Plano Car Accident Lawyer

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A car accident is a terrifying and traumatic experience. If you’ve suffered serious injuries, the experience may also involve painful medical procedures and long recovery periods. When the accident occurs due to someone else’s negligence, reckless driving, intoxication, or intentional actions on the road it’s even more distressing since it was preventable if only the other party had taken reasonable care.

If you’ve had a car accident in Plano, Texas, or the surrounding area, and suffered serious injuries, you may find medical bills piling up at the same time that you aren’t able to return to work. Just when you need to focus on healing, you may be overburdened with the economic damages related to your car accident.

Fortunately, Texas offers redress for car accident victims injured in accidents caused by someone else. A Plano car accident attorney is your best ally in navigating the comparative negligence insurance laws in Texas. Don’t take on the insurance companies alone, when maximizing your compensation is in your best interests and not theirs.

If you’ve been injured in a car accident, call our Plano car accident lawyers today for a free consultation so we can begin a winning strategy for your compensation.

Why Choose Us as Your Car Accident Attorneys in Plano?

At Carew Garcia Bohuslav Law, PLLC, we are uniquely qualified to defend your rights against powerful insurance companies. Before our over 20 years of defending car accident victims, we represented large corporate clients, granting us invaluable insight into navigating claims against insurance companies that protect profits over payouts.

Your Plano car accident lawyer from our firm will thoroughly investigate your accident to identify the liable party, gather evidence of negligence, and draft a compelling demand letter to the appropriate insurance company. We’ll engage in strong, evidence-backed negotiations with the insurance company to seek the maximum compensation for your damages.

Common Injuries After a Plano Car Accident

In a car accident, coming to a sudden stop in a collision causes tremendous force. Even at a sedate 30mph, a 100-pound person becomes a 3,000-pound force. Added to the crash force, the body sustains other trauma from contact with interior surfaces and crushing metal. Common injuries in car accidents include the following:

  • Neck injuries
  • Back injuries
  • Head injuries and traumatic brain injury
  • Fractures of the limbs, ribs, hips, and pelvis
  • Spinal cord damage
  • Burns
  • Thoracic injuries and internal damage
  • Soft tissue damage, bruises, and lacerations

Even relatively minor injuries may require expensive medical care and missed work days. More serious injuries can cause significant financial hardship as well as life-altering physical effects. When someone else’s actions caused your injuries, you shouldn’t have to be responsible for the damages.

Damages Available in Texas Car Accident Claims

Car accident injuries can be serious or even catastrophic or deadly. They also quickly become costly. You shouldn’t be left holding the bag when someone else was at fault for the accident. Even if you share some degree of blame for how the accident occurred, you can still recover damages under the Texas comparative negligence insurance laws as long as you were 50% or less at fault. Common damages claimed in car accident cases in Plano include:

  • Medical expenses
  • Future medical expenses if you have necessary continued care or treatment
  • Lost income
  • Future lost wages
  • Diminished capacity to earn a living if you’ve been left disabled from the accident
  • Pain and suffering
  • Any other appropriate non-economic damages like trauma, PTSD, or loss of pleasure in life

While non-economic damages like pain and suffering may be more difficult to quantify, they can be the most impactful effect of a car accident. If your injury has had a serious negative impact on your life, financial compensation can not only recover your financial losses but also help you gain a sense of justice for the preventable injury you’ve suffered.

How Can I Recover Damages if I Was Partly at Fault in a Texas Car Accident?

Texas’s comparative fault insurance system allows injury victims to recover a portion of their damages, minus the percentage they’re found to be at fault in an accident. For example, if you were 20% at fault because you didn’t have your headlights on at dusk and a driver’s unsafe lane change caused an accident, you can still recover 80% of your damages. If your damages amount to $100,000 you can still gain $80,000 in compensation for medical expenses and pain and suffering.

Sometimes insurance companies use the state’s comparative fault laws against injury victims and attempt to assign them a greater percentage of blame than they’re due. A skilled Texas car accident attorney in Plano understands how to counteract this common tactic to maximize your financial recovery.

What Should I Do After a Car Accident?

The aftermath of a car accident is dangerous and frightening—especially if you or your loved ones have suffered serious injuries. Knowing what to do to protect yourself physically and financially after an accident is crucial. No one is prepared for an accident, but knowing what to do ahead of time can help you to keep a cool head. After a car accident, take the following steps:

  • First, never leave the scene until you’re taken in an ambulance or until the police clear you to go to an ER as soon as possible. Leaving the scene of an accident is a class C misdemeanor crime
  • Next, use your phone to call 911 to report the accident to the police and request emergency services. Remember, NEVER admit fault or say anything that could be construed as admitting fault, such as “I’m sorry.”
  • If you’re able to move your vehicle to the shoulder of the road, the law in Texas requires you to move it out of traffic for your own safety, to prevent pile-ups, and so you don’t impede traffic
  • Then, check yourself and others for injuries. If you are severely injured, you may be able to do little other than wait in place for help, but if you can move safely, offer reasonable aid and comfort to any other injured victims
  • Use your phone—or if you’re seriously hurt, hand it to an uninjured person to use for you—and take photos of damaged vehicles and the accident scene, including anything relevant like a signal light, an intersection, skid marks, or lack of skid marks
  • Add the contact information of other drivers and any eyewitnesses
  • If you have time, use your phone to record a brief statement about what you remember about the accident, including the moments before the accident occurred
  • Be brief in your description of the accident to the police and do not state that you aren’t hurt. Often, injuries become apparent later after the rush of adrenaline subsides

Always go to a hospital and have a thorough examination. Ask for a detailed medical report with your doctor’s recommendations for your treatment and your prognosis for recovery. Then obtain a copy of the police report and your medical report. Save your medical bills and related expense receipts. Be sure to set up a consultation with a Plano car accident lawyer from Carew Garcia Bohaslav, PLLC, before speaking to insurance company representatives.

Why You Need a Lawyer After a Car Accident in Plano

Insurance companies use many common methods to undervalue claims or deny them outright. Besides using the state’s comparative negligence laws against you, an insurance company might use the following tactics:

  • Calling you very soon after your accident with an offer for a low settlement before you know the true value of your damages
  • Recording your phone conversations with them and then using your remarks out of context against you
  • Obtaining access to your medical history to review the medical report of your injuries and then combing through years of your medical records to look for pre-existing conditions or previous injuries they can blame for your symptoms
  • Stating that the treatment your doctor recommended isn’t necessary
  • Looking through your social media posts to find “evidence” that you aren’t as injured as you claim

It’s always best to hire a Plano car accident lawyer with decades of experience with large insurance companies and then direct all communications with them to your lawyer. You should also avoid posting on social media completely until you’ve settled your accident claim.

Proving Liability After a Texas Car Accident

Because Texas is a fault-based insurance state, the plaintiff (injury victim) bears the burden of proving the at-fault party liable for damages. Your car accident attorney from Carew Garcia Bohuslav will gather evidence such as the police report, traffic camera footage, eyewitness testimony, and testimony from accident reconstruction experts to prove liability. This requires demonstrating the following:

  • That the party at fault for the accident owed a duty of care to you and others on the road to take reasonable measures to prevent injury
  • That they breached this duty of reasonable care by acting negligently or recklessly
  • That their breach of duty directly caused your injury
  • That you’ve suffered significant damages due to the injury such as medical expenses, lost income, and pain and suffering

Once your attorney proves the negligent party liable for damages, they’ll work diligently toward calculating your damages and obtaining the maximum settlement.

Do I Have to Go to Court for a Plano Car Accident Claim?

The vast majority of car accident claims settle out of court, especially when the injury victim has a skilled lawyer working on their behalf. Only about 5% of cases require a lawsuit filed within the state’s two-year statute of limitations for car accident cases. If your Plano car accident attorney from Carew Garcia Bohuslav doesn’t recover your compensation in an ample settlement, we are more than willing to fight aggressively for your damages in court. Court cases take more time than settlements but a jury award is often larger than a settlement.

If you or a loved one suffered serious injuries in a car accident in Plano, you deserve the skilled representation of a firm that focuses on the unique details of every case to gain the best results for each client.

Reach out to our Plano law office today for your free consultation. We only get paid if we achieve full success in recovering your losses.