When your child suffers injuries in a car accident, your world turns upside down. Their pain becomes your pain. You focus entirely on their needs.
But at some point, you have to focus on protecting the legal rights of the family because that can have a profound effect on everyone’s future. You can often best meet your child’s needs by ensuring you take all possible steps to seek recovery for their losses.
Your Rights Vary Depending on the Circumstances
Not surprisingly, your rights and options for recovery depend considerably on the situation. If a driver violated the law by texting behind the wheel or driving while drunk, the liability of the at-fault driver can be easy to prove. You might have the right to seek compensation from the driver’s parents or employer as well as the driver.
If your best friend was driving the car at the time, you might be interested in pursuing a claim against others involved in causing the accident, but not so anxious to prove your friend’s driving was negligent. If you were driving, your options can be further limited.
It is important to remember that many factors usually combine to create the conditions for a collision. A property owner near the scene might have piled up debris that blocks drivers’ visibility. A vehicle ahead could have dropped oil that made the road surface too slick. That oil spill could be the result of an improper repair by a mechanic who was inadequately trained. Car accident lawyers often conduct extensive investigations to discover all the factors that combined to cause an accident.
Compensation Can Cover a Range of Factors
The various parties who share in the responsibility for causing the accident and your child’s injuries can be held accountable for the full range of harm suffered by your child and your family. You might receive compensation to cover factors with a direct economic cost as well as factors that are intangible but often have an even more profound effect on the quality of life. A damage award could include amounts for:
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Past medical expenses
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Future medical needs and rehabilitation expenses
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Lost income capacity in the future
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Adaptations to the home
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Caregiver costs
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Pain and suffering
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Emotional anguish
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Loss of enjoyment of favorite activities
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Loss of companionship
In many cases, insurance companies are the ones paying compensation, either through a settlement or in response to a court judgment.
Tips to Protect Legal Rights After a Car Accident
To recover compensation to offset losses and meet future needs, you will need to be able to prove that others are liable for causing the accident. You should collect proof, such as photos of an accident scene and witness accounts. You should also avoid statements that could be taken as an admission of guilt. Simply saying “I’m sorry” can give others grounds to insist that you are to blame for your child’s injuries.
Many people find it helpful to hire a personal injury attorney right away so the attorney can start collecting evidence and handling communications with investigators and insurance companies. Protecting your right to recover damages can protect your family’s future.
