Adoption 101: The Legal Fundamentals

How To Protect Your Injury Rights After A Motor Vehicle Accident

7 September 2022

Brayden Miles

Motor vehicle accident law can present a number of challenges, especially if a case proves to be complex. If you're a victim of an incident, a motor vehicle accident lawyer will tell you to begin protecting your injury rights as early as possible. An attorney will want you to do these four things, even if you're unsure if you're going to file a claim.

Visit a Doctor

You want to have a contemporaneous record of your injuries. That means you should accept all possible care at the scene of the accident from any EMTs or firefighters. Afterward, you should go to a hospital or clinic if the first responders didn't transport you to one. The doctor can do diagnostics like X-rays to get a better look at your condition.

More importantly, the diagnostics and reports will provide a snapshot of your physical condition in the hours following the accident. This will lend greater credibility to any later claims you might make that a specific injury arose from the incident because they'll likely show up as fresh injuries in the scans.

Get a Copy of Your Insurance Policy

Even if you're confident the other driver was entirely at fault, it's a good idea to pull out your insurance policy so your motor vehicle accident lawyer's office staff can make copies of it. You might end up in a scenario where you need to know your policy's coverage for incidents involving uninsured drivers, for example. It is better to know these things early than to try to figure them out later.

Pictures

You will be impressed by how quickly emergency services and auto wreckers can clean up the accident scene. Unfortunately, that might take away some of your best evidence. If possible given your physical condition, try to get pictures of the scene while everything is still there. If not, you can still ask the police where the vehicles went. Visit the salvage yard or garage where each vehicle is and take pictures from all angles. This will help to explain what happened during the accident, such as which car hit at what angle.

Put Medical Bills on Hold

When you have the opportunity, tell the billing department at any hospital or clinic you visited in relation to the accident if you plan to file a claim against another driver. They will have a person who can set up the process of putting the bills on hold. The medical organization will still send up bills so your motor vehicle accident lawyer can document your expenses.

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