Pedestrian accidents are often deadly. On the chance that the victim does survive, they are often left with serious injuries that could potentially be disabling and leave them with years of additional medical bills, lost earnings, and pain and suffering.
If you were in an accident, getting the compensation you need can seem difficult, but our lawyers can help. We can represent you and talk to insurance companies for you, fighting to get you the compensation you need.
For a free evaluation of your case, call our pedestrian accident lawyers at Howe Law today at (844) 876-4357.
When to Call a Pedestrian Accident Attorney in Augusta, GA
Do not delay when considering contacting an attorney. In any injury case, the earlier you begin working with a lawyer, the better off you are. If you wait too long to call a pedestrian accident lawyer, you can actually lose your right to sue altogether.
Statute of Limitations
Injury claims have a limited amount of time in which you can file the claim. In Georgia, that is usually 2 years for pedestrian accident claims. That clock starts running on the date of the injury, and if your case is not filed in court by the time 2 years passes, then the court will be able to throw out any late-filed claims or the defendant will raise the statute of limitations issue as a defense to the claim. Because of this time limit, it is important to call a lawyer well before 2 years elapses so there is time to prepare your case to file it before the deadline.
Lost Evidence
Waiting to call a lawyer can still hurt your case even if you are still within the 2-year filing deadline. If you wait to get a lawyer on your side, you might miss out on collecting evidence and information about your accident that you might not have thought of. For example, many crashes are caught on security cameras outside of a store or home. This footage is often deleted or overwritten within mere days of an accident, but our lawyers can work to track it down if you call within the first few days of your accident. Additionally, we can talk to witnesses and get statements about what happened before those witnesses move on with their lives and forget about what happened to you.
Delayed Healing
One of the first things our attorneys will advise you of after a pedestrian accident is that you should get medical attention for your injuries. Ideally, by the time you call, you would have already received medical care. If you wait to get medical care, it will be harder to prove that your injuries existed on the day of the accident, and the defense will try to claim that they happened in some event after the accident. Additionally, any delay in medical care will mean delayed healing; your injuries will not get better as quickly if they go untreated. It will also look to a judge and jury like your injuries were not that serious if they did not need immediate medical attention.
Damages for Injured Pedestrians in Augusta, GA
Medical care for your injuries will be necessary to help you get better. If your injuries stop you from going back to work, then there will be wages you lose because of the injury. Additionally, injuries take a physical and mental toll on the victim. These are the three main areas of damages you should consider as part of your pedestrian accident and injury claim, and they can be categorized as “economic” or “non-economic” damages.
Economic Damages
Medical care, lost wages, and other “economic damages” can be claimed at the full value of any costs you paid or money you lost because of the injury. In pedestrian accident cases, victims often face serious injuries with thousands of dollars of medical bills, and your injuries could keep you from working potentially forever. This can result in very high-dollar economic damages.
Non-Economic Damages
Often called “pain and suffering,” other “non-economic” damages can be paid for intangible harms you face from the accident. This includes things like actual pain and discomfort as well as mental anguish and emotional distress. These non-monetary effects are still hard to deal with and justify compensation. Although these have no receipts or bills to use to gauge their value, courts can nevertheless arrive at a financial value for these injuries. The final award amount is typically left to the jury to decide.
How Pedestrian Accidents Happen in Augusta, GA
Pedestrians usually are not supposed to walk in the street unless they are at a crosswalk or there is no sidewalk on that road. Otherwise, pedestrians and drivers should be in separate places, and drivers should not hit pedestrians. For a pedestrian accident to happen, there must be something that went wrong.
Often, drivers end up hitting pedestrians because they are drunk or speeding or otherwise doing something unsafe behind the wheel, like texting while driving. When these kinds of issues get in the way, drivers can end up hopping curbs onto the sidewalk or hitting people walking along the roadway.
In some cases, the pedestrian might be to blame for a crash. However, even when pedestrians dart out into traffic, accidents are often made worse by something the driver did. Speeding often exacerbates injuries and can make the driver share at least some degree of fault.
The most common place for pedestrian accidents, however, is in a crosswalk. Drivers often run red lights, fail to stop at stop signs, or fail to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks. When they do so and strike the pedestrian, the driver is often at fault for that crash.
Call Our Pedestrian Accident Lawyers in Augusta, GA Today
For a free review of your potential injury case, contact Howe Law’s pedestrian accident attorneys at (844) 876-4357.
