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Car accidents are very dangerous and, unfortunately, all too common occurrences. If you were recently involved in a car accident in Indiana, you might be seriously injured. Injuries tend to come with expensive price tags, and many accidents victims have difficulty paying for medical treatments and vehicle repairs. If you are in a similar situation, you can file a lawsuit to get compensation for your accident.
When you file a lawsuit after a car accident in Fort Wayne, you want to sue the other driver’s insurance company. Indiana is an at-fault state, meaning you must prove the other driver was responsible for the accident before their insurance will cover you. You must also assert and prove your damages. Failure to properly claim some of your damages means those damages will not be covered.
If you were in a car accident, the driver responsible should be made to cover your damages. Our Fort Wayne car accident lawyers can help you file your lawsuit and communicate with insurance companies. Call our team at the offices of Wruck Paupore at (219) 322-1166 for a free legal consultation.
It can be difficult to act in your own best interests while still processing the traumatic events of a car accident. Our experienced Fort Wayne car accident attorneys have compiled this list of key steps to take in hopes that you can protect yourself in both the short term and the long term if you ever find yourself in such an unfortunate situation.
The first step after any car accident is to make sure that it doesn’t get any worse. Drivers of other vehicles can compound the accident if they are unaware of the situation ahead of them. Move all vehicles off to a shoulder or other safe area if possible and use hazards or flares to indicate the situation to others.
No matter how severe you believe the accident is at the time, you should always call emergency services. The dispatcher will send law enforcement to the scene to investigate the accident for the purposes of a police report. This has the added benefit of deterring other parties from fleeing the scene. You can also request emergency medical services if you or another person’s injuries require immediate care.
According to Indiana law, all drivers who are involved in an accident must remain at the scene so that they can exchange contact and insurance information with the other parties involved. If you are too injured to handle this step, you can leave it to the police officers who are called to the scene.
Eyewitness testimony is the vital evidence that is hardest to obtain after you leave the scene. Do your best to speak with anyone who might have witnessed the events leading to the accident. Even if you ultimately do not need their help, it is always better to have access to this evidence than the alternative.
There are other ways to preserve evidence at the scene of the accident. This is where your smartphone can come in handy. You should document as much of the scene as possible, including damage to vehicles and other property, skid marks left on the road, and conditions that might have contributed to the accident, such as inclement weather.
Once you leave the crash site, you should make your way to your nearest emergency room or urgent care facility. While many accident victims may prefer to see their primary care physician, with whom they have a history, this may not be ideal. It can take some time to find an available appointment with a primary care doctor, and many primary care offices will not treat your injuries as they cannot accept auto insurance coverage as payment.
You should contact a lawyer as soon as possible following an accident, who can guide you through the process of protecting evidence from getting lost, starting the insurance process, and protecting your rights. There are numerous benefits of having a seasoned Fort Wayne car accident lawyer advising you as soon as possible after your accident.
People usually start thinking about hiring an attorney when they believe a court case is necessary to resolve their dispute. However, an attorney can help you in car accident cases before your case ever sees a courtroom. Car accident cases often involve many communications with insurance companies and gathering evidence before a lawsuit begins. The process can be complex and overwhelming if you do not have experienced legal representation.
Our Fort Wayne car accident lawyers can help you gather evidence, argue about fault, negotiate a settlement, and file your lawsuit. Dealing with the fallout from a car accident is bad enough, but doing it while you recover from painful injuries is incredibly challenging. Our team can ease your burden and help you get the compensation you need and deserve.
In any car accident, the question of insurance is bound to come up sooner or later. What people often fail to realize is that different states treat car insurance differently. Some states are considered “no-fault states.” In these places, drivers automatically get an insurance payout from their own insurance providers after an accident. Drivers can only pursue additional compensation in a lawsuit if their accidents meet specific criteria. Indiana is an “at-fault state.” This means that drivers only get insurance payouts if they can prove the other driver was to blame for the accident.
In Indiana, you must not only sue the other driver, but you must sue their insurance company. Unlike in no-fault states, when you sue for a car accident in Indiana, you are not limited in what kind of damages you can claim. In no-fault states, your insurance typically only covers medical expenses and the costs to repair or replace your vehicle. In Indiana, you can claim other damages, like lost wages and pain and suffering.
Unfortunately, you may encounter complications if the other driver is uninsured. In such a case, you might have to sue the driver personally and hope that they can pay. Alternatively, you might rely on your own insurance if you have coverage for situations involving uninsured drivers. Call our Fort Wayne car accident attorneys for help with your case today.
Before recovering any damages from an insurance company, you have to prove the other driver is at fault for the accident. Insurance will not pay you if you cannot prove the other driver was at fault. You must also prove that you do not share any fault with the defendant or prove that you contributed only very minimally to the accident. If you are found to be partially responsible, your damages could be reduced.
Proving fault may pose a significant hurdle for some plaintiffs. In Indiana, insurance companies typically do not pay anything, not even for medical bills, until you prove the other driver was responsible for the accident. For a plaintiff with serious injuries and no way to pay for them on their own, this poses a big problem. If you are awarded any damages, those damages could be reduced if you are found to be partially responsible for the accident.
Our Fort Wayne car accident lawyers can help you gather the evidence needed to prove the other driver is to blame for your accident. With assistance from our legal team, you can fight to get compensation from an insurance company quicker so you can cover your expenses and continue your recovery.
If you successfully prove that another party caused your accident injuries in a Fort Wayne court, you can expect to recover compensation in the form of damages. Damages are calculated based on both the economic and the non-economic consequences that the accident and resulting injuries have on the victim. The third type of damages, called punitive damages, is only available in certain cases. Each case is different, so the best way to get an idea of how much you could recover in your case is to ask a knowledgeable Fort Wayne car accident lawyer.
The most straightforward harms generally fall under the category of economic damages. These calculations will incorporate all of the strictly financial consequences resulting from the accident. The most common example of economic damages are the expenses associated with the medical care that the victim’s injuries require. Victims whose injuries prevent them from working for an extended period of time can also recover economic damages based on lost wages or decreased earning potential.
For all the less tangible consequences of an accident, Fort Wayne courts can award non-economic damages. This form of compensation is meant to reflect the victim’s pain and suffering that may result from both their traumatic experience with the accident as well as the consequences of the resulting injuries. Your Fort Wayne car accident attorney can use their experience to help you develop a more precise idea of what your non-economic damages could amount to in your case.
In some circumstances, courts in Fort Wayne have the ability to order that the defendant pay additional compensation in accordance with punitive damages. Punitive damages are ordered based on the defendant’s conduct, so they will only apply if the defendant caused the accident in such a reckless or malicious manner that their behavior warrants punishment. You should never overlook the possibility that a court might award punitive damages in your case, particularly if it occurred because of drunk driving, illegal street racing, or other serious criminal behavior.
Before suing the other driver’s insurance company, you are likely going to engage in settlement negotiations. While plaintiffs often want to hold defendants responsible in court – understandably so – settlement negotiations should not be disregarded. A settlement offer in Indiana is contingent on the assessed damages from a car accident. If a settlement offer covers all your expenses and leaves you able to recover in peace, it might be a good idea to accept.
Getting to a good settlement offer usually takes time and negotiating skills the average person does not have. If your case lacks sufficient evidence demonstrating fault, your defendant’s insurance company might be less willing to meet your demands. However, if we have a strong case, we may convince the insurance company to pay you the money you deserve.
A good settlement agreement might not only get you the money you need, but it may also help you avoid the time and costly legal fees you would have otherwise spent on a trial. Call our Fort Wayne car accident lawyers for help reaching a settlement agreement in your case.
The laws of the State of Indiana only allow a potential plaintiff two years to file their lawsuit in court. This two-year window begins on the date that the accident occurred. The two years may pass sooner than you would expect, so it is always best to get out ahead of the deadline and speak to a diligent Fort Wayne car accident lawyer as soon as possible. By doing so, you can avoid missing critical deadlines, losing access to critical evidence, and going longer without the compensation that you deserve.
If you were the victim in a car accident and need money to help cover your expenses, talk to our Fort Wayne car accident attorneys about getting compensation. Our team can help you get the money you need as soon as possible. Call the offices of Wruck Paupore at (219) 322-1166 for a free legal consultation.
Don is a founding partner and one of the nation’s top-ranked personal injury litigators. He is a member of the Multi-million Dollar Advocates Forum, which includes less than 1% of the nation’s trial lawyers, and awarded the highest ranking given by Martindale Hubbel and AVVO.
More importantly, Don understands representing personal injury victims is about more than recovering the best settlement: it’s about helping clients get back on their feet and supporting them in every aspect of their recovery.
In nearly all cases, our clients seek compensation from the wrongdoer’s insurance company. Before forming Wruck Paupore, Jason worked for a prominent law firm representing some of the world’s largest insurers. This experience gives Jason a deep understanding of the insurance industry and the strategies it uses to pay injury victims as little as possible.
Jason -- and our entire team -- put this inside knowledge to work to force insurance companies to pay what is actually owed. Often, we use the insurance company’s own tactics against them as we fight for the full compensation our client deserves.
For more than four decades, Keith has been fighting for injury victims. During that time, he’s watched the insurance industry change, with insurers now more interested in protecting their stock price than treating injury victims fairly.
Since the beginning, Keith has put people first. From his childhood in Gary, Indiana during the 1960’s and working his way through law school, Keith has risen to become one of the Midwest’s most respected trial lawyers. He has never forgotten that being a lawyer is about helping people -- and seeing injury victims through struggles in a way that could change their lives forever.
Over the decades, Keith, Don and Jason have fought relentlessly for clients, even when other lawyers have said the case was impossible to win.
Contact Us:
Wruck Paupore P.C.
Injury Lawyers
275 Joliet St. Suite #250
Dyer, IN 46311
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