Greenville, SC Car Accident Lawyer

No one wants to be involved in a car accident, but we know that they are almost unavoidable. Negligent drivers cause injuries every day and should be held accountable when they do in a lawsuit.

Our attorneys can help you get compensation for the damages you suffered, no matter how your car accident occurred. Through a legal claim, you can be reimbursed for your financial losses, like your medical bills and lost wages. However, our team will also calculate your non-economic damages, like your pain and suffering. Reach out to our team as soon as you are able. You will not have an unlimited amount of time to file your lawsuit. If your claim is not filed on time, you could miss out on compensation. We can prepare your lawsuit and file it immediately.

Call Rice, Murtha & Psoras at (803) 219-4906 to talk with our car accident lawyers and get your free case review today.

When You Should Contact an Attorney to File a Lawsuit for a Car Accident in Greenville, SC

It is always a good idea to contact an attorney as soon after your car accident as possible. Without the help of an experienced firm, you will not truly know if you have a valid claim and how much it is worth. It is also possible that too much time will pass, and you will not be able to file a lawsuit at all. Injury lawsuits from car accidents must be filed before the “statute of limitations” in the case passes. If you have been injured in Greenville, S.C. Code Ann. § 15-3-530(5) provides three years to file a lawsuit. In most cases, the clock starts ticking on the day the accident occurs.

Three years might sound like a long time, but it passes quickly when building a legal case. Important evidence is almost always easier to gather just after the collision, as is locating witnesses. You are also likely to remember more details of the accident. Our car accident attorneys can determine how long you have to file your claim and start working on it immediately. We will also see if an exception applies if the statute of limitations will expire soon.

The time limit is different if the victim in the car accident was a minor or had a disability that prevented them from filing a claim. According to Section 15-3-40, the clock will not start to run until the minor turns 18 or the disability is lifted. After that, the person will have three years to file their lawsuit.

Our lawyers can also help if the driver that injured you fled the state to escape justice. Some people do this thinking that if they cannot be found, they cannot be served a legal complaint. Fortunately, Section 15-3-30 pauses the statute of limitations until the potential defendant returns to Greenville. We can use our resources to try to track down the defendant and have your lawsuit ready.

What to Do After a Greenville, SC Car Accident

While contacting our attorneys quickly following your accident is one of the most productive moves you can make, there are a few critical steps you can take before speaking with us. By following the steps below, you will have a good head start on recovering the compensation you deserve:

Confirm You Are Safe

First and foremost, make sure you are safe after your car accident. Unless you are too injured, try to move your vehicle from the road so another driver does not make the accident worse. If you are trapped, though, wait for the fire department and emergency medical services to arrive and extract you. You should also put on your hazard lights if they are still functioning.

Report the Accident

When you call for emergency services after a car accident, the police will usually respond to investigate. This is an opportunity to report your accident, which is mandatory in Greenville. As per Section § 56-5-1270, any vehicle accident involving death, physical injuries, or at least $1,000 of property damage must be reported within 15 days of the accident. If you call the police to investigate your crash, you will have met this requirement quickly.

The police will make a report of what they observed at the scene and the parties they interviewed. Thus, your police report can help identify witnesses you did not speak with and argue liability if a citation was issued. It should also include the other driver’s contact and insurance information. Police reports cannot usually be used as evidence in a trial, but during insurance negotiations, they are often pivotal.

Get the Other Driver’s Information

If you have a chance to speak with the other driver before the police arrive, you should get their information. While the police report should include the driver’s details, it is always possible the police will forget to note it. By exchanging information with the other driver yourself, you will have what you need to file your lawsuit.

You can also collect information that might not be included in the report. For instance, if a commercial driver caused your accident, be sure to note the company they work for and how they are reporting the accident to their employer. You could have also been injured while riding in an Uber or Lyft rideshare vehicle. With the basic identifying information, our team can name each party in your lawsuit.

However, do not discuss more than you need to with the other driver. At this stage, you are simply trying to get enough information to file and serve a complaint later. This is not the time to debate fault and damages. Thus, avoid discussing details about how the accident occurred with the other driver, and do not apologize or admit fault in any way. A kind gesture to ease the tension can potentially be used against you.

Gather Evidence at the Scene

After talking with the other driver, try to gather evidence before leaving the scene. You can do this by taking pictures with your phone. Photos of injuries, physical damage, and other relevant details of the accident speak volumes in a claim. Having photos leaves little room to argue the severity of an accident when it is clear to see.

Therefore, you should take as many pictures of the scene as you think helpful. In addition to the accident scene and your injuries, take pictures of nearby traffic signals or stop signs. If you can, get shots of the road or intersection. Also, take shots of any businesses close by. When our team investigates the scene, we can see if any surveillance cameras captured the accident. These pictures will preserve this evidence since the accident scene will be cleaned soon after.

If other drivers or pedestrians stopped to help, speak to them as well. Witness testimony can make all the difference in settling a case since it can provide another view of the accident and the defendant’s liability. If your injuries did not allow you to talk to witnesses, our lawyers can help you identify them in your police report and contact them for you.

Be Sure to Get Medical Care

You must seek medical care after your car accident. If you do not have some proof of your injuries, it will typically not matter how much other evidence you collect. Your medical records will often be the evidence that ties your injuries to the accident. You will also need them to help calculate your financial damages.

You will also get the care you need and rule out any serious injuries you might not have noticed by visiting the emergency room. In the emergency room, your doctor can fully examine you, conduct tests, and form opinions on the cause of your injuries that will be in your medical records. They will also instruct you on how to get further care so you can develop a long-term treatment plan. Sometimes, this means seeing your family doctor or a physical therapist. Regardless, you should follow your doctor’s recommendations to the letter.

The insurance company will look for any reason to deny your claim or reduce your compensation. If you wait a few days or weeks to get medical care, they will jump on the opportunity to fight your claim. Even if you only missed a few appointments, it can harm your claim. Our team will help collect your medical records and organize them so there are no gaps in your treatment.

Be Careful with What Information You Share

You should not share details about your accident before speaking to our lawyers. Your insurance company or the other driver’s provider might want to discuss the accident with you. Friends and family will want to know what happened. As a general rule, however, you should limit your discussions about your accident to just your legal counsel.

Insurance companies are more concerned with saving money than helping people. The other driver’s insurance company will almost certainly try to get you to admit fault in some way, often twisting your words against you. Even if it is your own insurance company that wants to talk, you should wait until preparing with your attorney.

Also, do not post information about your accident or injuries on social media. In fact, it is best to take a break from social media until your claim is resolved. Insurance companies will likely comb through a claimant’s social media to find posts they can use to undermine them. For example, you might lose out on pain and suffering damages if the insurance company finds pictures of you hiking in the forest soon after your accident. Or, they might discover a statement you said, like “Oh, the accident was not that bad,” as a justification for lowering your compensation.

File Your Claim

Next, it will be time to get justice for your injuries. We will usually start by filing an insurance claim on your behalf with the at-fault driver’s insurance. However, we will also file a formal complaint with the court to begin the lawsuit simultaneously. Most cases settle through insurance negotiations, but filing a lawsuit is still necessary. Think of your lawsuit as another tool our team can use during negotiations. Engaging legal counsel shows the insurance company you are not taking your case lightly and are willing to go to court.

When our team drafts your complaint, we will be able to use the evidence you collect to that point and supplement it with the other pieces we collected during our investigation. Your complaint will lay out for the court how your accident occurred, the defendant who caused it, and the damages you are requesting in compensation. Our team will make sure this document sets the right tone for the rest of your case.

Types of Damages You Can Claim for a Car Accident in Greenville, SC

When we file your complaint, we will request you be compensated for economic and non-economic damages. Most victims after a car accident are concerned with covering their medical expenses, which is natural. However, you can recover much more than this. You can also get compensation for the time you missed at work. We will typically calculate your daily income and include the number of days you were out in your economic damages.

These damages will include not only the current costs you have already incurred but also additional costs for future losses. Perhaps your injuries are so severe that you have to get a lower-paying job or are permanently out of work. Or, you might need long-term medical treatment and surgeries that will come later. Your records will help prove the treatments you will need and what compensation it will take to cover it.

Our lawyers will also assess your property damage, including the costs to either replace or repair your vehicle. Be sure to keep the estimates and invoices you get from mechanics to include in your claim.

The other portion of your damages will be your non-economic losses. You might know these damages as “pain and suffering.” Pain and suffering compensate you for intangible, hard-to-calculate harm. A good example is the emotional distress you might suffer from your accident. You might have anxiety about getting behind the wheel again, depression over your injuries, or even PTSD.

Pain and suffering also include the physical pain you have to endure since getting injured. For instance, many car accident victims suffer chronic pain in their back that no amount of treatment can fix.

If the defendant who injured you caused the accident in a way that went beyond simple negligence, the court might award punitive damages. These damages are rare since they are intended as punishment, but we can request them if the defendant acted wanton or recklessly, like driving drunk.

Our Greenville, SC Car Accident Attorneys for Support Today

For a free case assessment with our car accident attorneys, call Rice, Murtha & Psoras at (803) 219-4906.