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Most people in Euless spend a great deal of time in their cars getting to work, home, and all points in between. Unfortunately, this makes car accidents common here.
If another driver injured you in Euless, you should contact our team immediately so you can start getting the compensation you need for your treatment. Before that, though, we highly encourage you to contact the police after being hit so they can investigate your crash right after it happened. The report the police will create for your crash will often be vital to securing the compensation you deserve. It will provide important information about the person who injured you and if any witnesses saw the crash. It will also tell us exactly when the crash occurred and how much time you have from then to file your lawsuit.
For a free case evaluation with our car accident lawyers, contact The Queenan Law Firm, P.C. at (817) 476-1797.
What You Should Do After a Car Accident in Euless, TX
Car accidents in Euless are often chaotic, making it difficult to keep your thoughts straight and know what to do next. However, you will want to get help from the police and emergency medical services if you are injured in a car accident, as you might be filing a lawsuit for it later. You might not want to get the police involved, thinking it will be easier to work issues out with the other driver privately. This can ultimately hurt your chances of recovering compensation later. Thus, you should always call the police after a car accident, even for minor ones.
Reporting Your Car Accident
In most cases, car accidents must be reported as a matter of law. According to Tex. Trans. Code § 55.026(a), any vehicle accident resulting in death, bodily injury, or property damages that appears to be over $1,000 must be investigated by law enforcement. While you would not be required to report an accident like a minor fender bender, you should still report it so the police can draft an accident report.
Police reports are often very useful to settlement negotiations in a lawsuit. When the police investigate your crash, they will note important details in your report, like the parties involved, the date, time, and location of the accident, as well as any witnesses they interviewed. The report will also typically include the officer’s observations and opinions on how the accident likely occurred. Thus, they can help our team track down other evidence to use in your case.
While the facts from the report are usually not admissible in court since it is considered hearsay, there is no restriction on their use during negotiations with insurance companies. In fact, most insurance companies will want a police report as part of the claims process.
Getting Your Police Report
Fortunately, police reports in Euless are fairly simple to recover if you have access to the internet. § 550.062(b) requires all law enforcement officers to submit their completed reports to the Texas Department of Transportation within ten days of the accident.
It does not matter what law enforcement agency investigated your crash. Whether it was the Euless Police Department, Texas Highway Patrol, or some other agency, the report will be available 10 to 14 days from the accident in the Department of Transportation’s Crash Records Information System (C.R.I.S.), which can be accessed here.
You should generally wait 14 days for the report to be made available, but contact our team immediately if it is still not appearing. The costs of the report are $6 for a regular copy and $8 for a certified one. Once we have your police report, we can check for any errors you notice and start formulating our theory of the case.
Ways of Recovering Compensation for a Car Accident in Euless, TX
You will typically have a couple of options at your disposal to recover compensation. Most car accident claims start by filing an insurance claim, but there are no rules in this state that limit your right to file a lawsuit. Some states have a “no-fault” insurance system, which can severely limit victims’ right to sue for a car accident. In Euless and every Texas car accident, “at-fault” insurance rules dictate the process for a claim. However, this system has its own challenges that must be overcome. The following will help you understand how to pursue damages for your car accident:
An Insurance Claim
With at-fault insurance, you can file a claim with the other driver’s insurance provider to recover damages. This process works much like a lawsuit, meaning that you need to submit evidence to prove your claims and justify the damages you are pursuing. Unfortunately, the insurance company is likely to fight your claims, no matter how reasonable, since they are attempting to save themselves as much money as possible.
Ultimately, you are not their client, so the insurance company will be less likely to work with you. You will still want to have our attorneys on your side to fight your insurance claim. Insurance companies know that we will not back down when your claims are challenged and will not fall for tactics that work on inexperienced victims. Thus, they will often be more willing to settle a claim than spend the expenses of taking the case all the way to trial.
In many cases, we do not need to have a court decide the case, so most trials can be avoided. Depending on your accident, you might not want to start things off by filing a lawsuit. For instance, you might have been in a minor accident where the defendant’s liability is clear. In that case, the insurance company might be more than willing to settle to put the case behind them. More often than not, though, we will file your lawsuit when we file your insurance claim.
A Lawsuit
At-fault insurance rules do not bar you from skipping the insurance claims process altogether and going straight to filing a lawsuit. As mentioned, both will usually be filed at the same time to cover all our bases.
Another important reason for not waiting to file your lawsuit is that we must file your case before the “statute of limitations” runs out. According to Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem Code § 16.003(a), only two years is given for car accident victims to file their claims in court. Fortunately, this rule only applies to how long you have to file. Once we file your lawsuit and the court accepts it, we can take the time we need to negotiate the case.
Our Euless, TX Car Accident Lawyers Can Help You Get Compensation from the Person Who Injured You
Call The Queenan Law Firm, P.C. today at (817) 476-1797 for a free case review with our car accident attorneys.