Car Accident Lawyers

Medical costs are expensive, and if you are not at fault for a car crash, you could be entitled to significant compensation from the responsible party’s auto insurance. If you caused the accident, your insurance company will pay the other driver for damage to their vehicle and any injuries covered under your policy’s limits.

Your insurance company should be assigning an attorney to handle your case, and you may need to testify or clarify the events of the crash. In some cases, you may be sued for more money than your insurance policy will cover. In this case, you may need your own attorney.

When another driver is responsible for a car crash and injuries to you or your family, you could receive compensation for your injuries, pain and suffering, car damage and other expenses, such as lost wages or household help after the crash. The Barnes Firm can immediately build a case and make a claim with the other driver’s insurance company. Some insurance companies may not be willing to pay you fair compensation – and that’s why having your own legal advocate is so important. Our car accident lawyers will try to negotiate a fair settlement offer, and if the insurance company is being unreasonable, our attorneys are prepared to take your case to trial. There are time limits for filing some types of claims, so it is important to contact an experienced attorney as soon as possible.

Although these are rare cases, you do have some options if you are injured and the other driver is uninsured or underinsured. In most cases, your own policy will pay for your injuries. If the other driver’s insurance is not enough to pay for your medical costs, your own insurance could pay the difference. If you have collision insurance, it will pay for damage to your car, no matter who is at fault.

The Barnes Firm takes car accident cases on what’s called a ‘contingent fee basis.’ This means our clients will won’t pay a fee unless we win your case. A written contract should explain what percentage your lawyer will get if you win. It should also state who will pay for any costs associated with filing your claim, such as court fees. In most cases, The Barnes Firm will advance these costs, but state law may require the client to pay for some litigation expenses.

In simple terms, whiplash is a sprain to the neck. It results from the sudden movement of being thrown forward and backward – one of our best car accident lawyers says this often happens when your car gets rear-ended. The abrupt shift overextends the soft tissues of your neck beyond their standard range of motion, leading to a sprain.

Whiplash is an injury that’s generally associated with car crashes. The jerking motion of the car jolting forward and back after a sudden impact results in this type of stiff neck injury. Many times, victims of a car crash don’t realize they’re injured because of the adrenaline rush that comes on after a sudden car crash, but this is not an injury that should be left untreated. This injury can also result from hard contact sports, such as football and hockey, but in most cases, the cause is from an auto accident.

If you’ve been in a car accident, you may want to speak with an experienced car accident lawyer at The Barnes Firm, as many of the expenses associated with whiplash can be recovered in the form of financial compensation.

Whiplash symptoms always include stiffness and a sore neck – which can lead to stiff and sore shoulders as well. Typically, you’ll find that you can’t move your neck as freely as you would be able to if you were injury-free. Other, more severe, symptoms include the following:

• Blurry vision
• Inability to concentrate
• Dizziness
• Memory Issues
• Depression

It may take some time for you to feel the full effect of this injury, so one of our experienced car accident attorneys says it’s always a good idea to seek medical attention after a car crash to be certain your injuries are not worse than you might initially have assumed.

Victims of a car crash should always seek medical attention. Many times, the after-effects of a car crash won’t be felt for hours, sometimes days, after a car crash. If your injuries are minimal or not visible following a car crash, an Oakland car accident lawyer suggests going to an urgent care office as soon as possible to receive a clear diagnosis. Most medical care providers, like urgent care or internal medicine provider, can treat whiplash. If symptoms steadily grow worse or if you experience a loss of consciousness, that’s when you should visit an emergency room.

To treat whiplash, doctors usually recommend that you take it easy for the first few days following your injury to let your body rest and recover from the shock. Alternating between heat and ice therapy is also a conventional treatment for easing stiffness and pain in your neck. For more extreme cases, a doctor might also prescribe muscle relaxants or painkillers to help with the most painful days of recovery following their injury.

Going through a car accident can result in serious injury. Many people who are seriously hurt can find themselves permanently disabled due to their wounds from a car crash and in need of a Barnes Firm injury attorney.

If you or a loved one has been hurt in a car accident anywhere in California or New York, a car accident lawyer from The Barnes Firm will fight to get you the compensation you deserve.

Call today or contact us online to get started on a free case consultation and evaluation.

California and New York drivers experience congested traffic and aggressive attitudes on the road no matter what month of the year it is. Especially during the holidays, our roads are flooded with locals and tourists alike in a hurry to get where they need to be.

The experienced car accident attorneys at The Barnes Firm can help if you’ve been injured while driving. We’ve helped thousands of car accident victims with their personal injury claims throughout the United States.

Our No Fee Promise guarantees that you won’t pay a dollar unless we recover compensation that’s entitled to you. Speak with our best car accident lawyers for free by calling us today.

It’s always a good idea to call the police immediately after a car accident so that there’s a professional on the scene to facilitate the exchange of information and make an official report of the incident with both parties on the record, if possible.

Even if you don’t think you’ve been injured, and even if it looks as if there’s no damage to your car, you never know what after-effects will surface later on.

Pain and suffering occur in two ways: physical and mental. Typically, most personal injury damages are classified as compensatory, which intend to compensate the injured party for what was lost as a result of the accident or injury from the accident.

Common compensatory damages involved in personal injury cases are:

• Emotional Distress
• Income
• Medical Treatment
• Pain and Suffering
• PropertyLoss

Click here to read more about compensation.

Some elements of a settlement are taxable, including lost wages, pain and suffering, punitive damages, and emotional distress damages. Click here to learn more.

If you received a settlement for personal injury or sickness and did not take an itemized deduction for medical expenses related to the injury or illness, the full amount of your accident settlement is non-taxable. This means you should not include your accident settlement when declaring income. Click here to learn more.

Before determining how much compensation you should seek, there are several questions you and your attorney should consider. Answering these questions will help determine how much compensation you should seek and also prepare you for trial in case the claim ends up in court. Click here to learn more about how much a settlement should be.

It depends, but it’s essential to collect as much evidence as possible. Evidence comes in many forms – from written statements to photos, the more information you have, the more prepared you’ll be. Click here to learn more.

One of the first things car accident victims ask themselves after a car accident is whether they should seek medical attention. Some injured individuals may feel okay or have minimal symptoms (such as a stiff back or neck). However, our car accident lawyers say many injuries don’t show symptoms right away after an accident, especially when adrenaline is in full gear, masking some of the pain. Click to learn more.

The sunnier weather may make drivers on the road feel more daring, but there are three significant contributing factors for so many car accidents in August. Those include factors such as:

• Speeding up abruptly
• Hard braking or brake-checking
• Spending prolonged time in congested traffic – also known as idling

The break-down of these driving habits by the state show that:

• New York and Illinois drivers are most likely to accelerate their speed suddenly;
• Arizona, Georgia, and New York drivers are most likely to brake-check; and
• Arizona, Florida, Georgia, and New York drivers are most likely to be stuck in congested traffic (idling) that leads frustrated drivers to make hasty decisions.

Additionally, with the summer months come summer vacations. People are spending prolonged time in their vehicles driving to their summer getaways. Drivers become fatigued behind the wheel, which can cause delayed reactions and aggressive habits as they try to reach their destination faster. People also are more likely to stay out later at the bars with the extended daylight hours in August, leading to more drinks and poor decision-making.

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Everyone knows that rush hour traffic is the worst, no matter what state you live in. But according to our data, Fridays are the worst day of the week from 9:00 in the morning until 4:00 in the afternoon when it comes to aggressive driving. Aggressive driving habits, like hard braking and speeding up quickly, can lead to accidents from both road rage or simply not paying attention.