Auto accidents on the highway can be devastating to you and your family given the high and hectic speeds people travel on them. They can also involve multiple cars and may have multiple defendants who you could have a claim against. Whether you have a highway auto accident claim depends on whether you can prove someone else was at fault for the accident, your injuries, and the type of auto insurance you and the at fault driver or drivers have.
How Can You Prove Who Hit Your Vehicle On The Highway?
There are various ways you can prove that the driver who hit your car was at fault for a highway auto accident. The most obvious is the police report about the accident. Typically, an officer will assign fault in the report and may issue a citation against the at fault driver. There may also be witnesses who provided statements to the responding officer. Or witnesses may have talked to you and given you their contact information. If there were any passengers in your car they can also act as witnesses to the accident. There may also be video footage of the accident.
The highway auto accident may have been a multi-car chain reaction auto accident. In this scenario there can be one or multiple defendants. If there is more than one at fault car for your injuries each driver is responsible to pay the percentage at fault they are found for causing the accident. Therefore, if each at fault driver is found to be 50% at fault, each driver will be responsible to pay 50% of the verdict awarded by a jury. Ultimately a jury will decide the percentage of blame to put on each driver.
The Importance of Underinsured Motorist Coverage
If only one driver was at fault for the multi-car pile-up this can create a problem because each injured driver will have a claim against the at fault driver. If the at fault driver only has a limited auto insurance policy, there may not be enough to fully compensate each injured driver. In this scenario having underinsured motorist coverage will be important. Underinsured motorist coverage means if the at fault driver’s auto insurance limits are not enough to fully compensate you for your injuries, you can also receive financial compensation with your own auto insurance. This is called an underinsured motorist claim and is a first party claim. Whereas the claim against the at fault driver is a third-party claim. Your auto insurance will have a higher duty of good faith and fair dealing when handling your claim than the insurance with the at fault driver will.
Another way your auto insurance can affect your highway auto accident claim is if you have full or limited tort auto insurance. Full tort has no restrictions to recovering pain and suffering damages in a lawsuit. Limited tort only allows you to recover pain and suffering damages for your physical injuries if you can show that your injuries are significant and/or life altering. You can show this through your medical records, any limitations you now have on your life due to your injuries, through the testimony of family members and friends on how your injuries affect you, and through expert medical testimony. There are also other exceptions to the limitations of a limited tort policy such as if you were in an accident with a commercial vehicle or if the other driver’s car is registered out of state.
You Could Be Eligible to Revieve Economic Damages
You can collect economic damages as part of your auto accident claim as well. There will be no limitations on your ability to collect economic damages. These damages include past and future lost wages if you are unable to work from your injuries from the accident, out of pocket expenses, and future medical expenses you will incur for treatment of your injuries in the future. Your medical bills will be covered under the medical benefits coverage of your auto insurance policy. This is called PIP or no fault medical benefits coverage. After this coverage is exhausted your health insurance will have to cover your medical bills. You may have health insurance that has subrogation rights on your auto accident claim. This means it has a right to be paid back whatever injury related treatment it covered out of your settlement or jury verdict for your auto accident claim. If your health insurance can assert a lien on the treatment it covers, this will be an additional area of economic damages for your highway auto accident claim.
Photographs of the damage to your and the at fault vehicle can also be helpful in proving your auto accident claim. A heavily damaged or completely totaled car can show how severe the accident was. However, you can still suffer major injures even if your car was not heavily damaged. The severity of your injuries will ultimately be shown through medical records and expert medical testimony.
The Thistle Law Firm is experienced at handling highway auto accident claims. If you or a family member suffered injuries in a highway auto accident, the attorneys at the Thistle Law Firm are here to take your call and answer your questions at 215-568-6800.