Every auto negligence lawsuit has to follow a pretty strict set of procedures and deadlines. Missing one of these deadlines could mean losing your entire claim, even if the other driver was at fault.
Insurance companies move fast. Within just a few hours of an accident, their adjusters are already at work. They look at everything that you do and say. They track your medical appointments and watch for any gaps in treatment. At the same time, the evidence that matters most starts to disappear. Security camera footage gets deleted after 30 days. Witnesses also forget what happened. The cars get fixed or scrapped.
The filing deadlines are all over the place depending on where you live. California gives you two years for most personal injury claims. But if a government vehicle hit you then you’ve only got six months. The courts won’t care how strong your case is if you file even one day late.
We need to cover the steps you should take and when each one needs to be done to protect your legal options.
Let’s go over the main steps to protect your rights after an auto accident.
First Steps After Your Car Accident
The first day or two after you’ve been in a car accident can make or break your entire negligence case. Your body is pumping with adrenaline and because of that you probably feel fine. Whiplash and other injuries have a nasty habit of not showing up for a full day or sometimes even three days later and that’s where victims run into real problems.
Call 911 first, even if the damage to the cars looks pretty minor. Police reports carry a lot of weight when you’re eventually trying to prove who actually caused the accident. As you wait for the officers to arrive, take photos of everything you can. Get shots of the cars from multiple angles, the road conditions at the time, the traffic signs that are nearby, and any skid marks that are visible on the pavement. Insurance adjusters are going to look at these photos extremely closely when they’re trying to piece together what happened and who was at fault.
Exchange information with the other driver but you want to keep the conversation as short as possible. You need their name, their insurance information, and their contact information. Don’t admit fault and don’t say you’re okay even if you actually feel fine at that exact time. See a doctor within the first day if at all possible. Courts pay very close attention to how soon you get medical treatment after an accident happens. Waiting a whole week to go to the hospital gives the other side’s lawyers ammunition to argue that your injuries weren’t actually that bad. They might even try to claim that you hurt yourself doing something different after the accident.
Every single text that you send to the insurance company is going to matter. Every photo that you take also helps you build a stronger case. Every one of these early moves creates the paper trail that you’re going to need to prove the other driver was negligent and caused the accident.
The Four Parts of Your Legal Case
Car accidents are stressful enough without having to worry about the legal side of matters. The great news is that the law is actually pretty simple about what you need in order to win your case. You’ll need to prove four main elements if you want to show that the other driver was negligent and responsible for what happened.
The first requirement is something lawyers call duty of care. Every driver on the road has a legal responsibility to drive safely and follow the traffic laws. If anybody gets behind the wheel of a car, they automatically owe everyone else on the road a responsibility to drive in a safe and sensible way.
The second element you’ll need to prove is that the other driver violated that duty somehow. This is the part where normal driving mistakes become legal violations. If the other driver blew through a red light then that’s a violation of their duty. If they were scrolling through their phone as they drove, in most states now, that’s what lawyers call negligence per se. Because they broke a safety law you don’t even have to prove that they were being careless. The fact that they broke the law is enough proof all by itself.
The third requirement is causation and this is where the process can get a bit more complicated. You need to draw a direct line between what the other driver did wrong and the injuries that you actually suffered. Sometimes this connection is obvious and sometimes it’s not. The other driver may have run that red light. But you still need to prove that their actions specifically caused your whiplash or back pain. Your injuries could have come from something else. These are the sorts of questions that come up regularly in accident cases.
The fourth and final element you need is proof of damages. These are losses that you can put a dollar amount on. Medical bills are the most common example. Lost wages from missing work also count. The cost to repair or replace your car is another big one. Without some type of measurable loss or damage, you don’t have a case even if the other driver was in the wrong.
Many drivers can recover damages even if they were partially responsible for the accident. Most states have something called comparative negligence laws. These laws allow you to recover at least some damages even if you share a part of the blame for what happened. The amount that you can recover goes down based on your percentage of fault. But you’re not automatically disqualified just because you made a mistake too.
Evidence You Need to Collect
Most drivers already know that they should take photos right after an accident happens. It’s a great first step and it matters a lot. You actually need to continue collecting proof for a few weeks or months after the crash if you want to build a strong case.
Security camera footage from nearby businesses is one type of evidence that can vanish if you wait around too long to get it. Most stores and restaurants only hold onto their video recordings for about 30 to 90 days before they need to delete everything to free up space for new footage. Your attorney can also send what’s called a preservation letter to these businesses to make sure that they don’t erase anything that matters.
A lot of newer cars actually have data recorders built into them now. They’re like the black boxes that airplanes have. These little devices can record just how fast a driver was going and if they hit the brakes in the seconds right before a crash happens. The data from these recorders can prove if the other driver was speeding or if they never even tried to stop at all. You just have to move fast to preserve this information before the car’s system overwrites it with new data.
The courts ask for app usage data every time now because they want to prove if a driver was driving distracted. The other driver could have been scrolling through social media or sending text messages right when the crash happened. Those electronic records can make or break your entire case.
I always recommend that you write in a day-to-day journal about your injuries and just how they’re changing your everyday life. Write down what your pain levels are like each morning and record the activities that you can’t do anymore. Maybe you can’t play with your kids in the same way that you did before the accident. Maybe you have to skip your weekend golf games.
When You Must File Your Lawsuit?
Every state has its own deadline for filing a lawsuit after a car accident and once that deadline passes and you’re out of luck. California residents get two years to file for personal injuries. New York residents get three years for the same type of claim.
Missing that deadline means your right to sue disappears permanently. The strength of your case won’t matter at all. The severity of your injuries won’t matter either. The court will dismiss your case without even looking at any of the facts or evidence that you’ve put together. Property damage claims can confuse drivers because they usually have different deadlines than injury claims in the exact same state. You could have four years to file for damage to your car but only two years for your medical bills and pain and suffering. Most drivers believe that one deadline covers everything and this leads to some pretty expensive mistakes.
You’ll probably need to file a special government claim within just six months if a city bus or postal truck hits you. Normal lawsuit laws go right out the window here. These shorter deadlines mean you have almost no time to waste if you want any chance at compensation. Government vehicles create much bigger complications than regular accidents.
Some injuries take time to develop or become apparent. The discovery provision gives you some breathing room in these cases because it starts the deadline when you actually discover your injury instead of when the accident happened. Courts still expect you to be sensible about getting medical care though. You can’t wait years and then claim that you had no idea something was wrong.
Children and people with disabilities usually get extra time through something that lawyers call tolling provisions. The deadline might not even start running until a child turns 18 in most states. Your insurance company probably has its own set of deadlines as well.
Uninsured motorist claims also usually need to be filed within a year of the accident regardless of what your state law says.
Settlement or Trial for Your Case
Auto accident cases don’t usually end up in front of a judge and jury. Insurers usually lowball you with their first number. They’ll come at you with maybe 40% to 60% of what your claim could actually be worth. It’s not personal or anything like that, it’s just the standard practice in the industry. They expect that you’ll either negotiate with them directly or bring in an attorney to fight for more money. Everyone playing ball and cooperating reasonably well means that settlements can be done within three to six months.
A trial is a different animal though. Most cases take somewhere between 12 and 18 months just to get scheduled in front of a jury. It’s a very long time to wait when the medical bills continue to show up in your mailbox every month. And there’s an emotional toll too. Depositions can be rough because they dig into every part of your life. Then at trial you have to sit there as strangers analyze and pick apart your testimony.
Mediation and arbitration let you skip the courthouse altogether and still bring in a neutral third party to help work through the disagreement. Just make sure you read through your insurance policy first. A lot of policies now have clauses that make you go through arbitration and won’t even let you file a lawsuit.
Where you live makes a huge impact for your case too. Insurers also track local jury patterns and verdicts. When juries in your county have a reputation for awarding big money in injury cases, insurers know about it and will factor it into their strategy. They’d much rather pay a higher settlement now than gamble on a massive jury award later. But local juries that are usually more conservative with awards mean that you can expect that settlement numbers will match that reality.
Whether you settle or head to trial depends on two main factors, how much uncertainty you can stomach and how long you can afford to wait for your money.
Should Your Case Have Legal Support?
Legal representation after a car accident isn’t always necessary and knowing when you actually need an attorney can save you time and money. A few specific scenarios do call for professional legal help though. If the other driver is trying to blame you for the accident, an attorney can protect you from unfair liability claims. The same is true for accidents with serious injuries that land you in surgery or leave you hospitalized for days or weeks. And if the insurance company sends you a settlement that doesn’t even cover your medical bills (or worse, doesn’t pay anything at all) then you definitely need a lawyer who knows how to fight back.
Most car accident attorneys use something called a contingency fee structure. That’s where they don’t get paid unless you do. They’ll usually take somewhere between 33% and 40% of your final settlement amount as their payment. That percentage is pretty high. The math actually works out in your favor though.
Not every accident needs legal representation though. Minor fender benders where the fault is obvious and the damages only add up to a couple thousand dollars can usually be handled in small claims court.
Whatever you do, resist the temptation to hire the first attorney who returns your call. Contact at least three or four different firms and ask specific questions about their track record with cases like yours. Most attorneys offer free first consultations anyway and these meetings will also give you a chance to see if their style matches what you’re looking for.
Do You Need Help From a Lawyer?
If you have been involved in a car accident and feel the other party was negligent, you should consult with an experienced and local car accident lawyer. Many laws associated with negligence vary from state to state.
Those days after your accident are important. Each day turns into another bit of evidence for your case and this evidence is what proves what happened to you and how much it affected your life. Maybe you’ll eventually sit down at a conference table with insurance adjusters and work out a settlement that makes sense. Or maybe you’ll have to go the whole way to court to get what you deserve. Either way, the preparation and knowledge is what will determine how well your case goes when it’s all over.
Nobody wakes up and expects to deal with a car accident that day and nobody wants to learn about personal injury law because something awful has happened to them. Life has a way of forcing these situations on us though and when it does happen, knowledge about the legal process becomes powerful. The path to recovery and to fair compensation is a long one and sometimes it feels way longer than it should. Cases can drag on for months or years and it never feels fair to the person who got hurt.
The right legal support is what separates a positive outcome from a disappointing one here. LegalMatch connects you with attorneys who actually know auto accident law inside and out. These are lawyers who know the particular laws and regulations in your state too. They’ll review your situation and explain each step of the legal process to you in a way that actually makes sense. They’ll also fight hard for your interests when the negotiations get tough or the insurance representatives try to lowball you. LegalMatch helps you find the attorney who fits your case just right so you can start on the path to recovery with strong confidence behind you.
