Motor vehicle accidents often incapacitate victims in addition to forcing them to foot huge hospital bills. Drunk driving has been documented as one of the main causes of road crashes. Rebuilding your life and recovering from the catastrophic injuries sustained is quite difficult. Insurance companies may also take time to process your compensation, a situation that adds to your pain and suffering all the more.
The work of motor vehicle accident lawyers is to help ensure that you rebuild your life and that you are compensated within a short time. To make this possible, the circumstances surrounding a DUI accident must be investigated thoroughly. These legal experts liaise with medical professionals and accident reconstruction specialists to piece together crucial evidence that may tilt the case in your favor. This goes a long way in maximizing your recovery.
Most fatal accidents have contested liability in the sense that the wrongful parties may deny responsibility. DUI attorneys try to hold careless motorists and their insurers responsible for their actions. Also, state agencies may similarly be sued if the accident occurred in a locality that has poorly designed or maintained roads. Manufacturers can also be held to account if the design of their car models contributed to the accident and the resultant injury.
For you to have a chance of being compensated, there are certain observations that you should make immediately after the accident. You need to notify your lawyer and police officers who will be manning the accident scene about the same.
- If the other driver smells of marijuana or alcohol, you should alert police officers as soon as they arrive. This will pave way for them to carry out a sobriety test to ascertain whether the other motorist is intoxicated or not.
- You should be aware of whether the other motorist tries to hide or dispose of beer cans and drug paraphernalia. Notify the officers as soon as you take note of this.
- Ensure that you take note of the person who was driving. A drunk driver may switch positions with a passenger who is sober. Many drunk drivers use this tactic to avoid liability.
After leaving the scene of an accident, make sure that you have a copy of the crash report made by the police. Such reports are often available a few days after an accident. Insurance companies often ask for this document before they process compensation claims. Besides this, the report has significant leverage, which may be helpful in moving the negotiations in your favor.
