The car accident attorneys of Madalon Law have helped accident victims in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and other counties in the state of Florida.
You have just been in an accident. Your car may have been rear-ended. Or maybe your vehicle has been sideswiped or hit in the front – all of this because the other driver was not paying attention. Maybe they were driving distracted (texting, eating, checking emails on their smartphone, posting on Facebook, etc.). Or maybe they broke a Florida Statute by running a red light, running a stop sign or switching lanes illegally. What do you do? It is very confusing, but the answer is simple. The first thing you must do is make sure the police have a report of the accident.
How important is a report? In this day and age insurance companies will not even consider a car, motorcycle, truck or vehicle accident without a police report. This even includes your property damage. Worse than that, the person that hit you and caused the collision (who was probably begging you at the scene of the accident to not file a report) is going to be the one calling his insurance company – painting you as the negligent party. As unfair and dishonest as this is, there is no way to get around it because we do not have a report.
So the first thing you do is call the police. How do you make sure they do their job when they get there? It’s very simple. You first document where the cars are at the scene of the accident before you move them. Use your cellphone or someone else’s, but just make sure you do get photos of this. Make sure you get photos of all the property damage and paint transfer. You should also take photos of the location, weather conditions, glass or metal on the ground, gouges in the pavement, skid marks, and anything else that can help. We need to see it all.
More importantly, you find independent witnesses of the accident. This can be anyone who saw it. It could be a pedestrian or another driver on the road who witnessed the collision and stopped to see if everyone was ok. You need to get the names and numbers of these people so we can contact them later. It would also help to write down their statements because as time passes, they may forget details that could be important. These witnesses may be the most important part of your case.
Secondary to that, you need to make sure the police issue a citation to the negligent driver. Determine the other driver at fault for the accident. This is important because insurance companies base their decision on who is at fault by the police report. Of course if the police get it wrong, we have ways to fight to reverse it.
Locking this information down at the scene of the accident can greatly help your case. If you are too injured, then get someone else to do it. Call the Fort Lauderdale car accident lawyers at Madalon Law today for your free consultation.
Most people are not aware of how the law works, the rights they have and the amount of compensation they can be entitled to after they have been injured in an accident that was the result of another party’s negligence. The obstacles and confusion that follow an accident and an injury can seem overwhelming.