What Should You Do After Having a Car Accident with an Uninsured Driver?
A car accident, in addition to being a catastrophic event that can put your life at risk, and ruin your day completely. Unbalancing your schedule, as you will surely miss at least one day of work or an appointment.
In addition, you have to face the repair of the damages suffered by your vehicle, the issues of responsibility, deal with the competent authorities and, of course, there is the possibility of suffering a physical injury.
It is normal to feel groggy after an accident, maybe you will remain in shock for a long time. Try to stay calm and don’t react impulsively.
Do I need a lawyer?
Attorney Contigo has over 30 years of experience helping car accident victims in California. No matter what type of injury you have suffered, Attorney Contigo can help. Our attorneys and their team have decades of combined experience representing accident victims. The combination of such experience plus devotion to the needs of our clients and perseverance in obtaining maximum results for our clients has resulted in numerous million-dollar settlements.
What should you do after the accident?
Stay on the scene
Never leave the scene of the accident until it is appropriate to do so. If you leave, particularly when someone has suffered injuries or died, you can face serious criminal penalties for being a hit-and-run driver.
Report the accident and call the police
Check if you caused significant damage to the property of others, physical injury or death, if so you should call the police immediately. Ask for a police report to be written, if the accident warrants police officers arriving on the scene, be sure to get the name and identification number of the officers who responded to the accident report.
Stay calm
Crashing your vehicle is not a pleasant experience. Victims of traffic accidents often become upset and lose control of their emotions. Despite all this, it is never good to lose patience, especially to start a heated dispute with another driver, even if he was responsible for the accident. It is important to remain calm and cooperate.
The first thing you need to do is check if you are injured. Don’t start charging the culprits, yelling or insulting the other party involved in the accident. Instead of fixing the situation, it can make it worse, so take a deep breath and stay calm.
You need to be calm so that you can resolve the situation and call the police. To properly document the accident, especially if the other driver does not have insurance.
On the other hand, something you shouldn’t do for anything in the world is tell the other driver that it was your fault. If you do this, you are legally admitting that you were responsible for the accident and you risk paying for repairs, fines, or lawsuits.
Just try to stay calm, make sure everyone is okay, contact your lawyer and be friendly.
How to Face a Car Accident with an Uninsured Driver
Let the police do their job
In California, after reporting the accident the police will arrive on the scene to make a report of how everything happened, interviewing all parties involved, both you and the other driver, among other things.
A good way to find out if the other driver has insurance is to start asking questions.
If you discover that the other driver does not have insurance, then you need to exchange all the information you can with him or her, including all personal data, driver’s license number, license plate number.
Take some photos of the incident, it is a good idea to protect yourself from any eventuality that may arise after the accident. Especially if there is an error with the police report.
Is my claim worth it?
To make an objective assessment of your claim you should take a look at how your insurance company or any insurance company typically qualifies that type of claim after a car accident. The insurance provider usually does a study to analyze the amount of damage inflicted and be able to calculate a percentage that fully covers your needs.
Determining the exact amount of money from a car accident damages and injuries can be very complicated and the tests often last for long periods, another reason why it is wise to hire an experienced car accident attorney.
Some relevant aspects to include in your claim
Emotional distress, pain and suffering
The emotional distress, pain, and suffering endured as a result of a vehicle accident can be devastating on many levels. In the case of an accident of serious consequences a person can end up disfigured, then that person experiences emotional anguish that he did not suffer before the accident, such as shame, humiliation, fear, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder, are some of the psychological alterations that can manifest in the victims.
Mental anguish is also a possible consequence. A traumatic car accident should not be taken lightly or ignored just for the absence of physical injuries. It’s time to talk to an attorney and give them a full explanation, especially in cases where the accident has caused emotional distress.
Medical bills
The sum of the total amount of your medical expenses is crucial, this includes all medical expenses from services rendered and products purchased to treat your injury. Filing all bills is a mandatory procedure that is required for the insurance company to make a reimbursement, as the total amount is usually used as a measure to determine the full extent of the damages, as well as the amount and type of medical damages that can also include other types of damages such as emotional disturbances. loss of wages and suffering.
In the event that you may need additional medical care such as post-procedure therapy or some extra operation, you can seek medical advice and ask for an evaluation from your trusted doctor and other medical specialists to prepare a budget whose result indicates an approximate figure on how much it will cost, since it can also be included as part of the solution.
The key to obtaining compensation after an accident is to prove that the other person acted negligently. California law is based on comparative negligence, meaning that even if you are at fault, it is possible to get your compensation if it can be shown that the other person involved is somehow also responsible for the accident.
Contact an experienced California car accident attorney to get you the compensation you deserve.