After a motor vehicle accident in Wisconsin, victims must gather evidence of a negligent party’s fault to recover compensation. There are steps victims can take immediately after an incident and in the weeks following an accident to gather evidence.
In the moments following a car crash, victims should call the police. This can result in an accident report, which can be useful to victims when building a case. Going to the hospital is also necessary so that victims can create direct medical evidence of their injuries. During a subsequent investigation, eyewitnesses can be identified and can provide statements. Other evidence, like security camera footage, can be found as well. Records of your lost wages and medical bills can act as evidence of damages in your claim. If sufficient evidence is not gathered, fault might be called into question, leaving victims without access to compensatory damages in Wisconsin.
To get a free case review from our Wisconsin car accident lawyers, contact Wruck Paupore by calling us at (219) 322-1166 today.
Victims can immediately build evidence of their injuries following a motor vehicle accident in Wisconsin by calling the police and going to the hospital. This is often the first step in gathering evidence to support your claim.
Because police report for car accidents are not typically admissible in Wisconsin cases, victims might assume that calling law enforcement officials will not create evidence. This is not necessarily true, as the police officers that responded to your accident may be able to provide useful statements that strengthen your claim. Our Milwaukee car accident lawyers can also learn details about an accident in a police report, such as whether a negligent driver was intoxicated at the time of a collision. Police reports also note property damage, and injuries to victims and eyewitnesses.
The next step in building evidence is visiting the hospital. Victims should do this immediately, regardless of how serious their injuries initially appear. Getting immediate medical care will result in records that detail your specific injuries and their severity. While immediately going to the hospital is important, so is getting further care from specialists following a car accident in Wisconsin. If you do not continue your medical treatment, it might appear as though you do not require compensation for your injuries.
It can also benefit victims to take photos of their injuries and vehicle damage after an auto accident. This is best done at the accident scene immediately afterward.
In addition to building evidence, victims can also find evidence through an investigation. Investigations might unearth eyewitnesses, surveillance footage, and other useful evidence.
Statements from eyewitnesses can be invaluable evidence in a case against a negligent driver in Wisconsin. Victims can often learn of eyewitnesses by getting the accident report for their collision. Eyewitnesses can offer statements that confirm a victim’s telling of events. Eyewitnesses might also be able to provide information unknown to a victim that indicates fault.
Investigating an accident in Wisconsin might also uncover security camera footage or photographs showing an accident and subsequent damages. This is achievable through contacting nearby homeowners or business owners and requesting access to footage from their surveillance cameras.
Victims can also use statements from experts, such as medical and vehicle experts, to strengthen their claims against negligent drivers in Wisconsin.
While gathering proof of an at-fault party’s negligence is important, so is compiling evidence of a victim’s damages. Victims can do this by keeping records of their financial and emotional losses after a car crash in Wisconsin.
In claims based on negligence, it is important to prove that victims sustain damages that require compensation. This means that a victim incurred losses due to a defendant. To calculate the damages you deserve, you must document your financial losses by keeping track of medical expenses and loss of income.
Damages from a car accident also include emotional losses. While documenting pain and suffering can be more challenging, it is possible by seeing a therapist or confiding in close friends and family about your struggles. Victims can provide their own statements in a car accident case, allowing them to explain the emotional impact an accident has had on their lives. Calculating your anticipated recovery will be much more challenging if you do not gather proof of damages.
If you have other out-of-pocket expenses in addition to medical expenses and lost income, keep track of those damages as well, as you may be able to recover compensation for them.
Without sufficient evidence of a negligent driver’s fault, recovery may be challenging for victims. This is especially true when victims are found to be partially at fault for their injuries in Wisconsin.
Although Wisconsin is a no-fault state for car accidents, modified comparative fault laws might impact some victims. For example, when victims share some liability for their injuries, their damages may be reduced proportionally to their liability. Unfortunately, many car accident victims are unaware of this caveat and may misspeak or unintentionally accept a percentage of the blame for an accident they did not actually cause.
If victims do not take the necessary steps to build and gather evidence, there might not be a basis for a claim against a negligent driver in Wisconsin. This can result in victims being unable to recover compensation of any kind, leaving them personally responsible for covering the cost of their injuries and other damages.
Call our Wisconsin personal injury lawyers at (219) 322-1166 for a free case evaluation from Wruck Paupore.
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.
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