While healing should always be your first priority if you are injured as a result of someone else’s negligence, it’s also important to consider what happens when your life gets back to normal. This is why we recommend that you safeguard your rights if you plan to file a personal injury claim in the future.
In order to do this, you need to take the appropriate steps after a car accident. The first step is to contact a car accident attorney as soon as possible following your accident. They will be able to advice you on all the legal options available to you. If you are located in Fall River, MA, you can talk to one of our lawyers by calling 508-676-0001 to book your free initial consultation.
The Statute of Limitations Will be Your Guideline
The statute of limitations determines the amount of time you have to file a personal injury lawsuit. The current statute of limitations in Massachusetts is three years and the countdown begins when you have your accident. If this timeline expires, then you will lose all rights to file for a personal injury claim.
There are, however, certain circumstances that can modify the basic statute of limitations and these include:
- When you or the person responsible for your accident is in another state
- When you or the person responsible for your accident are incapacitated
- When the person responsible for your accident avoids liability through fraud
- The accident results in a wrongful death
- The injured party is under 18
- The cause of some of your injuries are discovered several years later
- The party responsible for your accident files for bankruptcy
Since a child isn’t considered competent enough to file their own lawsuit, the statute of limitations for minors is 7 years or until they turn 18. A court approved caregiver or parent can settle a child’s case.
Don’t Wait too Long to Take Action
In an ideal situation, the party responsible for your accident will call their insurer immediately after the accident. The insurer will conduct an investigation immediately and calculate how much you deserve in damages.
They will simply look at your medical records to evaluate your injuries. When the time comes and you are ready to settle your case, the insurer will simply give you a fair settlement and you can be on your way.
Unfortunately, this rarely every happens especially if your injuries are severe and you have no one to protect your legal rights.
Don’t Expect the Person Liable for Your Injuries to Take Responsibility
We always advice all our clients to never admit liability to an accident even if they strongly believe it was their fault. This is because there is usually a high chance that other factors might have contributed to the accident and the plaintiff is innocent.
With that being said, the defendant will also be given the same advice by their lawyer. In some instances, defendants are known to lie about events that led to the accident. Consider the bellows scenarios just to get an idea of why a defendant might deny responsibility for the accident:
- They do not want to be fired from their job if they got into an accident while driving a company car
- They do not want to attract higher premiums from their insurer due to prior accidents
- Car manufacturers, designers and distributors do not want to tarnish their reputation y accepting liability
Insurers Won’t Wait Until You Recover
Insurance companies are in the business to make money. In short, if they were empathetic with everyone who made a claim, they’d be out of business.
While you are busy recovering, the person responsible for your accident is spinning the story of how the accident happened to his own advantage. If the accident happened near a premise, the owner of the premise is working hard to eliminate what might have caused the accident.
If a car manufacturer believes the car you were driving was defective, they will want to recover it for destructive testing, which ultimately makes the car useless as evidence. The liability insurer will also determine whether or not they will pay your claim.
Don’t Expect Your Insurer to Inform You About Your Statute of Limitations
Your insurer isn’t obligated to inform you about your statute of limitations. However, there are certain circumstances where they should tell you that your statute of limitations is about to expire and not doing so would be considered acting in bad faith.
An insurer will try as much as possible to avoid ethical and legal difficulties. They will usually stop communicating with you about a month or two before your statute of limitations expires if they try reaching you and you fail to respond. They’re not obligated to trace your whereabouts and insist that you respond to them. They will close the file until you file a lawsuit. If you do not file a lawsuit they will permanently close the file.
Only You are Responsible for When to Settle
You can choose to settle or file a personal injury lawsuit any time that you want as long as it’s within the statute of limitations time frame. Depending on your financial status, you might not be in a position to settle your medical bills. We’ve seen situations where clients have settled for less than they deserve because they wanted to settle their medical bills just avoid being listed with credit bureaus. If you are in a similar situation, you might want to consider the below options before settling under pressure:
- Health Insurance: your personal injury protection benefits will pay for your medical bills if you are in a car accident. Once the bill exceeds $10, 000, your health insurer will pay.
- Personal Injury Protection Benefit. Your car insurer will pay. They will pay 80% of your medical bills, 60% of your lost wages and replacement services.
Talk to a Car Accident Lawyer in Fall River, MA
You do not need to take on added responsibilities following a car accident. A car accident attorney can handle your legal issues while you recover from your injuries. Schedule your initial consultation with us and you won’t have to pay a dime. Call us at 508-676-0001 today.
