Atlanta Pedestrian Accident Lawyer

Some of the worst injury cases that we see involve cars hitting pedestrians. When hiring a personal injury attorney for these cases, you will want to look for experience. Because you’re dealing with a pedestrian rather than a car-on-car collision, there are different rules and different laws that apply. The statutes that protect pedestrians, specifically in walkways and on sidewalks, are very favorable, but if you don’t know where to look and how to apply those laws and statutes, they don’t really serve you any value. At Gunnels Injury Law , we have handled many car-on-pedestrian cases where we’ve been able to get successful resolutions for our clients because we knew how to work up those cases through our years of experience.

When pedestrian on motor vehicle collisions occur and insurance companies get involved, one of the first things the insurance company tries to do is get a recorded statement from the pedestrian who was injured. One of the first things our clients will always ask us if we should talk to the insurance company. The answer in that situation is always no. We don’t ever want our clients talking directly to the insurance companies or giving recorded statements. First, they have no obligation to do that; second, doing so can often be detrimental to the case because they are talking with trained investigators who ask questions in a way that are designed to get the injured party to give answers that may be misleading or not fully accurate.

We were recently contacted by an individual who was injured when he was struck by a motor vehicle while walking as a pedestrian. These types of claims are common, and we have significant experience handling them. A problem in these cases occurs if the driver of the motor vehicle doesn’t stop and the injured person is not able to get identifying information. In situations such as those where you can’t find the at-fault driver, a person’s only remedy comes from their own underinsured or uninsured motorist coverage. This is a type of insurance coverage you have on your own automobile policy that applies to any claim in which you were injured that involved a motor vehicle, even if it was not your motor vehicle. It’s imperative to have this type of coverage, and it’s not expensive. Please reach out to your insurance agent and make sure that uninsured motorist coverage is provided in your policy; if not, please add it.

An issue that regularly surfaces in pedestrian on motor vehicle impact claims is whether the pedestrian can be partially at fault for the claim. The answer to this is yes. What’s more, this is often a tactic that the defense takes in trying to defend these cases and insurance companies rely on to try to minimize the damages. While the laws of the state of Georgia with regard to pedestrians are strong, pedestrians do have obligations on their own. If they violate those obligations and an injury occurs in the process, they may be partially responsible for those injuries, which reduces or totally defeats their claim.

Injury claims involving pedestrians who have been hit by motor vehicles differ from cases that involve a motor vehicle on another motor vehicle. The most significant difference is the amount of injuries that generally occur when a pedestrian is hit by a car, as opposed to injuries sustained when a motor vehicle hits another motor vehicle. Motor vehicles are designed to protect their occupants, whereas a person who is just standing out on the street doesn’t have those same protections and can often be substantially injured.

When we have clients come in with a potential pedestrian accident case, one of the things they often ask is if there’s a minimum amount of medical expenses they need to have incurred in order to pursue a claim going forward. The answer is, in most situations, no. The more appropriate evaluation is the significance of their injuries. You can’t always just go by the amount of medical expenses because there are some injuries that are very severe but involve very low medical expenses, such as a large cut or road rash. Those types of things may involve cleanup or stitching, but are going to leave you with a permanent scar. Permanent scarring is an injury that usually brings very good compensation with it.

When a client comes to us with a pedestrian accident claim, one of the first things they often want to know is how long it’s going to take to resolve this case. The timeline is dependent on the facts of the case and the amount of insurance coverage available. Pedestrian cases are usually some of the easiest to resolve without having to file a lawsuit. When a case has significant injuries and the liability of the at-fault driver is clear, those are often cases that can be resolved in a quicker fashion. It often will depend on the amount of medical expenses involved and the amount of automobile insurance the at-fault driver has. Sometimes injuries may be very significant and there may be a lot of insurance coverage, and those are cases that have to be worked for a much longer amount of time, such as if an individual is hit by a commercial truck. There may be a lot more fighting over what the value of compensation should be. In those cases, if we can’t work them out before filing a lawsuit, we have to put that into litigation.

When we have clients come into our office who have been injured in a pedestrian accident, one of the first things they want to know is the value of their case. Determining the amount of compensation is a very tricky process. There are a lot of factors that go into it, and one of those factors is how you’re going to recover from your injury. There’s no way to know the value of your claim at the outset because, at that point, you don’t know what your recovery is going to be. If you recover fully from an injury, your case is worth less than if you suffer permanent damage. It’s not until you’ve either gotten all the way better or improved as much as you’re going to improve before you can really start to determine what the value of your injuries may be.