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How Can You Prove Liability in a Car Accident Claim?
If you’ve been in a car accident, it’s very important here in Georgia that you be able to prove who was actually liable so that you can collect the damages you are owed for your losses. An Atlanta car accident lawyer can help you to show liability in your claim.
How Can You Prove Liability in a Car Accident Claim?
If the other party in your car accident is denying their liability or trying to throw more blame on you than you actually hold, it’s easy to feel helpless. But an Atlanta car accident lawyer knows exactly what evidence is needed and how to put it to work to show what really happened.
Getting the Right Evidence
Eyewitness Accounts
Eyewitness accounts can corroborate your version of events and go a long way towards proving liability. Eyewitness testimony is especially helpful when it comes from a neutral third-party rather than a passenger in one of the vehicles, as it can typically be argued that the passenger in a vehicle is predisposed to favor the case of their own driver. If you are able to after an accident, it’s a good idea to ask people in the surrounding area if anyone saw what happened and get their name and contact information. You’ll pass this on to your lawyer, and your lawyer will talk with them about what they saw and how best to prepare their testimony.
In some cases, the police report will also contain information about witnesses. If you were injured badly in an accident and not able to talk to potential eyewitnesses, don’t panic. The police report will have what you need, and your lawyer will use that to get in touch with anyone who may be able to help your case.
Police Report
The police report is a very helpful piece of evidence. It gives the police’s assessment of what happened and who was at fault, and while the police don’t have the final say in this matter, their opinion is valuable and typically taken strongly into consideration by courts and insurance companies. The police have experience with accidents and can often give an informed opinion based on skid marks and vehicle damage as to what took place.
The report may also have information about road hazards, weather conditions, and whether anyone at the scene was under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Any of these can potentially be used to show liability.
Camera Footage
Nearby cameras on ATMs or businesses, traffic cameras, and dash cam video can all be very helpful, objective evidence in these cases. Insurance companies can challenge a police officer’s assessment of fault, for example, or argue that a witness didn’t see what they really saw, but it’s hard to argue with solid video evidence.
Even if no one had a dash cam, there are still plenty of traffic cameras and surveillance cameras on businesses that could have captured the scene. It’s important to talk to a lawyer quickly about this, because security footage is often overwritten fairly quickly to make room for new files. The only reason that footage would be saved is if the owner of the camera knows that something happened and needs to be saved. Your lawyer will reach out quickly to make sure that video evidence is preserved. Bear in mind that there can be a lot of legal red tape involved in getting this kind of footage, and that’s why you need to have an attorney representing you.
Opinions of Accident Reconstruction Experts
If there are pictures of the accident scene, accident reconstruction experts can be called in and use these, along with the police report and the damage to the vehicles, to figure out what happened. This can be especially helpful in cases where the liability is complicated. Good accident attorneys have a network of such experts to call on to get professional help. These experts know a lot about engineering and physics, and they also have the skills necessary to testify clearly about why they come to the conclusions they do.
Phone Records
If the other driver was on the phone or texting at the time of the accident, it’s important that you be able to prove that. It’s very hard to get phone records as a lay person, but your attorney may be able to get them through legal means. This can go a long way towards proving liability, especially if the other party is claiming that they were not distracted but eyewitness testimony says that they were.
Why Liability Matters
Here in George, we have what’s known as a “modified comparative fault” rule in car accident cases. Under these rules, anyone who has been injured in an accident can claim damages so long as they were not more than 50% responsible. However, the amount of their damages is reduced by the same percentage as their fault. This is great in that it means that everyone who is injured can get some compensation from the party primarily responsible, but it does create a situation where liability becomes very important.
If an insurance company can shift even a couple percentage points of liability off the person they cover and onto a victim, they can potentially reduce their payouts by thousands of dollars. It’s very important that you have an attorney help you definitively show who is liable and to what degree and protect you against accusations of liability that you don’t deserve.
What Your Atlanta Car Accident Lawyer Can Do
Your car accident lawyer makes a big difference in these situations. First, your lawyer can investigate the accident and turn up all the evidence needed to definitively prove what happened and what your damages should be. Your lawyer can also communicate with the other driver’s insurance company, taking that burden off your shoulders and also protecting you from any attempts to get you to accept settlements that are too low or say something that could damage your case.
Your lawyer will also organize all your medical records, financial records, bills and receipts and communicate with healthcare providers or employers to get any missing records needed to show the full extent of your damages. If your medical records could potentially be challenged, your lawyer will communicate with your doctors so they have all the information that they need.
A good lawyer will then organize and present all this evidence in a professional way that proves liability and shows clearly and convincingly what your damages are. At that point, your lawyer will also enter into negotiations with the insurance company to come to a settlement agreement that is in your best interests and properly reflects what you really lost. And if negotiations fail, your lawyer will be prepared to take the claim into the courtroom and make a convincing case before the court.
At T. Madden & Associates, P.C., we know all the tricks that the insurance companies try to pull, and we have extensive experience in Georgia personal injury law and in the local courts. Contact us today at T. Madden & Associates, P.C. in Atlanta, Augusta, Jonesboro, Decatur, or Macon for a free case evaluation.
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