Virginia Car Accident Lawyer
Every year, there are thousands of injuries from car accidents in Virginia, and should that happen to you, it is important to find a highly experienced Virginia car accident lawyer who will come to you in your time of need. As you can see we have you covered. Let our experienced team help you.
Data from the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles shows that almost 1,000 deaths happen each year on Virginia’s roadways. These accidents happen throughout the state, and at least 180 people are injured every day in the Commonwealth from traffic accidents.
There are many factors that contribute to this high number of Virginia car accidents:
- inattentiveness and reckless driving
- speeding, and inconsistent speeds
- impairment caused by drinking and drugs
- cell phone use
- disobeying traffic signals or signs
As you can see from the above list, despite the fact that they are usually alluded to as “car accidents” more often than not they are really brought about by driver carelessness.
In some cases, drivers are distracted and not focusing on their driving. Or then again it could be an overcast or blustery day and their capacity to drive may get impeded. Whatever the explanation, you ought not to need to endure the torment of a fender bender. We accept that the main initial step to your street to recovery is employing an accomplished Virginia car accident lawyer. The sooner you contact one, the sooner your lawyer can begin intervening for your sake with the insurance agencies and clinical suppliers.
Some normal situations that you may end up confronting include:
- You may require a medical procedure, broad non-intrusive treatment, or chiropractic care to aid your recuperation.
- You may have costly hospital expenses for crisis treatment, including emergency vehicle administrations
- You may lose the utilization of your vehicle and need a rental vehicle
- You may have been hit by an uninsured or underinsured driver
- Your protection transporter may not do fitting degrees of examination or due tirelessness, or
- Quite a few different circumstances, where through no deficiency of your own you could be cash-based because of another person’s carelessness
- They need to get clinical treatment and they can’t get the assistance they need. That is the reason employing an auto crash legal advisor is significant, and why we need to go to work for you.
Why Hire a Virginia Car Accident Lawyer?
Hiring a accident lawyer is the most ideal approach to guarantee that you recuperate completely. The insurance agencies are encouraged to settle your case rapidly, and most occasions for less than what you deserve. The insurance agency isn’t your companion. They must settle the car accident protection guarantee as fast and inexpensively as could really be expected. The sum they offer you might be insufficient to appropriately repay you for your wounds, clinical treatment, property harm, and compensation misfortunes.
They need to return a benefit for their investors. In the event that you have been harmed in a mishap, you will require an accomplished auto crash legal counselor to deal with your case. Contact The Joel Bieber Firm today, to get a top-quality legitimate portrayal.
We have a long-standing obligation to come to you any place you are, it’s something beyond a motto, it’s the manner in which we give remarkable customer care from the second we meet. At the point when you go to The Joel Bieber firm for legitimate portrayal in your auto crash guarantee, we go to work immediately and keep on working tirelessly until your circumstance is settled.
Steps You Should Take If You Are Involved in a Car Accident
Virginia is an “at fault” state, which means that the driver that is considered to have caused the mishap is liable for compensation, and their insurance will be utilized to pay for the other driver’s bills. It is crucial that you call the police and accumulate as much information as possible about the car accident. In the event that you can’t gather information about the other driver or the accident details, request the cop or a traveler in your vehicle to gather information and send it to you. You will need the other driver’s contact information and car registration to proceed with the necessary next steps to ensure proper coverage. If you were unable to do this at the accident scene, contact our Virginia car accident lawyers to help you locate the necessary information. The police and insurance companies will look at the evidence in making a determination as to which driver is responsible for the collision. The main thing to do is to gather proof at the scene that backings the way that you were not liable for the mishap, including photographs of the scene, the climate conditions, and time.
What is the average settlement for a car accident in Virginia?
The average settlement for a car accident in Virginia, like in many other states, can vary widely depending on a many factors. These factors include the severity of injuries, property damage, medical expenses, lost wages, and the extent of liability. Additionally, insurance policies, legal representation, and negotiations can all influence the final settlement amount.
Finally, contact your Virginia auto accident lawyer as soon as you are safe after the accident. We will be able to guide you on how to proceed after an accident to ensure you are holding the negligent parties accountable. We have made a helpful Do and Don’t guide for use when you are involved in a car accident and we regularly act as a resource for car accident victims. Contact an experienced car accident lawyer at The Joel Bieber Firm today for your free initial consultation. Please fill out the form on this page.
What’s REALLY Happening with
Auto Accident Claims
CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 aired a three-part report that revealed the underhanded tactics that many insurance companies are using to save themselves billions of dollars by reducing claims paid to minor-impact crash victims. These tactics – dubbed the “Three Ds,” delay, deny and defend – are discussed in the reports by former insurance industry insiders. CNN’s investigative team’s research and interviews revealed that multiple major insurance providers have employed these tactics during the course of the past 10 years. The result: 80 percent to 90 percent of accident victims settling without a fight for the small sums the companies offer. Often, these sums are as small as $50 and $100 when the victims are facing thousands of dollars lost.
Watch the Anderson Cooper 360 Reports on the Auto Insurance Industry:
Read the Anderson Cooper 360 Articles on the Auto Insurance Industry:
Contact an experienced auto accident lawyer at The Joel Bieber Firm today for your free initial consultation. Please fill out the form on this page.
Our Office
Frequently Asked Questions
You should always feel free to contact your attorney with any questions you have about your case. It is important that you keep the Firm up to date with your contact information so that your attorney can get in touch with you regarding case developments. In addition to your attorney, you will also have a paralegal working on your case. Your paralegal will be working to collect all of your treatment information. You should keep your paralegal updated on where you are seeking medical care and if you are referred to any new providers. Once you are released from treatment, your attorney will keep you up to speed on negotiations with the insurance company and will provide you with guidance about your cases value. If your case is one that goes to litigation, your attorney will guide you through the litigation process.
There is not a simple yes or no answer to this question. At The Joel Bieber Firm, we take a great deal of time, effort and care in obtaining the best settlement offer we can from the insurance company. If we are able to reach an agreement with the insurance company, you will not have to go to court. However, if the insurance company doesn’t pay a fair value for your case, The Joel Bieber Firm is ready and willing to file a lawsuit and fight for your case in court.
Do not sign any document for the insurance company without consulting a lawyer. The insurance company may ask you to sign a Medical Release or a Final Release of your claims in return for some payment. Medical Release: Your medical records are protected under a federal law known as HIPAA. While the insurance company may have a right to see some records in order to evaluate your claim, the release of that information should be limited and controlled. The medical release created by the insurance company may allow the insurance company to speak directly to your doctors, to receive all of your records for an unlimited time and to use those records for any purpose even purposes not related to your claim. Final Release: Once you sign a release, you cannot seek reimbursement for any additional treatment or other losses regardless of whether you made a mistake in signing too soon. Even a release given in exchange for a property damage settlement could release your claims for bodily injuries and lost wages.
That is a very good question. It can also be the topic for an entire seminar because it can get quite complicated, and every situation is different, which is all the more reason to talk to a lawyer. But the short answer for the typical situation is this—ready?—in most cases, you better hope you’ve got good insurance coverage on yourself. Why, you ask? Because in the typical case, you will be making a claim on your own automobile insurance policy’s uninsured motorist coverage. The number of uninsured motorists on the road in Virginia is surprising. There are even more people driving around who are underinsured. When the driver at fault is uninsured, or is underinsured, your most likely recourse in the typical situation is to pursue an uninsured or underinsured motorist claim on your own auto policy. The amount of uninsured coverage on your policy is a cap, or the limit, on what money you can collect. An easier way of saying it is that the amount of coverage you have on your policy will probably be the limit on what you get if the other guy doesn’t have insurance or is underinsured. That is why it is so important to make sure you have good uninsured motorist coverage in your own policy. If there is one thing you take away from reading this, it is to go back, look at your policy, and make sure you have enough uninsured coverage on your own policy so that all damages will be covered. Here’s why. First, understand what uninsured coverage is. It is like insurance you take out on yourself to protect against a costly collision. Uninsured motorist coverage gives you money to pay for damages whether the at-fault driver is uninsured or is less insured than you are. It is insurance to make sure there is enough money to go around in case you are in a wreck with someone who has no insurance, or as we often see, has only the low minimum coverage required in Virginia. In Virginia, the minimum amount of liability coverage that a person can buy is a 25/50/20 policy. The numbers represent different types of coverage in thousands of dollars. The first two numbers (the “25,000/50,000”) are the amounts that the insurance company will pay for bodily injury claims arising from an accident that you are legally liable for. The first number is the per-person amount and the second number is the per-accident amount. This is the lowest amount of insurance you can get. It also is usually the total amount of uninsured motorist coverage (UM) and underinsured motorist coverage (UIM) available. If you have low liability coverage, you also have low uninsured coverage to cover yourself if someone hits you. Let’s take a look at a typical example. If you have a minimum policy and someone hits you is uninsured, or also has the minimum coverage, that amount is all you can get—$25,000 per person, and $50,000 for everyone in the wreck. You would make a claim and your recovery would be capped at $25,000 no matter what the total actual damages are. As we often see, $25,000 doesn’t get you very far these days in a moderate-to-significant crash. Taking into consideration all the medical expenses, lost wages, possible future expenses and lost earnings, never mind the injury itself, pain and suffering, inconvenience, and a possible impairment, damages can easily exceed $25,000, but, still, that’s all that you would get. If you have low coverage, you can easily come up short. And, unfortunately, that happens. On the other hand, if you have higher uninsured coverage—let’s say, $50,000/$100,00 or $100,000/$300,000 or even more—then you would have twice or four or more times the money available to pay for your actual damages, even though the other driver has no insurance or only minimum coverage. With higher uninsured coverage, there is more money available to cover all the damages and a better chance that all your damages will be covered. Like we said earlier, there are a lot of people out there driving around with no insurance and with only the minimum amount of liability coverage who are causing some bad accidents. There may be other ways to get around an uninsured driver hitting you depending on the circumstances, but the usual case will have you use your own uninsured coverage. So, you should take a look at your financial and insurance situation, talk to your insurance agent, and decide whether or not you need more coverage. The time to decide on the right amount of uninsured motorist coverage is obviously before there is a wreck, injuries, and bills. Now that you know that what coverage you have may be, and probably will be, the total amount you get after a wreck, make sure it’s enough– enough to at least buy you peace of mind.
Seeking medical treatment is important for two reasons. The first is your health. Whether you have been in a motor vehicle crash, fell on someone else’s property, been bitten by a dog, or been injured in some other fashion, the goal is to return to the state of health that you were in prior to the incident. That is job one. Secondarily, the cost of your medical treatment is the responsibility of the party that injured you and their insurance company and it is an important factor for determining how much pain and suffering you have experienced from the incident.
Insurance companies will sometimes offer to or even send you a check as an enticement to settle your case quickly. It is always to their advantage to get you to accept a quick payment before you really know what is wrong with you. Be aware that if you accept, endorse, deposit, or cash the check it can be found to be an acceptance of the settlement offer and your case will be over. (Do not cash or deposit the check and then try to return it later, as that may also be found to be an acceptance of the settlement offer.) This can be a very costly mistake if you are still treating for injuries from a crash, still out of work, or if you may need additional medical treatment in the future. Once the check is accepted, you will likely never be able to get the additional compensation for your injuries, medical treatment, and losses that you deserve. If you are offered a check or receive one in the mail, do not accept it unless you are 100% sure that you want to forever end your case for the amount of the check at that moment. If you are not 100% sure, you should refuse or return the check and seek legal advice about your case.
If when you are contacted by the other party’s insurance company they will likely attempt to have your conversation recorded. You are not required to give a recorded statement, and we strongly urge our clients not to give this statement. In fact, we encourage you not to speak to the other party’s insurance company about the facts of the crash or about any injuries that may have resulted. Your conversation should be limited to information about damage to your car and its location. Tell the insurance company to contact your insurance company or your lawyer.
A car crash is never a pleasant experience. Afterward, everyone’s emotions are usually running high. It is best to remain calm and not argue with the other driver. Someone may be injured, and you should make sure everyone involved is ok, and that there aren’t any injuries. Even if the accident doesn’t seem bad, and no one appears to be hurt, you should call 911. You need the police to be present to keep everyone safe and to get the vehicles moved. Also, it is good to have the police present for insurance purposes to prove that the accident happened. Be sure exchange information with the other driver including the other driver’s name, address, insurance company name and policy number. Make notes of the make and model of the vehicle. Be sure not to make any statements as to the accident being your fault.
There are varying time deadlines, and in some instances other special “notice” or filing deadlines, that apply to injury claims. There is no law, however, that requires an injury victim to report an accident-related injury to an attorney. With the understanding that the deadlines apply whether or not an attorney is involved, the better question might be whether it makes sense to call for legal help with your injury claim now, as opposed to later? We believe the answer to this question is always or almost always “yes”. The person or company that “accidentally” hurts you usually reports what happened to a liability insurance company right away. That company then immediately begins to investigate what happened, to investigate the claims being made, and to investigate the people making the claims. The insurer does this to protect its interests and that of its insured, not the interests of the victim. Often there is an issue over who is legally responsible for what happened. When this occurs, the insurance company may deny your claim entirely or attempt to negotiate a settlement for less than full value. In addition, there is almost always disagreement over the severity of the injuries and damages being claimed, with a resulting argument over their monetary value. Insurance claim adjusters do this for a living. As personal injury attorneys, we do this for a living as well, with the critical difference that we do it for you, not the insurance company. The sooner we get to work, the sooner we are able to protect you, and the more likely it is that we’ll be able to help you obtain the full and fair compensation you deserve. We charge no extra for getting to work now as opposed to later; in fact, we charge no fee until your case is successfully resolved. If the other guy’s insurance company is already working to protect him, shouldn’t someone be working to protect you right now as well? (Call us, right now, toll-free, at 888-777-5635.)
Initially, we need you to provide us with as much information about the incident that led to your injuries as possible. How did the incident happen? Where did it happen? Who was involved? Were there any witnesses? Who did you speak with at the scene of the incident? What was said during the conversation? If you have an Exchange of Information Form, an Incident Report, or any other documents relating to the incident, we would like to have copies. Similarly, we ask that you provide us with any photographs that you may have, including photographs of your car (if you were involved in a car crash) and photographs of your injuries, such as cuts, bruises, and scars. Finally, we need information regarding the kinds of injuries that you sustained, where you have sought treatment, information related to any lost wages, and information as to how the incident has impacted you physically and emotionally.
Personal injury attorneys do not get paid like other attorneys do. While some attorneys charge by the hour or make you pay in advance, personal injury attorneys get paid a percentage of your settlement or jury verdict. This is called a “contingency fee.” Importantly, you do not have to pay us in advance to represent you and we do not get paid for our work until your case is resolved. Working on a contingency basis provides a real benefit to clients because the client’s interests and the law firm’s interests align. We are both focused on maximizing your recovery.