CONSULT WITH A LAWYER ABOUT YOUR CASE FOR FREE. CLICK TO CALL US TODAY!
Trusted Legal Team
At Green & Gillispie, our staff works tirelessly to ensure you get the best possible outcome in your case. You need an attorney who is dedicated to protecting your rights and obtaining your much-deserved financial compensation. The experienced attorneys at Green & Gillispie achieve serious results for those injured in car wrecks because we operate based upon a client-first philosophy. The client’s best interests always come first. Your problem is our problem.
Car Accidents and Auto Injuries
One of the most common areas of practice for our legal team at Green & Gillispie is the field of car accidents and auto injuries. In 2018, 447 fatal car accidents in Arkansas resulted in 492 deaths, and there is an automobile accident that happens roughly every eight minutes.
Nearly everyone will get into a car accident at some point in their life. Most of the time, it will be a fender bender or other minor incident; however, some people receive injuries from accidents that are not their fault, and when this happens, people deserve compensation. Car accidents often result in lost wages and time spent away from work, a disruption in the daily routine that can be long-lasting, and even more serious consequences such as injury, disability, and death.
Sometimes when car accidents happen, injuries are not noticeable immediately and might not present themselves until days later. These injuries are often severe and can become worse over time, which is why you need a personal injury attorney such as Green & Gillispie to navigate you through the process of filing a claim against the auto insurance company and/or the at-fault driver when your claim to compensation exceeds the policy limitations.
Most Common Injuries that Happen in Car Accidents
The unfortunate truth is that you could suffer minor or major injuries in car accidents, and some of these injuries might not show up until much later. This makes it hard to prove whether the injuries were sustained in an automobile accident. You’ll need legal representation with experience in handling all sorts of car injury cases, including:
How Will A Personal Injury Attorney Help Me After My Car Accident?
When you suffer injuries in a car accident, the best way to get the compensation you need and deserve is by hiring a personal injury attorney at Green & Gillispie. We are here to help you document your injuries, seek financial recovery, and get you the access to treatment that you need to make a full recovery. Not only are we making sure you get the compensation legally and rightfully available to you, but we are also advocating for your health and wellness.
In Arkansas, there is also a statute of limitations to bring suits for personal injury and harm. The Arkansas statute that applies to car accident lawsuits mandates a three-year statute of limitations. This means that you have until three years after your car accident to bring a suit for damages. Arkansas also has rules governing comparative negligence, which allows you to seek damages against any party who is more at-fault than you are; however, the damages are reduced according to the ratio of how at-fault you were compared to the other involved parties. One important rule included in this law is that if you are fifty percent at-fault or more, you cannot recover against other drivers.
Drivers involved in car accidents involving any injury or any damage to the vehicles are required to remain at the scene to exchange information. Drivers involved in car accidents in Arkansas are also required to report their accident to the police if there are likely more than $1,000 in property damage or if any driver, passenger, or pedestrian suffered bodily injury of any kind or was killed. These regulations are parts of your car accident case that your North Little Rock car accident attorney at Green & Gillispie can help you navigate effectively.
If you or your loved one has been involved in a car accident, take the proper precautions and hire reliable legal representation through attorneys you can trust like Green & Gillispie in North Little Rock, Arkansas.
CONTACT US
What To Do At The Scene
Getting into a car accident can be very scary. The first thing you need to do is remain calm and try your best not to panic. Make sure 911 is called right away by you or someone else at the scene. You also need to turn on your hazard lights so that other motorists and pedestrians can see where you and the vehicles are at, and be able to get out of the way.
Never leave the scene of an accident you’re involved in unless it’s with emergency services. Leaving the scene of an accident is a criminal offense. Your first reaction may be to pull your car over or into a parking lot of it is still able to be driven; however, the police may want you to leave the cars where they are at in order to properly investigate. 911 responders can tell you whether or not you should move the vehicles if there are no officers on the scene yet.
You don’t need to wait for the police to arrive to start collecting evidence. Here are some ways you can initially collect evidence and protect yourself:
Following these steps at the scene of the accident will save a lot of time in collecting evidence after the fact.
Recovering Compensation
In Arkansas, the person who is found “at fault” in the accident, along with that person’s insurance company, must compensate the victims involved in the car accident. There are a few different ways to start a claim for compensation:
Some of the damages you can seek recovery for as a result of a car accident include:
The lawyers at Green & Gillispie are car accident attorneys who know how to build the strongest case for the most compensation. Even if you’re on the fence about hiring a lawyer for car accidents in Little Rock, sit down with us for a free consultation to better understand the options you have available in your journey to compensation.
If you purchased uninsured motorist coverage with your auto policy, then you can use that to seek compensation for your damages. Uninsured and underinsured coverage are optional in Arkansas, but your agent must have offered it to you. With an uninsured claim, your own insurer becomes your adversary and your car accident lawyer still has to prove that the uninsured driver negligently caused the accident and that you suffered injuries and other damages.
Got more questions? Contact us for a free and confidential consultation.
You pay nothing out-of-pocket. Personal injury cases are taken by lawyers on a contingency basis, or a percentage of the gross settlement or award that is spelled out in our written contingency agreement with you. If we recover nothing, then you pay nothing. In complex injury cases, attorneys will usually ask for a higher percentage because the case will require much more expense, resources, work and skills. Also, in some cases the percentage is determined by statute or state law.
It depends on the degree of liability of the other party, your own conduct, how serious your injuries are, how they affect your life, your ability to work and earn an income, the reasonableness of your medical care and costs, and if your injury will be permanent, among many other factors that are considered in evaluating a claim. Of course, what insurance is available is also a consideration. No two cases are exactly alike, and no attorney can or should guarantee that you will receive a certain amount.
You are entitled to economic or special damages that include your medical expenses, property damage, and income loss. You can also collect general or non-economic damages for your pain and suffering against the responsible party, and for how your injuries have diminished your enjoyment of life. Emotional distress, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, embarrassment over scarring or disfigurement, insomnia, development of an addiction to pain medication, and other trauma are also part of your damages. If the defendant’s conduct was especially egregious, malicious, or grossly negligent, you could be awarded punitive damages as well.
Few injury claims are clear-cut as to who is at fault, and there may be other parties who were responsible. But even if another party admits liability, you can harm your case by talking to adjusters and investigators and unknowingly making comments that could place some fault on yourself or that minimizes your injuries. There are also issues about the extent or seriousness of your injuries and proof of your damages that insurance companies will question and challenge. There are many factors that insurance companies consider when handling and evaluating claims. Your Green & Gillispie injury lawyer is trained and experienced in these issues and in how to deal with and negotiate with insurance companies.
Talk to a personal injury lawyer who will review the facts of your case and the applicable laws. Usually, if someone or a company acted carelessly or even intentionally in causing your injuries, you can bring a claim against that person or business personally or depending on the nature of the accident, against that party’s auto policy, homeowner’s policy, commercial liability insurance, or the person’s employer if they were on the job at the time. There may be other insurance policies that apply as well.
In Arkansas, you generally have 3-years from the date of injury or when you discovered or should have discovered your injury. Persons under 18 when injured generally have 3-years after they turn 18 to file a claim. In some complex cases, you may not realize what caused your injuries until years later but may still bring a claim under some circumstances. Keep in mind that some causes of action, such as intentional torts like assault and battery, only provide a 1-year statute of limitations.
Yes, you are entitled to be compensated based on the degree to which your injury was aggravated by the accident. If it was aggravated by a substantial degree that necessitated surgery, for example, your claim could be significant, though your settlement or award might still be dependent on other factors.
You can still collect compensation so long as your own degree of fault is less than 50%. If you are equally or 50% at fault for an accident, you cannot collect anything. Your damages are also reduced by your percentage of fault, so if you have $100,000 in damages but were 40% at fault, you would collect $60,000.
Anyone who has been injured in an accident is likely to experience many difficulties they have perhaps never experienced before, including high medical bills, lost wages because they can’t go.
Never accept a settlement offer before at least having a free consultation with an experienced personal injury attorney.
Following an accident that caused you a serious injury, it is not always immediately obvious that the accident victim has plenty of grounds for a successful personal injury claim.
SUBMIT FOR FREE EVALUATION
