. However, this can be an extremely costly mistake because judges are increasingly forcing parties in litigation to provide passwords and login information to social media sites. Some courts have even sanctioned parties for attempting to delete embarrassing information from their website after such a request has been made by the insurance company.
3. Do not entrust the task of determining fault to someone other than an experienced Georgia personal injury lawyer.
There are many injury victims who do not obtain the compensation they deserve because they rely on conclusions about fault in police accident reports or the other driver's insurance company, or even their own insurance company. The issue of fault often is an issue that is open to competing interpretations even when the police report assigns fault entirely to one party. Further, the other driver's insurance company views their primary objective as minimizing what they pay out on accident claims so the adjuster for the other driver's insurance is a poor source of information. Even if it seems clear you are partially at-fault because you were speeding, this does not necessarily preclude you from recovering compensation for your injuries. A good number of auto collisions involve fault by both drivers so the issue will be how the jury assigns fault between the parties. The bottom line is that contacting one of our experienced Atlanta car crash attorneys at Montlick and Associates, who only have your interest at heart, is a much more reliable way to obtain a legal assessment of your rights and remedies than listening to the officer who investigated your collision (but did not see it occur) or a representative from the insurance company who wants to minimize or avoid the insurance company paying any money.
Contact the Georgia Personal Injury Attorneys at Montlick and Associates Now!
If you have questions about your rights and options after being injured or losing a loved one to a negligent or reckless driver, our Georgia personal injury lawyers have been representing injury victims for over thirty years throughout all of Georgia and the Southeast, including but not limited to Albany, Athens, Atlanta, Augusta, Columbus, Gainesville, Macon, Marietta, Rome, Roswell, Savannah, Smyrna, Valdosta, Warner Robins and all smaller cities and rural areas in the state.
No matter where you are located our attorneys are just a phone call away, and we will even come to you. Call us 24 hours a day/7 days a week for your Free Consultation at 1-800-LAW-NEED (1-800-529-6333). You can also visit us online at www.montlick.com and use our Free Case Evaluation Form or 24-hour Live Online Chat.