How you handle a car accident can make a huge difference in how it affects your life. If you make the right decisions from the start, you’ll find that you have more options in the future. The main thing you need to do, after making sure that everyone involved is okay, is to contact an attorney. You want to make sure that they’re the first person, after the police, that you tell about the accident and how it happened. It inevitably gets less clear in your memory as time passes, so telling them as soon as possible is always good.
It almost seems like a given that you’d contact your insurance company before anyone else, and this is the mistake that people oftentimes make. Having the advice of your attorney when you talk to your insurance company is a huge benefit. A car wreck attorney will know what the insurance company wants to hear, and what they want to hear is anything that will get them out of paying your claim. Your attorney will make sure that you don’t accidentally ruin your chances of getting paid for the loss of your vehicle and for other damages and injuries.
You definitely want to avoid confronting the other driver. It’s sometimes hard to do, especially if they were obviously at fault for the accident, or if they seem to be intoxicated. Again, what you say is important to how the affair will turn out. If you fly off the handle and go after someone out or rage, you might end up being in more trouble than they are in the end. Your attorney can tell you what you should or shouldn’t say to the other driver, as well, and will need to know what you did say if you do talk to the other driver.
You don’t have to have a vehicle accident lawyer on retainer to take advantage of these services. Many of them offer a free consultation and, after you’ve been in a wreck, it makes sense to give such a lawyer a call. If you were clearly not at fault for the accident and ended up suffering injuries, be sure to contact an attorney. In some cases, you may be offered a settlement check right away by the other driver. This doesn’t mean you should consider taking the check; it means you should get your own lawyer.