The moments and days following a car crash bring anxiety, stress, and confusion to those involved. With these reactions come the risk that you will ignore important rights and take actions that might jeopardize your personal injury claim.
Below, we discuss rights that victims have after an automobile accident, why these rights exist, and other actions you need to take after a crash.
The Right to Information From the Other Drivers
The drivers involved in an automobile crash must exchange certain information. This obligation affords you the right to know the identity of the other drivers, owners of the vehicles, and insurance companies covering the other vehicles involved in the crash.
While all of the information is important, the insurance may prove most critical. Motorists in Georgia and most states must carry liability insurance to pay damages for which the driver may face liability. In Georgia, the minimum liability coverage sits at $25,000 for each person and $50,000 per accident.
If the at-fault motorist lacks the required insurance, you may resort to the uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage of your own automobile insurance. Underinsured coverage pays the difference between your total damages and what the other driver’s liability insurance pays. For example, if you suffered $100,000 in damages and you get $25,000 from the liability carrier, your underinsured motorist coverage will pay $75,000.
To recover from the uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage, you must prove that the other driver was at fault. In essence, your own insurance company will defend the other driver against you.
The exchange of driver information helps you identify those other than the driver who may be liable for your injuries. In particular, you may pursue the owner based upon the owner’s relationship with the driver. For example, the family purpose doctrine holds the owner liable for the negligence of spouse, child, parent, or other member of the owner’s household where the vehicle was made available for the convenience and use of the household and the driver had the express or implied permission to use the vehicle. Owners of company or commercial vehicles may be liable for their employees’ negligence under the theory of respondeat superior.
The Right to Remain Silent, Generally
Aside from exchanging information, you need not speak with the other driver, passengers, or others at the crash scene. In fact, you should avoid doing so. Submitting to questioning from others or offering idle chatter might lead to an argument by the other driver that you admitted fault, absolved the other driver of fault, or that you’re not hurt. To that end, refrain from saying “I’m sorry,” “It’s not your fault,” “I’m not hurt,” “I don’t blame you,” or the like.
Your right to remain silent also extends to the opposing party’s liability insurance or their adjuster — at least before a lawsuit. Consult with an attorney before you accept that insurer’s invitation for an interview or to give a statement. The adjuster can turn the most innocuous statements into a reason for a court or jury to cast doubt on your claim.
Once the lawsuit is filed, the insurance company lawyer may ask you questions about the crash and your injuries through written questions called interrogatories and through a deposition. In these settings, you have the right to hire a lawyer who can object to improper questions. This likely will be the lawyer you engage for your personal injury claim. Also, note that the privilege against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment does not apply in civil, personal injury lawsuits. If you refuse to answer certain questions in discovery, you might be prevented from relying upon claims, defenses, or contentions covered by the questions you refuse to answer.
To be sure, you will encounter a police officer, deputy, or state trooper at the crash scene. Georgia law requires that you report an accident involving death, personal injury, or property damage of more than $500. You fulfill this duty by contacting the Atlanta Police Department or other municipality where the crash occurred. You do not have to admit fault or illegal activity to the officer, but you must not give false statements.
The Right Not To Take “No” For an Answer
Ultimately, the determination of fault in an automobile crash lies with the courts, not the insurance company, other drivers, you, or even the law enforcement officer on the scene. A letter from the at-fault insurer rejecting your claim does not close the case or bar you from filing a lawsuit.
More importantly, you should not wait for an adequate response from the insurance company to file a lawsuit. States have statutes of limitations to limit the amount of time you have to file a lawsuit. For Georgia, personal injury cases carry a two-year deadline.
The statute of limitations runs from the date you have the right to sue, which is whenever you suffer some injury at the hands of a party’s negligence or other wrongful conduct or omissions. Since you suffer some injury at the moment of the crash, the time you have to sue starts on the date of the crash. Using the date that the insurance company might respond might cause your claim against the driver or owner to be barred by the statute of limitations.
The Right to Compensation For Your Injuries
You are entitled to compensation for injuries caused by the negligence of another driver. Fault can arise when a driver:
- Texts or views messages and content on a cell phone or smartphone
- Exceeds the speed limit or drives too fast for the conditions, such as fog, darkness, rain, or curves in the road
- Follows too closely, which typically occurs in a rear-end crash
- Drives under the influence of alcohol or controlled substances
- Runs a stoplight or stop sign
During a lawsuit, you or your attorney can request information and documents from the other driver. These include phone records, social media posts and texts at and around the time of the crash, and data from the vehicle’s event data recorder or “black box.” From the recorder comes information such as the vehicle’s speed at impact, braking distance before impact, acceleration, and steering wheel angles. The data helps accident reconstructionists illustrate how a crash occurred.
The damages you may recover in a motor vehicle wreck include:
- Medical Expenses: These are for your hospital stay, doctors’ visits and services, physical therapy, medications, surgeries, and medical devices and supplies. You can recover amounts paid by you or your health insurer and what you still owe. The actual expenses you may recover are less than the amounts charged by the hospital and your doctors because of arrangements between your health insurance and your medical providers.
- Lost Wages and Earning Capacity: A crash may injure you to the point that you must spend time away from work and cannot perform your past or other work. These economic damages compensate you for past and future lost income. Your work history, education, level of disability, and prior skills can help establish your diminished ability to earn wages in the future.
- Pain and Suffering: You can also recover for pain, discomfort, depression, anxiety, distress, and other suffering caused by the crash. Proof that you sought mental health counseling or other documentation of depression or anxiety supports your claim for emotional distress or suffering. Georgia does not cap non-economic damages such as pain and suffering in automobile crash cases.
- Loss of Consortium: This non-economic damage compensates your spouse for companionship, marital relations, and services that another driver’s negligence deprives your spouse. For instance, physical and mental injuries may impair your ability to display affection for your spouse.
The Right to Compensation Even If You’re Partly At Fault
Georgia has a modified comparative negligence rule. An injured party may still recover a portion of their damages so long as the victim is less than 50 percent at fault. Under this approach, if you have $100,000 in damages and you’re 40 percent at fault, you will recover $60,000 ($100,000-($100,000*40)). This is contrasted with the contributory negligence rule of barring victims from recovery who are at fault in any portion in causing their injuries. In no-fault states, drivers may recover medical expenses and lost wages up to a limit regardless of fault. Compensation in those states comes through the injured driver’s personal injury protection coverage on the automobile.
Even in Georgia, you may get a portion of your medical expenses paid without having to prove fault. This comes through the “med pay” or medical payments portion of your automobile insurance. The limits of this insurance can range from $1,000 up to $50,000 depending on your insurer and what you select.
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