What to do Following a Nevada Car Accident

What to do Following a Nevada Car Accident

Whenever an individual is injured in a Nevada car accident, it is critical for the person to immediately follow up and seek medical care. Emergency treatment might be required, starting at the time that the accident occurs. If it is a serious situation, an ambulance needs to be called. There should definitely be follow-up immediately to an emergency room or urgent care facility to ensure there are no broken bones or any other types of serious injuries that might not be evident, except to the professional medical care provider who is examining the person.
They need to follow their doctor’s instructions and go to all of their doctor’s appointments. It is important to not miss any appointments. Also, they should avoid as much as possible rescheduling appointments too often unless an emergency situation arises.

It is essential to see all specialists that are referred by a medical doctor and to follow up with all medical care according to the doctor’s instructions. It is very important for an injured person to tell their doctor about all of the issues they are experiencing and to not minimize their companies, but instead to describe all of their difficulties and complaints that the individual is experiencing so a proper assessment can be made and the injury can be documefnted accurately. This will be important later on when a Nevada car accident attorney will be presenting all of the documentation related to the case to either a jury, an arbitrator, or an insurance company.

It is very important for all of an injured victim’s difficulties that they have experienced be contained in the document without the problems being minimized since it not only helps with resolving the medical problems from the doctor’s point of view, but also from our standpoint – the attorneys – it helps us to document the case better so that we can obtain, on our client’s behalf, fair and full compensation for their lost earnings, their medical expenses, and the pain and suffering they have endured.

When Should I Hire A Nevada Car Accident Attorney?

It is essential for prospective clients who have been in an accident to hire a lawyer as quickly as possible. The adverse party – the defendant – will have a team in place made up of investigators, insurance adjusters, and attorneys who are working together to attempt to minimize the client’s personal injury claim.

Hiring a Nevada car accident attorney one or two days following an accident is not too soon if there are severe injuries; if there is a potential dispute about liability.

There is plenty of work that a local personal injury attorney needs to do from the very start. Delay just plays into the insurance company’s hands. It is very important for people to get an attorney and get things done as soon as possible.

You should ask an attorney what their Martindale-Hubbell rating is. It is the most prestigious and respected peer review rating system in the country for lawyers. When anyone is choosing an attorney, this is an important factor that needs to be considered.

You should ask an attorney about what type of jury trial experience he has; whether or not he has been in court – and how successful in court he has been. You should ask the lawyer how many cases he has resolved successfully – if he has studied mediation and negotiation law, which is essential since more than 95 percent of all cases are settled using mediation or negotiation. You should ask him about the firm’s financial resources – whether or not the law firm will be willing to advance all of the client’s litigation costs, so the client doesn’t need to pay any money out of pocket.

Hiring The Right Attorney

You should ask an attorney what his state bar disciplinary record is – whether the attorney has ever been disbarred, suspended, or reprimanded. You should ask the lawyer whether their law firm had received referrals from other attorneys, whether or not the law firm had obtained referrals from insurance adjusters, or judges, or insurance defense attorneys who have special knowledge of all lawyers’ abilities.
You should ask these kinds of questions to help me make a decision about whether or not the attorney had the professional skills to resolve the case successfully. Ask yourself whether you have a good rapport with this attorney. Is it someone you will be able to get along well with?

It is someone you think you can open up to and share the facts from my accident – all of the difficulties that you are experiencing? Is the attorney accessible? Does he listen to me? Does he return my calls? Does he communicate with me with empathy, care, and understanding?
All of these things are serious, important, and great factors that need to be considered when anyone is choosing an attorney. No one should select a lawyer only based on advertising. No one should hire an attorney only based on their track record. However, those two factors combined are the most important for evaluating whether or not an attorney is the right one for you.

The Initial Meeting With A Nevada Car Accident Attorney

After an individual has been in an accident, they are searching for help. Whenever someone initially calls our office, they first talk to an intake specialist who records some general information regarding the accident, gathers the necessary facts that need to be evaluated, and on a preliminary level, whether or not it is a case that an attorney should evaluate to determine whether we can help the person or not.

After the initial call is made, the next step is to schedule an appointment. The injured prospective client will visit our office. They will be taken to a conference room, and beforehand, they will be asked to bring with them any materials that relate to their case to date.

For a Nevada car accident case, usually, that is comprised of information exchanged by the drivers – the ticker that the investigating police agency gives to them regarding some basic information related to their case. They will bring their insurance information with them, any type of receipts or bills, their initial pharmacy prescriptions, and medical expenses, etc.

A case manager first interviews them to take down more information regarding their case. This includes contact information, basic personal information, a rundown of the person’s injuries, general facts that relate to the accident, and the responsible party’s potential liability. All of this information is recorded in a general sense. The person is then joined by a lawyer who continues with the interview process.

The Nevada car accident attorney will explain the fee arrangement to the client, including the contingency fee contract and retainer agreements. It is covered in great detail by the attorney. When the terms are agreed to, our law firm is retained by the client, the retainer agreement is signed, along with any authorizations for releasing lost earnings information, medical information, and so on.

This process is explained to the client in great detail so they can know what to expect – the actual stages that are involved in personal injury cases. After that meeting has come to an end, the work starts. We ask the client to stay in touch with our law firm and to appropriately follow up with treatment and medical care and inform us of any changes in their injuries or medical treatment.

Communicating with us is definitely a two-way street. We frequently provide our clients with updated information on what we have discovered in our investigations of their case, collect the necessary documentation for presenting the case – and hopefully within a couple of months, and in a majority of cases, the case ending in successful negotiations.

The Legal Process

There are a number of different stages over the course of personal injury cases. During the investigative phase, all of the facts are collected. During the documentation phase, the information is gathered. We put a presentation together for the insurance company to hopefully use negotiations to resolve the case.

We resolve most of our cases during the negotiation phase. However, if there is a dispute regarding liability, about who is at fault for the accident, or whether there is just a disagreement between the insurance company and our law firm on the value that would resolve the case fairly, then a lawsuit will be necessary. Lawsuits go through different stages as well.

The discovery phase is one of them where information is exchanged between the law firm representing the injured person and the defense firm representing the insurance company’s interest. Written information is exchanged – where requests are made back and forth for the production of certain documents – as well as interrogatories, or written questions, that the defendant – the responsible party – and the injured person must answer under oath, to determine certain facts involved in the case.

In addition to written answers to questions and exchanged documents, there are also depositions. These are sworn testimony that are taken under oath in a court reporter’s presence to determine the facts in a case – how the accident occurred from the standpoint of the witnesses, police officers, and all the parties that are involved – and the injured victim is also called to testify about how they were affected by the accident in terms of their injuries, their lost earnings, their pain and suffering, etc.

Also, medical doctors, as well as other healthcare providers, are called to provide sworn testimony in depositions to explain precisely what occurred in terms of the injury, and what it will take for the injured victim to heal and back on their feet once again. During the discovery process, our clients can be assured they will hear from our law office often regarding information we need in terms of documentation and coopering in answering the sworn questions under oath. Also, within the deposition setting, where there is a verbal exchange of information in a court reporter’s presence.

There might be an arbitration proceeding to help resolve the case, or there could be a meditation proceeding that is facilitated negotiations that take place in front of a neutral party who is called in to help bring the various parties together. If none of those methods resolve a case, there is the jury trial, where the case is presented in an adversarial format with attorneys on both sides in front of a jury and judge to determine what a fair amount of compensation for the injured person.

Effects Of Social Media

Personal injuries are very serious matters. They are very private as well and only should be discussed with the lawyer and the lawyer’s office representatives, or family and close friends.

Doctors, as well as other healthcare providers, must be involved. However, one mistake that is made by some people is talking about their accident on social media, and they may something wrong, which could be misconstrued by an acquaintance or neighbor, which the insurance company can use against them.

Over the past several years, especially with the rise of social media, individuals are opening their lives up to the world more. They post on Facebook as well as other social networking websites and talk about everything going on in their lives. One problem with this is when they discuss their accident and use offhand remarks, they need to be aware that insurance company representatives and their attorneys monitor social networking sites very clearly.

They send investigators to speak to acquaintances and neighbors to try to find information on the injured individual that can be used against them. Insurance companies, as well as their attorneys, use this information to attempt to discredit the injured individual to diminish the case’s value.

In order for a client to have an improved chance of succeeding after injured during an accident, it is best for them to keep their personal information private. They should only discuss their injures and the accident’s effects with only close friends and family members.

Our Legal System

The reason why our system works is that both sides get an attorney, and our system works because if the two parties are not able to negotiate a settlement, these differences can be resolved inside a classroom. It is usually possible to resolve most Nevada car accident cases if people offer true statements of the circumstances and facts involved in the case.

And when you see the point of view of the other side, you can get under the line and develop the ability for predicting with reasonable certainty what will occur if the case were to go to trial. What would be the likely result if a jury heard the case? And due to the ability that attorneys have, via the discovery process where the two sides share most of the information and their experience, a majority of attorneys can sit down and fairly resolve cases.

Sometimes several letters are necessary, sometimes a phone call, sometimes a face-to-face meeting, which can take the form of an informal gathering or a formal mediation process that involves facilitated negotiations that are done via a neutral mediator who is retained by both parties who attempts to help parties see common ground.

Above all else, we need to respect that the civil justice system is the best way to resolve disputes in the United States, and that requires people to be respectful to one another in addition to being aggressive, otherwise, the entire system will be undermined.

Documentation That We Need

The main role of the client when a Nevada car accident injury case is being negotiated is to ensure we have all the necessary information to present their case and to fully and fairly negotiate – and have all documentation that is needed to support the case’s value, which comes in the form of medical expenses and bills, prescriptions, transportation costs, etc.

It is also critical to have documentation regarding lost earnings that have been verified by the client’s employer and verified by their doctor who has disabled the patient for a certain amount of time. We also need our clients to provide us with witness statements who can give information on how our client’s life has been affected by the accident in terms of inconvenience, pain and suffering, etc.

Once the information has been collected, it enables the lawyer who is representing the injured person to effectively negotiate. It also allows the case to speak for itself. The attorney who is negotiating for a client can also bring up the necessary points to ensure there is the proper amount of compensation for every element of damage, including pain and suffering, lost earnings, medical expenses, etc.

Negotiating A Settlement

All settlement offers are required to be conveyed to clients as they are received under ethical rules for lawyers. So although a settlement offer might be unreasonable, an attorney is duty-bound to provide the client with the settlement offer to discuss whether or not it is fair. A case’s value can only be determined after all elements of damage are determined.

There is usually not a specific amount of money that a case must settle for. After all of the information has been collected, and our office has obtained all of the necessary information and we know all of the circumstances and facts of a case, we can place a range on a case’s value.
We determine a reasonable range that we would be willing to settle your case for. After we receive settlement offers within this range, we can recommend that our client accept the settlement. However, if settlement offers do not fall within our range, we will look for other ways to determine the extent of damages and determine liability through the use of the litigation process.

So all settlement offers are conveyed to our clients. We advise them on whether or not they should decline or accept an offer while keeping in mind the additional expenses that are needed to litigate a case rather than to negotiate as well as the time value of money. Our law firm considers all of these factors to help determine the best course of action to take for our client.

Preparing For Trial With A Nevada Car Accident Attorney

Whenever a case is unable to be settled due to disagreements between the insurance company and their attorneys and our law firm, the case will need to to to trial for a jury and/or judge to determine what the claim is worth and who is at fault. It can be a very intimidating and daunting situation for many of our clients who are not used to working with a Nevada-based personal injury law office or going to trial in court. A trial is the last place that you want to be alone, since by then you have lost control.

When it comes to negotiating your case, some control is still available in terms of whether you accept a settlement offer or not. In the mediation process, a neutral professional is brought in to help the parties come together to try to find common ground and get the case resolved, there is still some control that exists.

Whenever a case ends up going to trial, there is a loss of control. Now everything is left up to the jury or judge to decide to determine the case’s fact, the question of damages, and the liability of the various parties.

Most important of all, the day before going to court, to just be honest, be yourself, and be real, to allow the essence of all they have experienced rise up to the top. People feel the emotion and sincerity that people endure after being in an accident.

When they don’t attempt to hide anything and allow their emotions to flow about how they have been affected by the accident if they can just be real and let their guard down, then everyone will feel a connection.

Truth rises up to the top. In a majority of Nevada car accident cases where a client is forthcoming and honest in how they tell their story, their Nevada car accident lawyer will be able to successfully advocate in front of the jury or judge so that justice can be served, and fair damages can be awarded.