According to the Association for Safe International Road Travel, nearly 50 million people are injured every year as the result of a a motor vehicle accident. Nobody likes the thought of getting into a car accident, but when it does happen, it’s important to know what to do to make sure that you’re protected.
When you’re involved in an auto accident, you may be entitled to personal injury compensation if the accident wasn’t your fault or at least wasn’t entirely your fault. A personal injury claim can help determine just how at fault each party was, and the other person involved could have to pay for your injuries if he or she was more at fault than you were. In order to craft the best case possible, it’s important to make sure that you do a few things immediately following the accident, though.
1. Seek Medical Treatment
Oftentimes an ambulance is called to the scene when there’s a motor vehicle accident. Whether you think you are injured enough to be checked out or not, receive the medical treatment. This will make it so that you’ll have documentation of your injuries and their causes later on if you decide to file a personal injury claim.
2. Get Names
Get the names of the other people involved in the accident if possible. Hopefully, you weren’t involved in a hit-and-run and can get the names, phone numbers and insurance companies of the other parties involved in the crash. If it was a hit-and-run, then try to get the license plate number of the vehicle as it’s leaving the crash site. If you couldn’t get the license plate number, shoot a video with your phone, or inquire of nearby businesses to see if they had any cameras outside that might have caught the accident on camera.
3. Log Details
As soon as you are physically able to, write down as many of the details as you can remember. Details and memory tends to get blurry over time, so writing down everything you can remember is key to documenting those minute details. Things that may seem small to you now might end up making a huge difference later on when a car accident lawyer in Phoenix AZ evaluates your case. If you have a camera and can record the events leading up to and after the accident, that is wonderful.
4. Seek Legal Representation
Before you agree to any type of settlement, admit to any blame, or let anyone off the hook, seek our legal advice to determine whether or not you have a valid personal injury case.