As a personal injury lawyer with over 30 years of experience helping families on Long Island, I have come to believe that it is critical that anyone involved in a serious car accident needs to hire a lawyer who is willing to get personally involved right from the start. Working with someone who not only is very experienced in personal injury law and is responsive to you from day one, but also is willing to go above and beyond to represent you and do what is necessary to ensure you are compensated for your injuries is the best way to ensure you get the compensation you truly deserve. Keep reading to learn more about how I jumped into action and went above and beyond to help one of my recent clients.
Initial discussion and determinations
Recently I met with a client who had been involved in a very serious car accident. It was an intersection accident and there was a question of who really was at fault for the accident, making it critical for me to piece together how and why the accident happened to show who was at fault. After my initial review, it turns out that the police accident report was wrong. It had the cars traveling on the wrong roadways in the wrong directions and included details regarding what the cars were doing at the time of the accident that were inaccurate. This misinformation made it clear that it was necessary for me to go to the scene of the accident to gather crucial evidence that showed that it was not my client’s fault or that it was mostly the other car’s fault.
How I took matters into my own hands
The first thing I did was go to where my client’s car was and take pictures of the damage to the car. I needed to demonstrate that this damage indicated the accident was a head-on collision and it was not the result of a turning situation where there would be damage to the sides of the vehicle. There was so much damage to my client’s car that it was deemed a total loss which helped to further prove that this was a very serious accident and that speed may have played a factor.
I then went to the accident scene and took photos of the intersection itself, the layout, the roadways, the lighting, and the lanes to get a feel of what was going on at this intersection. Next, I spoke with different people at the businesses which surrounded the intersection: two gas stations, a 7/11, and a restaurant. I took it upon myself to physically go and do this work myself because I knew my client needed me there to understand exactly what happened. As their attorney, it was my job to help piece this puzzle together to ensure they were able to get the compensation they deserved for the serious injuries they sustained due to the accident.
What I uncovered from local businesses at the intersection
While at the scene, I spoke with the manager at the 7/11 and discovered that they did in fact have video surveillance showing the accident. While they looked at the video for me, we discovered that unfortunately the glare from the sun made the video not useful to show what the other car was doing before it hit my client’s car. I then went to the first gas station where they were able to pull up a grainy video from the accident. This video showed mostly the intersection where my client was but not the other car, so I wasn’t able to really determine the pre-impact behavior of that driver, which is what I was looking for.
The restaurant unfortunately did not have any useful information but my last stop at the final gas station turned out to be very helpful. Even though the police accident report stated that there were no witnesses, the man working at the gas station said he saw the whole accident himself. He described what he saw which identified exactly what my client’s car was doing as seen in the video however what he described the other car to be doing was incorrect based on video evidence, so I knew I needed another video to help determine exactly what happened.
Now I am waiting on the owner of the first gas station to provide me with a clearer video so I can help determine what the other driver was doing. I believe that they were speeding up during a yellow light to try and make the light and at that time that they hit my client. If I can prove this through video evidence, I can help my client get the compensation they deserve from the other car’s insurance company.
Why it matters to have a proactive lawyer right from the start
I stand by the fact that I believe it is critically important to hire a lawyer who takes it personally from the beginning. Your lawyer should personally try to figure out what happened in the accident, to understand how to prove the case to the other insurance company, and to preserve all the evidence so if the case can’t settle that you can win the case at trial.
If you or someone you know has been involved in a serious car accident on Long Island, give me a call today at 631-495-9435. I will get personally involved from day one to help you piece together the details of the accident and make sure that you get the compensation that you truly deserve.
