Recovering From A Crash In The Empire State

There is no more universally unpleasant experience than a car accident. Nobody wants to have their vehicle damaged and end up with injuries to themselves or their family members.

Yet as widespread as our dislike for car accidents is, there are differences from one state to another in terms of how the aftermath is handled. The work done by a personal injury law firm in New York is different from what's done in any other state because New York's laws are as unique as those of the other 49 states.

This is of particular concern in areas like the Northeast, where people often work in one state, live in another, and even do business in a third. The attorney they know at home in Connecticut won't be prepared to handle the case if they are injured on the way to work in New Jersey or while shopping in Manhattan.

One element of New York law is that it's a "no-fault" state. That means that a certain amount of your vehicle damage and your medical bills will be paid by your own insurance, even if the accident is clearly the fault of the other driver. How exactly the outcome is structured is not something to handle without a lawyer who practices in New York on a daily basis.

It is important to understand that your attorney can do more for you than simply represent you in court should your case go to trial. Lawyers are experts in the process known as discovery, which is the effort put into gathering all the facts about what happened in a situation.

There are many examples of what goes on in discovery for a car accident case. A capable attorney can gather a lot of information from the cars themselves, and that includes more than just the type and location of damage. Cars have extensive data logging capabilities in their computers, and a good attorney will get access to that data to establish everything from speed to headlight usage for every vehicle.

Information from outside the cars can come into play as well. Eyewitnesses can be helpful, and a good attorney will locate them, but they can sometimes be unreliable. A better option is the technology that makes it possible for attorneys to do even more, allowing them to track down active video surveillance systems in the area and analyze what they have captured. Attorneys may even be able to access cell phone records to determine if drivers may have been distracted at the time of the collision.

After discovery comes the process of determining the true cost of your accident. It is vital that you have an attorney who can capture all the costs, which may include things you would have never thought of. It could be child care for your kids while you make doctor visits or your travel expenses to those appointments. You may be due money for your meals as you seek treatment, and of course, you'll have the medical bills themselves. Those are compounded by lost wages, which you should also be compensated for, and potentially even things like loss of companionship by your spouse while you are injured.

With so many different factors involved in the process of litigating a car accident claim, it's clear that your choice of an attorney is essential. Without the right representation, there could be facts missed during discovery and considerations missed in terms of your claim, either of which can jeopardize your ability to recover the full and true costs of the accident.

We all want to avoid accidents and injuries, but when they do befall us, we want the fullest and most rapid recovery possible. A good attorney with local experience and skill will give you the best possible chance to bounce back on a quick time frame.

This is a blog post by Nancy Evans.