Whiplash is a soft tissue injury and, in most cases, resolves in a few days. However, there are cases where it can result in complications that take an extended time to heal and, ultimately, a high cost of treatment and untold suffering for the victim.
When a car accident results from another driver’s or entity’s negligence, you have a right to compensation, but you must follow due process to recover it. This guide offers tips on winning a whiplash car accident lawsuit in Texas and is worth reading if you intend to file one.
Seek Medical Help
After an accident, your health should come first. So, as a rule of thumb, call 911. This brings paramedics to the scene for first aid and transfers to the hospital.
Immediate health intervention does more than safeguard your health. It produces documentation critical in establishing a connection between an accident and injuries and provides a means for damage valuation.
Creating this connection is especially critical for whiplash injuries because it can take over 72 hours to manifest, and having seen a doctor can help make the link more straightforward.
Gather Critical Evidence
Liability and negligence in an accident is based on evidence. As such, you want to have as much of it as possible. Besides the health documents produced through your treatment journey, you want to have other pieces of evidence, such as at-the-scene evidence.
At-the-scene evidence is the evidence you gather while at the scene. It includes pictures and video footage of the vehicle damage, your injuries, location, skid marks, and anything else that can help strengthen your case.
Also, record witness accounts at this point and collect their contact information if you find any they may be willing to help with their testimony. A police report is also a critical piece of evidence. You can obtain this report from the police station or website around two weeks after the accident.
Besides these types of evidence, your lawyer can also help you obtain other types of evidence that may require legal expertise, which makes having one in a whiplash car accident claim very important.
Prepare For the Legal Process
Recovering compensation in car accident lawsuits demands going through the legal process stipulated by law. As such, you will need to prepare for it. Preparation can mean different things, such as filing the necessary paperwork, initiating correspondence with the at-fault party, etc.
“Preparation plays a critical role in determining the outcomes of a claim, and the best way of preparing is to ensure you work with a car accident attorney. So do not make the mistake of navigating a claim without one,” says personal injury attorney Felix Gonzalez
Some roles played by a car accident attorney include investigating a case, gathering evidence, filing paperwork, correspondence with the at-fault party, negotiating your claim, and avoiding mistakes.
What It Means To Win a Case
Winning a case means you recover what your case is worth based on the proper valuation of economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages refer to the direct economic impact of the accident which encompass medical bills, lost wages, and prescription medication costs. Non-economic damages encompass the intangible losses resulting from the accident, such as pain and suffering, disfigurement, disability, etc.
Lawyers and insurers’ adjusters follow specific procedures and formulas to determine the value of damages suffered. So, winning a whiplash car accident claim means recovering compensation that adequately covers your damages.
