A car accident can be the beginning of a long recovery period. If you suffered broken bones, long-term injuries, or permanent disabilities in the accident, you could be left out of work and laid up, all while facing growing medical bills that you cannot afford.
For help getting compensation for your injuries, work with a lawyer instead of trusting the insurance companies to have your back. Our attorneys have decades of experience handling car accident cases and can work with you to maximize the compensation you receive.
Call Howe Law’s car accident lawyers today at (844) 876-4357 for a free review of your potential car accident case.
How Insurance Covers Car Accidents in Opelika, AL
Car insurance usually works in one of two ways: either you live in a “fault” state where the at-fault driver’s insurance covers the injuries they cause, or you live in a “no-fault” state where your own car insurance covers your injuries regardless of who caused the accident. In Alabama, we use a fault-based system, so it should be up to the at-fault driver to pay for your injuries after an accident. But getting them and their insurance company to follow through on payments is often a challenge.
First, you need to convince the insurance company that the accident actually happened and that their driver is at fault. Often, police reports are requested as the initial evidence, but photos, witness statements, and other evidence can be used as well. If the insurance company refuses to believe that their driver was at fault – or they refuse to believe the accident happened in the first place – then they might deny your claim. Even if they accept your claim, however, they might undercut how much your case is truly worth to try to save themselves money.
Instead of trusting that the insurance company is going to pay you what they owe you, you should be ready for a fight. Working with our car accident lawyers, you can challenge their denial. Our lawyers can also negotiate with the insurance company and put additional pressure on them to settle by filing your case as a lawsuit alongside the insurance claim. Ultimately, most cases will settle, but it might take months of negotiating and moving your case through the courts before the insurance company agrees it is not worth going to trial over.
Common Types of Car Accidents in Opelika, AL
Car accidents happen in many different ways, but they can often be grouped into a handful of common accident types. Although liability and fault can be different in every case, these common types of crashes tend to happen in similar ways, which makes determining fault and ultimately proving your case a bit simpler if your crash falls into one of these categories:
Head-On Crashes
Cars cannot crash head-on if everyone is in their lane driving how they are supposed to. It is only when a driver goes the wrong way down a one-way street or crosses a line into opposing traffic that cars can collide head-on. Head-on crashes can also happen when a driver fails to yield while making a left-hand turn across a lane of oncoming traffic. In either case, the driver who was going the wrong way or failed to yield will typically be at fault.
Rear-End Crashes
Rear-end accidents usually happen in one of three ways.
First, a driver who is backing up might crash into another car, which usually makes the accident their fault. Driving in reverse is only legal in particular situations such as leaving a parking space or driveway, not for things like going back to a missed turn or going back down an on-ramp on the highway. Drivers must take care when backing up.
Second, a driver might slam on the brakes, and the driver(s) behind them could crash into them. If they had a good reason to brake suddenly – e.g., for a child who ran into the street – then that might not be their fault. Otherwise, braking suddenly to draw a crash is illegal (i.e., “brake-checking” another driver).
Lastly, the most common way for a rear-end crash to happen is when a driver is tailgating. Following too closely is illegal, and this will often make the crash their fault unless the driver in front was backing up or stopped unreasonably suddenly.
T-Bone Accidents
When one car crashes into another car’s side, it usually happens because one of the two drivers entered an intersection illegally. If a driver runs a stop sign or red light and crashes into another car, that accident is their fault for violating traffic signs and signals. Sometimes that driver actually enters the intersection first, but another driver with a green light or who already stopped at the stop sign might not have time to react and might crash into them. Even though they were the driver who technically hit the other car, the other driver was still in the intersection illegally and should still be found at fault in most cases.
Drunk Driving Accidents
Although the actual crash can happen in many different ways, liability is usually the same in drunk driving accidents: the drunk driver is at fault. Driving under the influence is illegal, so any crash that involves a drunk driver is likely to be attributed to their intoxication.
In some cases, the sober driver can still be found partially at fault. For example, just because the other driver was drunk, that does not give the “victim” leave to run a red light or drive 50 mph over the speed limit. In Alabama, this can mean losing your case because of strict “contributory negligence” rules.
Proving drunk driving can involve blood tests performed by the police, but you can also point to signs like slurred speech, alcohol on the driver’s breath, and empty beer cans in their car.
Distracted Driving and Tired Driving Accidents
Like drunk driving, distracted driving and tired driving are also incredibly dangerous and usually make a driver at fault for the crash. Proving that a driver was distracted can often involve pulling their text logs or call logs from their phone or getting testimony from them or another occupant in their car to describe how they were distracted. Proving tired driving can involve testimony about the driver’s condition after the crash (slow response time, closing eyes, etc.) as well as witness testimony that the driver was unconscious behind the wheel. Challenging the driver about their day leading up to the crash can also supply proof that they were too tired, e.g., questions about when they last slept, how much work they did that day, how long they had been driving, etc.
Call Our Car Accident Attorneys Today
For help with a car crash in Opelika, call the car accident lawyers at Howe Law today by dialing (844) 876-4357.
