Newark is a populous city with one of the highest concentrations of cars – and car accidents – in the state. Between residents, commuters, and travelers, car accidents are incredibly common. If you get into a car accident, you need a lawyer to help you understand what your case is truly worth and fight for full compensation.
While it is legal to handle your case on your own, it leaves you vulnerable to insurance companies that might try to take advantage of you, offer low settlements, or rely on misconceptions to get you to drop your case or settle for a low value.
For a free case assessment, call The Carrion Law Firm’s car accident lawyers at (973) 604-6499 today.
How Does a Car Accident Lawyer Help Me?
You might think that you already pay for car insurance, so that should be enough to take care of you after a crash. While your NJ car insurance is required to cover some of your expenses regardless of fault, that does not mean it will pay your full damages or that the insurance company is looking out for your best interests.
We are legally and ethically obliged to look out for our clients’ best interests. We will comb over your policy, look for what coverage you are automatically entitled to, and calculate what damages your case is truly worth. Then we will go to work collecting evidence and building a strong case.
Many insurance companies refuse to pay up – even the ones that supposedly work for you. To get full damages paid, we may need to take your insurance company to court or sue the at-fault driver. This is a complex process, and any insurance payout can be tempting. However, it is vital to go over the documents with our car accident lawyers first.
Any money you accept might end your case as a settlement and block you from getting full compensation.
What Evidence Do I Need for My Case?
In the immediate aftermath of the accident, there is a lot of evidence you can collect while you wait for the police and ambulances to arrive:
- Photos of the accident scene, damage, and injuries
- The other driver’s contact and insurance info
- Contact info for any other witnesses to the crash
- Other info on lighting, road conditions, weather, etc.
Anything you can collect at the scene will help, but we will also rely on some other important evidence:
- Info we can obtain from the police report
- Any video footage we can find of the crash from dash cams or security cameras
- Witness testimony about what happened
- Medical records and doctors’ reports
- Medical bills, financial records, and other evidence of the financial cost of your injuries
- Vehicle damage reports and appraisals
- Economic and medical reports about your injury and any disabilities that might affect your ability to work.
We can help you collect much of this evidence and guide you through the process of gathering evidence while we build your case.
Does My Insurance Cover My Crash?
New Jersey uses a no-fault insurance system. This means that your insurance always has at least some coverage to pay for your own damages and injuries after a crash, but it will never cover everything.
What’s Covered Under My Insurance?
Your insurance pays for a portion of medical expenses and lost wages. This always leaves off a deductible that you have to pay out of pocket. It also leaves off vehicle repairs, which are only covered (again, with a deductible) if you have collision coverage.
You can also have other first-party coverages to help pay for more, but these also have deductibles. If the other driver was under- or uninsured, your insurance might also have uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage to pay additional damages, including potentially paying your deductibles back.
What Does the Other Driver Pay?
If you meet the qualifications to go after the other driver, their insurance might cover some of your damages. However, there is a choice of different policies in NJ, some of which have no liability coverage to pay for your damages.
This potentially increases the reliance on your own car insurance. However, when the defendant does have liability coverage, we can file a claim with them and negotiate for a fair payout.
Getting Pain and Suffering for a Car Accident Claim in Newark
As mentioned, there are some qualifications to meet to go after the other driver’s insurance in the first place. If you do not meet these requirements, then you cannot file a third-party claim, you cannot sue, and you cannot get pain and suffering damages. These damages are vital, so it is important to understand these requirements.
One way to get pain and suffering damages is if you have an unlimited right to sue policy. This is an insurance policy that goes beyond the “basic” or “standard” options with a limited right to sue. You pay a little more, but you preserve your right to sue for pain and suffering.
Alternatively, if you have “serious injuries,” you can always sue for a car accident case and claim pain and suffering. These usually involve displaced fractures, permanent injuries, amputations, and other long-term/permanent losses or lost function.
How Much Are My Damages Worth?
Auto insurance often undervalues damages so it can pay less. Even when we show them the bills, repair costs, and lost wages, they might try to exclude or cheat out of certain damages, so it is important to see how these calculations are made:
Medical Bills
All reasonable medical care costs should be covered. Your car insurance and health insurance might cover some of this, but likely not all. This can make it difficult to determine what is left to pay and what is the other driver’s responsibility. Our attorneys can parse through these layers of insurance and expenses to determine the value of your claim for medical expenses.
Lost Earnings
Any wages you lose because of the crash are the at-fault driver’s fault. This means that wages lost from a recovery period before your return to work should be paid. It also means that any wages you will lose in the future should be paid.
We can calculate the difference between what you are expected to make now and what you were expected to make before the injuries and claim the difference as damages, even looking into future wages.
Other Economic Damages
Other costs and expenses from the crash might also be reimbursed, such as car repair costs. Save any bills, receipts, and financial statements related to the crash as evidence.
Pain and Suffering
Pain and suffering are “non-economic” damages you can only claim with an unlimited right to sue policy or serious injuries. These cover the pain of the injuries themselves, as well as things like emotional distress and mental anguish.
There is no set cost per injury, such as $300 for a broken arm. Instead, the damages are based on the effect they have on your life, with scarring, lost ability, discomfort, and other effects all raising the overall severity of the case.
We can use a few accepted calculation methods, but it is important to show our work and show that the claim is reasonable for a jury or insurance company to be willing to accept our pain and suffering value.
Should I Accept a Settlement?
Your insurance company may pay some damages up front because of your no-fault coverage. This is not a settlement per se, and you can accept this money without ending your case. However, if you accept any money from the defendant or their insurance company, it will stop your case in its tracks and prevent you from getting further damages.
It can be difficult to tell the difference between what is coming from your insurance and what is coming from the other driver’s insurance, especially if you have the same insurance company. Because of this, you should never accept money or talk to insurance companies without your lawyer reviewing everything first.
Additionally, when the at-fault driver’s insurance examines the case, they will often put a low value on the case. This might not cover your damages in full, and it might leave off entire areas of coverage. You should have our car accident attorneys review the offer, negotiate with the defense’s insurance company, and seek fair settlements before accepting anything.
If they will not settle, we can take them to court.
What Happens in a Car Accident Lawsuit?
The ultimate goal of a car accident lawsuit is to get you the damages you need. Most of the process is somewhat technical and legalistic, with various motions, meetings, and hearings taking place to try to decide issues, push the case toward settlement, and resolve factual disputes before a trial is even scheduled.
This involves exchanging evidence, trying to determine what is stopping the other side from settling, explaining the fair value of your case, and checking what the defense’s insurance limits are. From there, we can figure out whether a settlement is possible, and if not, take the case to trial.
At trial, we present evidence and witnesses to prove your case to the jury. The jury then decides who was at fault and how much the case is worth. The judge deals with any legal issues – such as objections to certain evidence – and orders the defendant to pay when we win in your favor.
How Do I Pay for a Car Accident Lawyer?
Car accident lawyers are often paid through a “contingency fee agreement.” This means that, instead of billing you up-front for the hours we put into the case, we charge a portion of the winnings.
That allows you easier access to a lawyer, since you probably cannot pay out of pocket while worrying about medical care costs, lost wages, and other expenses during your recovery. It also means that we do not get paid if we lose your case, incentivizing us to win.
Talk to our lawyers today in a free case review about how much your case might be worth, what our services will cost, and how to pay nothing unless we win.
Common Causes of Car Accidents
Our lawyers handle crashes from all kinds of causes and issues, though the following are some of the most common:
- Speeding
- Drunk driving
- Texting while driving
- Distracted driving
- Problems with commercial trucks (unsafe equipment, unsafe drivers, trucking violations, etc.)
- Tired driving
- Tailgating
- Failing to yield.
Crashes that happen from the same causes often have similar fact patterns, allowing us to use our experience from prior cases in your case. We know what evidence to look for, who to hold responsible, and how to prove the case.
Common Injuries from Car Accidents
The injuries you face could vary greatly. Some crashes involve injuries that heal up in a few days, but nonetheless cost a lot of money to treat at the hospital. Others last for years, causing long-term disabilities, high-dollar lost wages, and serious pain and suffering.
Many crashes involve head, neck, back, and brain injuries. These are often the largest causes of disabilities, though amputation injuries are also surprisingly common.
However, those injuries come from a small minority of accidents. Most crashes involve no injuries at all, mild injuries, or moderate injuries.
If you have medical expenses from the crash, lost time at work, and faced physical pain or mental and emotional distress, your case is probably serious enough to work with a lawyer. That includes handling these other common injuries:
- Broken bones
- Serious cuts and lacerations
- Back and neck injuries like whiplash and slipped/herniated discs
- Strains and sprains
- And other injuries that interfere with your job and activities of daily living.
When to Call a Lawyer
You should call a lawyer as soon as you can after the accident, typically in the next couple of days. We may need to act quickly to collect evidence like security footage, and we can get you on the road to proper medical treatment and begin tracking your care costs and other expenses.
We can also start early on your case to work with your insurance company and get some expenses covered quickly while we work on your claim against the at-fault party.
While you may have 2 years to file your case, you should call a lawyer much sooner.
Call Our Newark Car Accident Attorneys Today
For a free review of your potential case, call the car accident lawyers at The Carrion Law Firm at (973) 604-6499.
