Fort Worth Car Accident Lawyer

If You’ve Been Injured in a Fort Worth Car Accident, Let Attorney Michael Grossman Help You Recover the Compensation You're Owed

If you or a loved one has been in a recent car accident in Fort Worth, it’s imperative you take steps to protect your rights. The majority of us, at some point in our lives, will experience being involved in a car accident.

On most occasions, a car accident is nothing more than a simple fender bender that results in minimal property damage. In other incidents, wrecks can be traumatic and devastating, leaving permanent scars on the lives of the passengers and drivers involved.

Regardless of if your accident was a simple fender bender or one more serious, you are most likely entitled to seek compensation for the physical, emotional and financial injuries you suffered as a result of that crash—things like medical expenses, lost wages and pan and suffering. How much money you are entitled to and the degree of difficulty to collect it depends on the highly individualized circumstances of your accident. In a few instances, you may be able to protect your rights own your own, but typically, hiring an attorney is the best way to recover the full amount that your case is worth. Our Fort Worth car accident lawyers at Grossman Law Offices will explain some of the basics of car accident litigation in Texas and the likely obstacles you will face. We’ve been litigating car wreck personal injury lawsuits for over two decades and are familiar with all the complexities involved in these cases. Call today at 1-855-357-2207 for a free consultation to answer any specific questions about your case.

When Are You Entitled to File a Personal Injury Claim After an Auto Accident?

Just about all of us get into a car accident during our lives. So how do you know if you have a successful case against someone for reimbursement for injuries? In most cases, an accident victim is only entitled to collect compensation for his injuries if he can prove in court the three necessary elements of a car accident claim. The three essential elements of every personal injury claim are:

Duty: The defendant owed you a duty of care in exercising a certain level of caution to insure you would not get hurt. The law sets this level of duty of care that one individual owes to another, and depends on the circumstances of the situation and the relationship between the involved parties. In auto accidents this usually applies the driver’s behavior in relationship to the other motorist, passengers, and pedestrians on the road. Proving the defendant owed you at least some duty of care will most likely be straightforward, because almost all drivers owe each other the duty to operate a car as a reasonable person would to keep others safe.

Breach: After showing that the defendant owed you a duty of care, you’ll need to prove he breached that duty of care by demonstrating the defendant drove in a way a reasonable person would not have driven; proving the defendant breached his duty of care typically requires you bring to court evidence to precisely demonstrate what the defendant did or failed to do. Actions such as driving while intoxicated, driving at night without headlights on, speeding recklessly, or running through red lights, can all constitute a breach of the defendant’s duty of care.

Damages: After having proved the defendant’s liability, you’ll need to show how much in damages you are entitled to collect from the defendant. The term “damages” does not refer to your injuries—it refers to the monetary value of your injuries or the sum of money you will recover if you win the case. You’ll need to determine exactly what you’re owed and provide evidence of your injuries and losses to support those calculations, in order to prove what you’re entitled to collect. Losses such as loss of earning capacity, lost wages, medical bills, repair bills, and pain and suffering can all be recovered as damages.

The circumstances of your wreck must have all these criteria to have a legitimate personal injury claim. If you are still unsure about your case, call our Fort Worth car accidents lawyers at 1-855-357-2207, toll-free for a free consultation.

When Do You Need a Fort Worth Car Wreck Lawyer?

It’s possible, on occasion, for a accident victim to handle his claim alone without the help of an attorney. For instance, if the only damage experienced in the care accident was property damage, then you probably don’t need a lawyer. If you’ve suffered any injury, however, you will likely need the assistance of a competent Fort Worth car wreck lawyer to get the compensation you need. The following are some of the circumstances in which the likelihood of you making a full recovery will only be possible by seeking legal help:

• You’ve Suffered Bodily Harm in the accident:

  If you suffered any type of bodily injuries in your accident, it’s wise to have a lawyer handle your claim. If your injuries require more than one or more visits to a doctor, you should call an attorney.

  Do you have a legal question?
  Enter your phone number below and let's talk.
  --
• The Other Driver is Difficult to Deal With:

  If the other driver involved in your accident is difficult to deal with either at the scene of the accident or late, it is advisable to call a Fort Worth car accident lawyer. If he doesn’t want to give you his contact or insurance information, that could be an early warning sign he wants to make it as hard as possible for you to recover what you deserve. If this occurs, you should seriously consider hiring a lawyer.

• The Insurance Company Harasses You or Pressures You to Settle:
  

  If you don’t have an attorney on your side, insurance companies can be difficult to negotiate with. Basically, insurance companies are out to protect their own interests; if you’ve been injured, their interests are opposite yours. They will use adjusters to try to find ways to deny your claims. The adjusters may call you often, asking innocent-sounding questions about your wreck. Their questions may seem well-intentioned, but they are usually always calculated to pressure you into saying something that could be used against you to deny your claim. They will record whatever you tell them, and this could come back to haunt you in the future.

  In other situations, an insurance company may pressure you to settle your claim for less than it is worth. While accepting a fair settlement offer can be beneficial to an accident victim, accepting an unfair settlement can be devastating to your legal rights. If you accept a settlement offer, you waive your right to sue the defendant in the future for more money for your injuries. Since the settlement is all you can collect from the defendant, it’s important not to accept an offer, unless you are certain it is fair.

• You Can’t Afford a Doctor or Pay Your Medical Expenses:

  Many people don’t have health insurance and aren’t able to pay for the treatment they need after being in a wreck. Even if an accident victim has health insurance, his benefits may not cover the treatment he needs. Regardless of having health insurance or not, many accident victims are hesitant to get treatment for their injuries because they are afraid they cannot afford to take time from work to see a doctor. Grossman Law Offices has relationships with several health care providers that can help you get medical treatment for reduced costs and with a payment plan.

• You Have Bad Feeling About How Your Claim Is Being Handled:

  Trust your instincts if you have a bad feeling about how your case is being handled by the insurance company. Insurance companies are not in business to help people—they’re in business to make a profit. The more creative ways they devise to deny legitimate claims, the more money they’ll make. If you have a bad feeling, call an attorney, or if any of these circumstances apply:

  • The insurance company offers you less money that what’s due on your car loan.
  • The insurance company makes you a settlement offer before the full extent of medical treatment you’ll need is known.
  • The insurance company tells you they’ll pay your claim when you submit your bills, but then refuses to do so.
  • The insurance company doesn’t offer you a rental car while your vehicle is being serviced by a mechanic.
  • The insurance company tells you a settlement offer is “all you’re entitled to” or “the most you’re going to get”.
  • The insurance company takes too long to respond to your inquiries (usually this means they are investigating the claims behind your back).

If none of those circumstances apply, you may be able to handle your case on your own, without the assistance of a lawyer. Sometimes, if a plaintiff has been involved in a wreck which resulted in property damage only, they have been successful in protecting their own rights.

Obstacles in Car Accident Personal Injury Cases

The most common obstacle on your path to compensation is an aggressive insurance adjuster who, because of the monetary damages at stake, either attempts to put the blame for the accident over onto you, so that the claim can be denied, or he will try to significantly reduce the amount of damages awarded in order to save his company thousands, or even millions, of dollars.

Insurance Provider Insufficient Settlement Offers

We already touched on this above, where an insurance company may pressure you to settle your claim for less than it is worth—although accepting a fair settlement offer can be beneficial to an accident victim, accepting an unfair settlement can be devastating to your legal rights.

Your Story vs. the Other Driver’s Story

In most accidents there are often more than one version of the events; often, they conflict and are mutually exclusive. When this is the case, you need evidence to support your version of what took place. Our Fort Worth car wreck lawyers are experts in investigating car accident scenes and locating the necessary evidence to prove your case.

Convincing the Jury and Proving Damages

Even if injured, members of the jury may be hesitant to view these injuries in the same light, especially in regard to soft tissue injuries—sprains, whiplash, and pulled muscles—because they are often harder to prove than other injuries like a broken arm. Often though, soft tissue injuries can mask greater injuries that require months of rehabilitation. Our attorneys have a long list of expert witnesses in every field of medicine, who can validate your injuries to skeptical jurors.

Multiple Liable Parties

In many car wrecks, multiple parties caused or contributed to the events that caused the accident. For instance, if your accident was caused by a drunk driver, then the bar or establishment that served him past the point of intoxication could be liable because of Texas dram shop laws. A part manufacturer could be held liable for a design or assembly error, if a mechanical malfunction caused the accident. For a maintenance error (worn brake pads) a mechanic could be responsible. If there are multiple parties, separated suits must be filed against each, and the damages calculated according to each parties’ extent of liability. Assessing blame and damages is quite complex.

What Can a Fort Worth Car Accident Lawyer Do For You?

Michael Grossman and the Fort Worth car wreck lawyers at Grossman Law Offices can help you recover from your injuries and secure the compensation you deserve. We provide a number of services in accomplishing that, including:

• Handling all the paperwork, so you can focus on healing
• Handle all communication with insurance company and acting as a buffer
• File your claim, or assume negotiations if already filed
• Investigate and collect any video evidence, locate witnesses and take their testimonies, sequester and inspect all vehicles and accident scene forensic evidence and catalog in preparation for court..
• Help find you medical assistance with a payment plan, if you lack health insurance.
• Prepare demand packets
• Secure a fair settlement, if possible, from the insurance company
• Make trial preparations, if out of court settlement is not possible.

For two decades the Fort Worth car accident lawyers at Grossman Law Offices have committed ourselves to fight for our clients rights to pursue the compensation they need for their injuries.

Should You Represent Yourself?

Often, family members of a fatal car accident victim mistakenly believe they can intimidate an insurance company into offering them an equitable settlement, simply by threatening to file a lawsuit against them. The reality is, insurance companies are not threatened at all by a lawsuit filed by a non-attorney, because insurance companies have skilled teams of defense lawyers with years of experience denying claims for fatal car accident cases in court. Simply having a strong case is and having knowledge of the law surrounding your issues is immaterial if you are not familiar with how to apply the laws and follow the correct procedures in responding to lists of admissions, submitting a demand packet, or proving up damages. We know of countless individuals who tried to represent themselves against these savvy professionals, only to come up empty at the end.

Our seasoned attorneys, though, can scare insurance companies into offering fair settlements because we have twenty years of experience helping families of fatal car accidents pursue justice. We have successfully litigated lawsuits against every major insurance carrier and defense firm in the country and have handled hundreds of fatal car accident cases. These companies are familiar with our successful track record and often offer our clients large settlements simply so they don’t have to face our attorneys in court later. We also thoroughly investigate every case we undertake to identify other potential defendants. Your loved one’s accident may have been caused by a number of factors—a defective tire, a malfunctioning traffic light, or a drunk driver, just to name a few. In any of these instances, there may be multiple parties liable for the death of your loved one, and we’ll help you bring comprehensive claims against each one of them.

Fort Worth Car Accident Lawyer Michael Grossman Can Help

We want to help you bring to justice, those parties responsible for your loved one’s death. So contact Fort Worth car wreck lawyer Michael Grossman, if you’ve lost a family member in an auto wreck. Grossman Law Offices will provide free consultations, and we promise to help you pursue a fair compensation and justice for those responsible. Call today, toll free, at 1-855-357-2207 for a free consultation.