Even an innocent remark about you being tired or upset about something at the time of the crash could be used later on as a pretext to lower the damages you deserve.
Thousands of people are injured each year in crashes on Nebraska roads. If you’ve ever been in a car accident you know that the first thing that crosses your mind is to assess the severity of your injuries and to see to the others who might have been hurt. Getting medical assistance is the number one priority. Next, you’ll need to call the police. For a simple fender-bender that is not necessary, but when people are injured, the police report will be essential when it comes to establishing who gets what kind of damages.
Speaking of damages, you should also contact experienced Nebraska accident lawyers as soon as you’re able to. You should do that before talking to your insurance company. If your policy requires you to inform them immediately about a car accident, by all means do so, but mind what you tell them. Soon after a serious crash, you might be confused and in pain and there’s the risk you say something you shouldn’t. Even an innocent remark about you being tired or upset about something at the time of the crash could be used later on as a pretext to lower the damages you deserve.
Who’d do something like that? Insurance adjusters would as it is their job to minimize the value of the claims they get as much as they can. This technique is known as lowballing and insurance adjusters are very skilled at finding pretexts to lower the amount of money you deserve.
If you must talk to the insurance guys, only tell them that there’s been an accident, but don’t go into any details. Let them know they’ll be hearing from your accident attorney. They don’t need to know that you don’t have one yet, and it works great as a warning. They’ll understand they won’t be able to lowball you.
How can a lawyer help? First of all, they will look into the police report to see what it says about the causes of the crash. You need that to establish liability.
Unlike other American states, Nebraska uses the comparative fault rule. This means that each driver is assigned a percentage of the fault. If you didn’t do anything wrong, you weren’t speeding or talking on the phone and you didn’t violate any traffic rule, then you are not to blame at all for what happened.
However, if it is established that you were distracted by anything or were a few miles over the speed limit, you might be found 10% to blame, even though it was the other driver that slammed into you. In this case, the damages you deserve will be reduced by 10%. You can expect to hear the insurance adjuster say that your own fault in the accident was at least 30 or 40%, so you barely deserve any money.
A skilled accident lawyer will not let them get away with it. They’ll call in independent experts if need be, to establish liability. Also, they’ll make sure you get all the damages you deserve. You can get both economic damages, covering your property loss, medical bills and lost wages, as well as non-economic damages. Your pain and suffering are worth something and your lawyers will see to it that you get that money.
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