Top Misconceptions People Have Regarding Auto Accidents That I Have To Dispel In My Initial Consultation With Them.

Many personal injury victims believe that they are automatically entitled to compensation for any and all injuries they claim from an auto accident, when the accident is not their fault. Unfortunately, under the law, the injury victims must prove that any and all injuries they claim actually arose from the motor vehicle collision. One way to help prove this is to have a healthcare provider-usually a medical specialist or biomedical engineer state so “to a reasonable degree of medical probability.” That is, a specialist must test testify that “more likely than not the injury arose from the collision.” However, that is not as simple as it seems, as often times, injury victims have underlying conditions that cause a medical specialist to be reluctant or refuse to provide such an opinion, even when it seems obvious that the injury arose from a collision, which can be even a massive collision. Medical specialists are scientists and are very reluctant to not take into account everything that may have gone into causing the injury itself. This includes past injuries, diseases, injuries after the incident and “moving the ‘wrong way.’” What makes this more difficult is that the party at fault’s insurance company will hire medical specialists of their own to oppose any victim’s own treating physician’s opinions as to the cause of the injury, particularly when the treating physician connects it to the collision – the same collision that the party at fault caused.

Moreover, Insurance companies absolutely do not want to pay money on claims. Auto accident claimants and claimants of injuries from any cause-even non-automobile related- have to prove that the defendant committed a wrongful act under the law in order to get compensation.

Also, injury victim claimants must prove the type and amount of compensation to which they should be entitled. Many claimants believe, just by virtue of the fact that the party at fault caused the auto collision, that they are entitled to get damages in the form of a great deal of money. While that may be true, the injury victims still must prove all of the damages to which they believe they are entitled arising from the auto collision. For example, injury victims must prove the amounts of recoverable medical bills, wage loss, future earnings impairment, future medical care and treatment, vocational rehabilitation, past and future pain and suffering, past and future impairment of activities, etc. It is the lawyer’s job to help the injury victim/client to ensure that these things and others can be proven, especially when the battle flares up against the at-fault party’s insurance company, to ensure maximum compensation is paid to the personal injury victim claimants. The lawyer accomplishes this, in part, by doing the meticulously methodical acts discussed in other sections of this article.

Over three decades, I have seen many clients that are absolutely astonished that the law does not fully support them, and they, with their attorney’s hard work, have these hurdles and burdens to overcome, in order to get deserving monetary compensation.

Tragically, the law continues to worsen for the injury victim in every way and has become increasingly favorable to insurance companies, who represent wrongdoers or companies, or other entities in the chain of events leading to an auto collision causing terrible harm. So, the insurance companies and/or these other entities at fault for the auto collision do not hand over compensation to the victim willingly, ever. Rather, the injured victim claimant, through his or her attorney, must prove the entire case from start to finish, with daunting burdens of proof to manage to convince the ultimate trier of fact and law. As tragic as the situation is, it has come about through the efforts of many special interest groups, especially insurance companies, which have lobbied legislators over the decades to put these draconian laws in force, making an innocent victim of an auto collision a victim of the system.