Atlanta Injury Lawyer / Atlanta Pedestrian Accident Lawyer
Walking is a great way to get around. It costs nothing, its good exercise, and it is good for the environment. Unfortunately, there are always ways things can go wrong. If you have found your way to this page, it is probably because you have been seriously hurt in a pedestrian accident. These accidents, as you probably already know, have the potential to be extremely disastrous. You have no protection from the impact of the vehicle that hit you and you have no protection from the impact of you hitting the earth after getting hit by the vehicle. Because of this, your injuries are probably catastrophic.  After you have read about your case, please call our Atlanta pedestrian accident lawyer today to set up your free initial consultation. Get Our FREE Pedestrian Accident Guide

Most Common Types of Pedestrian Accident Injuries

As mentioned, the nature of these accidents has the potential to be highly catastrophic. It is very common to see injuries that are permanent in nature which is unfortunate. The most common types of pedestrian accident injuries include:
  • broken bones and fractured bones
  • muscle, tendon, and/or nerve damage
  • concussion or contusion
  • spinal cord injury
  • internal organ damage
  • paralysis
  • head, neck, or back injury
  • scarring and disfigurement
  • cuts and lacerations
It is very important that you get your injuries tended to as soon as possible. Your medical records serve as a key piece of evidence and we want you to get the treatment you need so that you can start feeling better and also that we have information about the extent of your injuries. You may be tempted with the idea of trying to see if the pain goes away with some time, but that is not a wise thing to do. Your injuries can be an emergency and waiting can make it so much worse. You also risk having the insurance company look at your medical records as evidence in their favor if you did not seek medical attention right away. They could decide that you do not need compensation because you either lied about how you were injured or how severe your injuries are.

Georgia Pedestrian Accident Statute of Limitations

To ensure that your case is on the right track to getting your case done in a timely manner, you need to be aware of Georgia’s statute of limitations. This is the amount of time given to bring your case or to settle it in civil court. You are permitted two years from the date of your pedestrian accident, but no more than that or your will be barred from receiving compensation. The best thing to do is to hire an attorney right away so that you are giving them the most possible time to build you a strong and successful case. You do not want to delay seeking a competent lawyer to take over your case.

Biggest Pedestrian Accident Case Mistake to Avoid

Very shortly after your accident, you will most likely be receiving a call from the liable party’s insurance company. They will very politely ask you for a recorded statement, assuring you that it will help resolve your case in a timely manner. If you want your case to be successful, this recorded statement is something you should avoid at all costs. The insurance company trains their adjusters to ask questions that force you to answer in a way that would hurt your case and favor them. They are only really concerned with their bottom line. They don’t want to lose money on your case, so if they can somehow get you to say something wrong that implicates you, they can reduce the amount of compensation that they owe you or even throw out your case altogether. Georgia follows the rules of modified comparative negligence so if they can get you to be deemed 50 percent or more at fault for the accident, then they will not owe you compensation. If you are deemed less than 50 percent at fault, your award will be reduced by the amount of fault you are pinned with. The best thing to do is let your attorney take over all communication with the insurance company so that your right to full compensation is protected.

Frequently Asked Pedestrian Accident Questions

What mistakes should I avoid after a pedestrian accidentWhat mistakes should I avoid after a pedestrian accident?

On many occasions, we see people who have been injured in pedestrian accidents already having done damage to their claims before they even get started. It’s essential to take some steps to make sure your claims are preserved. First, we often see people who fail to report their incidents. It’s very important to have a police report made to document what occurred, when it occurred, where it occurred and who was involved. We will later need that information when we’re trying to locate witnesses and when we are trying to locate the at-fault driver who caused the incident. All this information is preserved on the police report, but if you don’t have that done, you open yourself up to having a defendant driver who claims this never occurred. Don’t give that opportunity to the defense.

Next, we often see people who wait way too long to go seek medical treatment. As soon as you begin feeling pain and discomfort, go seek medical attention. If your pain doesn’t start until the next day, go to the ER and get checked out. Oftentimes what starts as minor pain will increase to major pain over the coming days, and it’s important to have that documented as soon as possible to correlate it back to the incident. If you wait multiple weeks to go seek treatment, insurance companies will try to imply that if you had really been hurt, you would’ve gone and got medical treatment a lot sooner. Don’t give them that argument. Another thing we see people often do is fail to follow through on the treatment that they’re prescribed by their doctors. Once the doctors tell you what you need to do, always abide by it. Don’t let gaps occur in your treatment or have time pass where you’re not getting any treatment at all. It’s important to make sure there are no gaps because, again, insurance companies will use that to try to diminish the value of your claim. Finally, always make sure you immediately find a personal injury attorney who can help document your claim and preserve all evidence. It is essential to find an attorney who’s experienced in handling these types of claims and knows what to do. If you hire the wrong attorney, evidence will be lost and your claim will fall apart. Make sure you hire an experienced attorney who can walk you through this process.

What should I do if I was hit by a car as a pedestrian in Georgia?

Some cases we see on a very regular basis are those involving pedestrians being hit by cars. In those situations, the injuries can often be devastating for obvious reasons. If you have been in that type of situation, the first thing to do is obviously get immediate medical attention. In a case of a pedestrian collision, that’s often not optional because the injuries can be so significant and an ambulance is generally involved. The next thing to do is contact an experienced personal injury attorney who has handled many pedestrian cases and knows the law and the methods of collecting evidence to preserve your case and present it in the best light.

If you have been involved in an accident where you were a pedestrian and were hit by a car, please give us a call as soon as possible after the accident so we can begin working on your case and preserving all of the necessary evidence.

What should I look for when choosing a pedestrian accident attorneyWhat should I look for when choosing a pedestrian accident attorney?

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.

Another thing to keep in mind when you are hiring an attorney is to see if they have any experience in representing insurance companies on the other side. I spent many years of my career working for insurance companies and defending these types of cases, so I know what the insurance companies are thinking, how they make their decisions, and what drives them. Now I represent individuals who are trying to receive fair compensation in these types of claims, and I’m able to put that knowledge to use in bringing your claim against an insurance company and knowing how to get the best possible resolution for you. Another thing that you always want to keep in mind is that it’s crucial to have an attorney that is willing to go to trial and put a case to a jury. Cases are often settled in various ways before trial, but sometimes an insurance company is just not going to make a fair offer and your only option is to take the case to trial to get fair compensation. We spend a lot of our time in court rooms and we know what motivates juries to provide the best compensation to our clients. You don’t ever want to end up with an attorney that is afraid to go to trial or an attorney that insurance companies know is going to take the top offer that they extend, even if it’s not a reasonable one. We take cases to trial and insurance companies know that we are not just going to take whatever offer they give.

Should I speak to an insurance company after a pedestrian accident?

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.

If you have been injured in a pedestrian on motor vehicle incident and you need help navigating your claim, please give us a call as soon as possible so we can help you with issues involving an insurance company’s desire to take a recorded statement and all other issues involved with preserving evidence and presenting your case.

Can I file a claim if I was injured in a hit and run accident in Georgia?

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.

If you have been injured as a pedestrian and do not know who the at-fault driver was and need help navigating your claim, please give us a call so we can help you with the insurance process. We can determine if there’s any coverage for your injury and preserve the evidence needed so that we can help present your claim in the best possible light.

Can I file a pedestrian accident claim in Georgia if I was partially at-faultCan I file a pedestrian accident claim in Georgia if I was partially at-fault?

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.

A pedestrian has an obligation to walk in certain areas, to walk in certain directions, and to do things such as obey crosswalks and walking signs when entering intersections. If they are in the wrong— say, in terms of entering an intersection at the wrong time— and a motor vehicle impacts them, that may greatly minimize the potential they have for pursuing a personal injury claim. It’s important to investigate these cases thoroughly from the beginning to make sure that all of the evidence is available and that the claim can be presented in the best possible way to defeat any issue that a defense attorney may raise against the actual pedestrian. If you’ve been injured as a pedestrian when struck by a motor vehicle and need help navigating the claim, please give us a call as early as possible in the process so we can help with identifying witnesses, potentially recovering video evidence of the incident, and making sure that the case is preserved so it can be presented in the best way possible.

How does a pedestrian accident claim differ from an auto accident 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.

There are also differences in Georgia law involving pedestrian cases. When a person is driving a motor vehicle, they have an obligation to keep lookout and to yield to pedestrians in a fashion that may be more significant or greater than they do to another vehicle. If you have been hit while a pedestrian, it is very important that you contact an attorney who has experience handling claims involving protections because presenting those claims can often be very different than presenting normal motor vehicle claims. If you have been injured while operating as a pedestrian and need help navigating your claim, please give us a call so we can help you work through the process.

Do I need a minimum amount of medical bills to file a pedestrian accident claim?

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.

On the other hand, if the pedestrian is partially at-fault for the accident, it may not matter how expensive their medical bills are. The claim may not be valuable because of liability issues. The best thing to do, especially in a pedestrian case, is to contact a personal injury attorney immediately, and make sure that you know what’s going on. Let the attorney evaluate your case and help you decide if it’s viable or not.

How long will my pedestrian accident case takeHow long will my pedestrian accident case take?

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.

Personal injury cases have a two-year statute of limitations, which means that to pursue one of those claims in litigation, you must file the lawsuit within two years of the date of the injury. We try to get as much of the medical treatment done as possible prior to filing the lawsuit because if something’s overlooked or doesn’t arise until later, you don’t get to go back and ask for more money if you’ve already resolved your case. We want to make sure that all past, present, and future expenses are included. If we have to put one of these cases into suit, it’s going to take longer to work through gathering the evidence that is necessary and potentially presenting the case to a jury. A pretty fair estimate of how long it might take after you file a lawsuit would be somewhere between one and two years.

How much is my pedestrian accident claim worth?

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.

Under Georgia law, there are various things that you’re entitled to recover if you’ve been injured by someone else’s negligence. The first category of those damages is called special damages, which includes things like your medical expenses and lost wages. It’s pretty easy to determine what those are. The harder category to assign is what’s called non-economic damages. These are things like the pain and suffering that you endure, along with your disruption of life. In looking at those things, there’s a lot of variability in how they can be seen. Another major factor for how much your case may be worth is the amount of liability insurance that the at-fault driver carries. Under Georgia law, a driver is only required to carry $25,000 worth of at-fault insurance at minimum. If you have a couple hundred thousand dollars in medical expenses and the at-fault driver only has $25,000 in coverage, chances are — unless you have purchased uninsured motorist coverage through your own policy — that $25,000 is going to be all you can get. The best thing that you can do is as soon as you’re injured, consult an attorney and have an attorney that can walk you through the process and make sure that you’re doing all the right things so that your case can be put in the best position possible to try to maximize your recovery.

Please Call Our Atlanta Pedestrian Accident Lawyer Today

If you have been seriously injured in a pedestrian accident, please know that we will do everything in our power to protect your right to full and fair compensation. Atlanta pedestrian accident lawyer Christopher Gunnels is here to help you through the entire process. We will take over the legal side of your case so that you can focus on your health and trying to get back to full health. Your case is a priority and we want to make sure that you are taken good care of. We will be your champion. Subscribe to Our YouTube Channel Get Our FREE Pedestrian Accident Guide