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Have you been seriously injured in a pedestrian accident? These are terrible accidents, and you are probably in an immense amount of pain. We understand what you are going through and want to stand by you while you fight for justice. We want to be a big support for you, so do not hesitate to reach out to us as soon as you can. Our Orlando pedestrian accident lawyers will be here for you every step of the way. Call today for a free initial consultation with a personal injury attorney.
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Successful pedestrian accident claims typically only come from competent lawyers. There are things that you can do to strengthen your case, however. First, you want to make sure that you have collected all available evidence from the scene of the accident. Sometimes, victims of pedestrian accidents get swept away in an ambulance before they can even think to do anything else. If you are either unable to collect evidence yourself or were unconscious after the incident, you can have a family member or friend, or even one of our Orlando pedestrian injury attorneys, come onto the scene to collect evidence for you before it gets cleaned up. If you wait to do this, your evidence might disappear forever. Evidence you will need includes pictures and videos of the whole scene, as well as contact information from the witnesses to get their testimony later on.
Next, you absolutely need to get immediate medical attention. This should be your number one priority. You cannot have a pedestrian injury case be successful without having been to see a doctor. That is because of two reasons: you want to make sure you are going to get healthy and pain-free as soon as possible, and you also want to get medical records to prove to the insurance company that their insured caused you all of this grief that you would not have had if the driver of the vehicle was acting in a way that was cautious and careful.
Lastly, you can expect that the insurance company does not want to give you the results you deserve. That means you do not want to have unnecessary interactions with them. Very shortly after your pedestrian accident, they will be reaching out to you to try to get a recorded statement. You do not have to give them a recorded statement. You are not legally obligated to do this. In fact, we strongly suggest that you do not talk to them because they can back you into a corner, so to speak, to get you to say things that will ruin your claim.
Pedestrian accidents usually happen when someone traveling on foot is hit by a vehicle. The person who was hit by the vehicle is considered the plaintiff in a pedestrian injury case and is likely to be the most injured and in need of the most medical treatment. Their lives may have changed the most after the accident. If you were the pedestrian, you are the plaintiff.
The person who hit the pedestrian is going to be considered the liable party. The liable party is usually a motor vehicle driver who was careless or negligent and hit the pedestrian, thereby causing them severe injuries. They are considered responsible for causing the accident and causing the injuries that ensued. They will have to be found civilly liable in order for you to get the justice you deserve.
Next, the insurance company that represents the liable party is going to be responsible for paying the compensation you are demanding for the damages you are suffering. They are going to present challenges to your claim because they do not want to cost themselves money and will try anything they can to devalue your pedestrian injury claim.
People responsible for protecting your rights to fair compensation are going to be your Orlando pedestrian accident attorneys. They will be trying to protect your rights by going against the insurance company and proving that they are responsible for the damage that their insured caused you by being careless or negligent. Make sure to hire a team of lawyers that will fight for your rights and not just settle to get you in and out quickly.
If you were a pedestrian injured by the negligence of another, it’s very important that you hire the right type of lawyer for your case. There are several characteristics you should look at before doing so. One thing you should look at is if that lawyer is focused on personal injury. You want to hire a lawyer that does nothing but personal injury, has a lot of experience in personal injury, and has handled pedestrian cases, because they involve many unique characteristics.
Another important thing you want to look at before hiring a lawyer for your pedestrian accident case is if that lawyer will go to trial. Does that lawyer have trial experience? Does that lawyer have the resources to hire the right experts to take your case to trial? Is that lawyer afraid to go to trial? There are many lawyers out there that have never been to trial, that never go to trial, even though they call themselves trial lawyers.
Another thing you want to look at is the background of that lawyer. How many years of experience do they have in personal injury? Have they represented injured people, injured companies for many years? Have they defended people, so that they know both sides of the coin?
Those are the things you want to look at before you hire a lawyer for your accident injury case. We have many years of experience representing injured people and many years of experience defending people and individuals in pedestrian accident cases, and we have many years of trial experience.
Differences between Pedestrian Accident and Auto Collision CasesObviously, the most striking difference relates to whether or not the person who is hit by the car owns an automobile. The at-fault driver’s personal injury protection would actually cover their initial medical bills. It’s very important to get the at-fault driver’s insurance information and open a claim.
Other than that, there are certain things that affect pedestrian accidents versus auto accidents. Some can be the location of the accident. Did it occur within a crosswalk or outside of a crosswalk? Did it occur at night? There might be night visibility issues as well as distracted driving issues. These are all issues that an experienced trial attorney is well aware of and can look into.
Pedestrians injured in hit and run accidents have a potential claim if they have uninsured motorist coverage, which would cover them even if an attorney is not able to identify the vehicle and the person who struck them. However, even if you do not have uninsured motorist coverage, an experienced attorney has ways to investigate the claim and possibly track down the vehicle that did strike you and then pursue their insurance.
Orlando is a comparative fault jurisdiction, which means the driver and the pedestrian’s names are put on the verdict form, and a jury determines the percentage of fault from zero to one hundred percent for each individual. It can be 50/50; it can be 25/75; it can be 0/100.
A pedestrian’s actions can contribute to the cause and severity of an accident. That’s why it’s very important to get an experienced Orlando attorney involved as soon as possible to investigate and determine if there was any comparative fault on the pedestrian themselves and how to minimize that and identify the fault of the driver.
Unfortunately, there’s no exact science or answer to that question. What we do is we use the many years of experience we have in pedestrian cases, not only when we defended individuals that were injuring other people and companies that have caused injuries to other pedestrians, but the many years we’ve had representing people who have been injured as pedestrians. We use that experience and what we’ve seen cases settle for, and what we’ve seen juries do, and then we take that experience, along with the jury verdicts that we’ve seen other lawyers obtain, because those are reported here in Florida, and we look at those and look at similar injuries and, using all that experience and that knowledge, we can give our clients some guidance and educate them on the value of their case.
Having that information and having that knowledge, our clients can then decide if they want to accept a settlement offer or if they would prefer to present their case to a jury. If they decide that they want to present the case to a jury, we’ll do everything in our power and all our resources and present the best case we can to the jury for our client so that they can get full and fair compensation.
How long will my pedestrian accident case take to resolve?Unfortunately, there is no exact answer to that question. All we can do is give our clients some guidance based upon what we’ve seen. Every case is unique, and every case is different. Sometimes, although not very frequently, cases will settle very quickly. In those situations, it depends on how fair the insurance company is being, how much insurance coverage the at-fault person has, and what the extent of the injuries are. Other factors that go into the length of time are how much treatment our client needs and how serious their injuries are. Did they end up having to have surgery and go through rehabilitation?
It just depends. Every case is unique, every case is different. Of course, we try to settle all cases before filing a lawsuit, but sometimes those cases can’t be settled. If we have to go into the litigation process, things take longer. On average, from when a case is filed until it’s presented to a jury in Orlando, and if things are moving normally and smoothly, it’s about a year and a half. Before that, there will be a court-ordered mediation conference, during which a lot of cases settle.
You only get one opportunity to get the justice you deserve for the damages you’re suffering from your pedestrian accident. Please let our Orlando pedestrian accident lawyers be a part of your journey to full, fair compensation. We want to help you get the most out of your case. Do not hesitate to reach out to us as soon as you can. We will do everything in our power to get you fair results. Call us today for a free first consultation.
