Need an Odessa car accident lawyer? Call Fadduol, Cluff, Hardy & Conaway, P.C. today for a free case review: (866) 432-4790
Odessa, Texas, home of such diverse attractions as thePresidential Museum and Leadership Libraryand theOdessa Meteor Crater, is easily reached by highways that stretch across Texas and beyond.
Interstate 20, Andrews Highway, the Kermit Highway, and other major highways crisscross the Odessa area. Along with the traffic, unfortunately, comes frequent car accidents.
If you have recently suffered a car accident, you might be wondering whether you need the services of an Odessa car accident lawyer.
One way to make this decision is to ask two questions:
- Were you physically injured in the accident?
- Is there a reasonable possibility that someone else’s misconduct caused the accident?
If the answer to both of these questions is “yes”, then you should at least seek a free initial consultation with an Odessa car crash attorney to find out if you have a strong claim. If it turns out you do, your claim might be worth more than you think.
Call (866) 432-4790orsend an online messagetoday for a free consultation.
We’ve Been Doing This For a Long Time Now
Our firm was founded in 1984, and our attorneys have accumulated over 65 years of combined experience helping personal injury victims achieve justice. We have fought and defeated multi-billion dollar corporations on numerous occasions.
We know how to handle evasive defendants, stingy insurance companies, and stubborn corporate lawyers. An Odessa car accident attorney can guide you through the maze of the Texas legal system.
Our Odessa Car Accident Lawyers Are Ready for Action
Choosing which law firm to hire to represent you for a car accident claimcould be the most important decision you make in your case.
We provide comprehensive services to car accident victims, including:
- Offering you a free initial consultation and a preliminary evaluation of your claim;
- Investigating the strength of your claim;
- Calculating the true value of your claim;
- Determining the appropriate defendant and locating third-party defendants such as employers, etc.;
- Initiating negotiations on your behalf;
- Filing a lawsuit, if that is what it takes to secure cooperation from the defendant (most lawsuits do not proceed to trial);
- Gathering admissible evidence that you can use at the settlement table (preferably) or in court (if necessary);
- Consulting with accident reconstruction specialists and medical experts to prove liability and damages;
- Drafting an airtight settlement agreement with the opposing party; and
- Representing you at trial, if this becomes necessary.
While we can make no guarantees on your particular case, our Odessa auto accident attorneys can say that the great majority of our clients settle out of court within a few weeks to a few months. Our record at trial is so successful that these days, opposing parties would rather settle our clients’ claims than meet us in court.
Common Causes of Car Accidents
The primary cause of most car accidents can be listed on the fingers of both hands:
- Drunk driving;
- Texting while driving and other forms of distracted driving;
- Exceeding the posted speed limit or driving too fast for the conditions;
- Running red lights or stop signs;
- Reckless lane changes;
- Tailgating, especially bycommercial truckers;
- Failure to yield, especially while merging;
- Vehicle mechanical defects;
- Driving on bald tires (leading to tire blowouts and elongated stopping distances, etc.); and
- Road rage.
An Odessa accident lawyer can conduct an investigation to uncover the true cause of your accident.
Possible Defendants
Texas allows you to claim against more than one party for the same accident if circ*mstances justify the claim.
Possible defendants include:
- The driver who caused the accident;
- In adrunk driving accident, someone who provided alcohol to the defendant (underTexas dram shop laws);
- The at-fault driver’s employer, if they were acting within the scope of employment when the accident occurred;
- The manufacturer of a defective auto part;
- The government that is responsible for maintaining the roads, if poor road conditions caused the accident; and
- A third-party driver, or even a pedestrian, if they contributed to the accident.
If more than one defendant was responsible for the accident, a Texas court will divide monetary liability under the state’s comparative fault laws.
What to Do in the First 24 Hours of an Odessa Accident
What you do immediately after an accident can make a tremendous difference in the viability of your subsequent claim for personal injury damages.
Take the following steps, to the extent that your injuries allow you to do so:
- Remain at the scene of the accident. InTexas, leaving the scene of an accidentthat involves injury, death, or serious property damage is a felony except in cases of medical necessity.
- Move the vehicles off the road to avoid another accident.
- Call the police to the scene of the accident, along with an ambulance if necessary.
- Do not apologize for the accident, for obvious reasons.
- Seek immediate medical attention if you are injured.
- Exchange contact and insurance details with any other driver involved in the accident.
- Obtain contact details from anyone who witnessed the accident.
- Photograph the scene of the accident, any property damage, and any injuries.
- Photograph anything else that might be useful.
- Stay off social media until your claim is resolved. Ask your friends not to mention your accident in their social media posts as well.
The most important step is to hire an Odessa auto accident attorney to help you win yourcar accident claimand collect damages.
Damages That You Might Be Eligible For
It is impossible to offer an accurate prediction of the value of your claim without knowing the details and, perhaps, performing an investigation. Following is a list of possible components of a personal injury compensation claim.
Economic Damages
Economic damages represent tangible, easily countable losses, such as:
- Damage to your vehicle,
- Medical bills,
- Estimated future medical expenses,
- Lost earnings,
- Future lost earning capacity if you become permanently disabled; and
- Out-of-pocket expenses such as child care expenses while you are in the hospital or bedridden.
The foregoing list is not exhaustive. You can claim economic damages for any tangible loss that arose directly from your accident.
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages are intangible, primarily psychological losses that you incur from your accident. In many cases, non-economic damages add up to far more than economic damages.
Non-economic damages might include:
- Physicalpain and suffering;
- Loss of enjoyment of life, especially if you suffer a long-term disability;
- Mental anguish;
- Physical disfigurement;
- Depression; and
- Nightmares/phobias/PTSD.
Courts also award other forms of non-economic damages.
Punitive Damages
Texas courts award punitive damages only occasionally when the defendant’s conduct was outrageous. This might happen after a “road rage” accident, for example, or after a surgeon, while intoxicated, operated on you.
Texas imposes statutory limitations on the amount of punitive damages you can receive. Nevertheless, in some cases, they could add several hundred thousand dollars to the value of your claim.
Wrongful Death Claims
If one person dies in a car accident caused by someone else, a close relative of the victim canfileawrongful death claim. Damages in wrongful death claims are different from damages in personal injury claims, but they are substantial. A court will distributedamagesamong surviving close relatives.
The Clock Is Ticking. Contact Us Today
If you have been injured in a car accident that might have been caused by someone else, or if your loved one died that way, now is the time to contact an Odessa car accident lawyer. The longer you wait to begin pursuing your claim, the weaker it will become.
The Odessa car accident attorneys athave won numerous large personal injury and wrongful death claims for victims of car accidents.
Call us at (866) 432-4790orcontact us onlinefor a free, no-obligation consultation. And don’t forgetーif we don’t win your claim, you won’t owe us anything.
