Glendale Car Accident Lawyer

Car accidents are traumatic events. The forces involved in a crash can cause physical injuries that can produce pain and limit your range of motion. They can also cause long-term or permanent disabilities that affect your ability to work or perform necessary tasks for the rest of your life. In addition to physical injuries, you can also suffer mental injuries like PTSD, depression, and anxiety.

Health problems and the associated costs often lead to financial issues. According to the American Bankruptcy Institute, healthcare costs are the top cause of bankruptcies in the U.S. Medical care is expensive. Paying for treatment and living expenses can strain your finances, particularly when your injuries prevent you from working.

Under Arizona law, car accident victims have the right to pursue injury claims against at-fault drivers. Specifically, you can seek compensation from drivers who negligently injured you as well as their insurers. An accident attorney from Gerber Injury Law will help you navigate this process.

Gerber Injury Law was founded in 2009 to assist car crash victims in Glendale. Our firm has a reputation for providing trustworthy and professional legal representation to all clients. Contact us for a free consultation to discuss your car accident and how we can help you.

Why Choose Gerber Injury Law for a Car Accident Case?

Gerber Injury Law is committed to client service. We shoulder the burden of dealing with your legal claims so you can focus on your health. Our firm makes the claim process as stress-free as possible.

The lawyer you choose for your case could make a difference in the outcome you obtain. You need a car accident lawyer who has knowledge, experience, and a track record of success.

Our founding lawyer has over 25 years of legal experience, including over 19 years representing personal injury clients. Since 2001, he has recovered over $100 million in injury compensation. His work has helped improve the lives of thousands of clients and their families. Their testimonials attest to the firm’s client service and results.

Gerber Injury Law has extensive courtroom experience. Our founding attorney uses that knowledge to customize a legal strategy for your case that meets your goals.

How Will an Attorney Help With Your Car Accident Claim in Glendale?

An attorney can assist you at every stage of the car accident claim process. They will act as your legal advisor, representative, and advocate.

In many cases, the quicker you contact a lawyer, the more you can do to protect your rights. Equally importantly, talking to a lawyer soon after your crash can help you avoid mistakes. Insurance companies look for any reason to deny your injury claims. Talking to an injury lawyer from Gerber Injury Law before you speak to any insurers could deprive them of these reasons.

Some ways we help with your car accident case include the following:

Explaining Your Rights

Our role begins with your initial consultation. We will listen to your story so we can understand what happened. We will analyze your case and explain your legal rights and options.

Many of our clients have never pursued a car accident claim. As a result, our role early in your case is to provide legal counsel. We use our knowledge of injury law to analyze your situation and explain how the law affects your case.

You control the course of your claim. We keep you in the loop at every stage so you understand what is happening with your case. We also provide you with the legal knowledge to make informed decisions.

We will keep up with all of the deadlines in your case imposed by Arizona laws and court rules. We will also determine the deadline for filing a lawsuit under Arizona’s statute of limitations and explain what you need to do to meet it.

When you consult us early in your case, we can often work with you to improve your legal situation. For example, some steps you should take after your crash include the following:

• Seek medical care to diagnose all injuries
• Follow the treatment prescribed by your doctor
• Track medical costs, including copays and out-of-pocket expenses
• Keep records of the reasons you missed work

We often recommend that clients avoid posting on social media. Insurance adjusters and defense attorneys can use your photos, videos, and posts to contradict your statements. They may even use them to argue that you faked or exaggerated your injuries.

Assessing the Strength of Your Case

We begin assessing the strength of your case during the initial consultation. We explain the strengths and weaknesses so you understand the range of potential outcomes.

There are two options for proving the other driver’s liability. First, we can assert the other driver intentionally injured you. This claim is rare and typically only comes up in road rage cases.

Second, we can assert negligence. This theory provides the basis for most motor vehicle crash cases. Someone is negligent when they fail to meet the standard of care owed to you. For example, all drivers owe other road users the duty to drive reasonably carefully.

When we use negligence, we do not need to get into the other driver’s knowledge or intent. Negligence is an objective standard. This means you can tell if someone is negligent by comparing their actions to the actions a reasonably prudent driver would have taken in the same situation.

Proving negligence requires evidence of four elements:

• Duty of care
• Breach of duty
• Damages
• Causation

All drivers owe a duty of care while on the road. They breach this duty of care by failing to drive carefully. This breach can result from traffic violations like speeding, tailgating, or failing to yield. It can also result from doing something legal but unreasonably hazardous. Thus, entering an address into a GPS while driving might be legal, but it might still constitute negligence if the driver took their eyes off the road while doing it.

Your losses come from your injuries since you will pay for medical care and lose income. Causation means an injury was a foreseeable result of the driver’s carelessness.

Determining the Value of Your Case

We will determine the value of your case based on your losses. This value plays an important role in the claim process. You know what to expect from your case and when you have received a fair settlement offer.

Your compensation depends on two types of losses. Economic losses encompass all the financial costs of your injury. They include both past and future expenses. They also include missed opportunities to earn income.

You must show your economic losses were caused by the at-fault driver’s actions. Examples of these losses include the following:

• Past and future medical costs
• Lost wages from missing work
• Diminished future earnings due to disabilities
• Reasonable and necessary out-of-pocket expenses

You must have evidence of these losses. We will help you document your expenses using financial records, including:

• Medical bills
• Debit and credit card statements
• Receipts
• Checks
• Income records

Your compensation can also cover non-economic losses. These losses are more difficult to assess because they do not come with a price tag. Instead, they encompass all the ways your injury diminished your quality and enjoyment of life, including the following:

• Pain
• Suffering
• Disability due to injuries that restrict your activities
• Dismemberment for a lost body part
• Disfigurement for scars or other injuries that alter your appearance

We can use medical records to prove non-economic losses. More serious injuries, particularly those with permanent effects, will cause greater non-economic losses. We can also use testimony from you and your family members to describe how your injuries changed your life.

Handling Your Insurance Claim

Vehicle owners in Arizona must have bodily injury liability (BIL) insurance. BIL coverage pays benefits to third parties injured by any driver covered by the policy. Third parties covered by the policy include:

• Drivers and passengers in other vehicles
• Passengers in the at-fault driver’s car, in some situations
• Pedestrians
• Cyclists

After a crash, everyone injured can file a claim against the at-fault driver’s liability policy. The insurer that issued the policy will pay losses by third parties up to a preset policy limit. The insurer will not pay benefits to the at-fault driver.

A Glendale car accident lawyer from Gerber Injury Law prepares and files your liability claim. The claim explains why the insured driver was liable for the crash using the accident report, statements from witnesses, and photos of the accident scene.

We will also include proof of your losses with the claim. This proof usually includes your medical and financial records. We will coordinate with you to gather all relevant documents so you can seek a full and fair amount.

A claims adjuster will investigate your claim. Adjusters work for insurance companies, not claimants. They protect insurers from paying claims outside the policy. But in doing so, overzealous adjusters may deny legitimate claims or throw up procedural roadblocks to frustrate you into giving up.

We know the procedures used by insurers, and they know it. As a result, they often avoid using their typical tactics against a car accident attorney. Glendale auto insurers know us and usually work with us to reach a reasonable settlement. We work hard to make the insurance claim process as smooth and stress-free as possible.

Nevertheless, adjusters may issue claim denials that we must fight to overcome. We will respond to denials with evidence and arguments. They may also play hardball when negotiating a settlement. We will negotiate aggressively to resolve your case fairly.

Defending You From Insurance Company Tactics

Insurance companies do not work for third-party claimants. Their goal is to make money for shareholders. They cannot do this by paying claims generously. As a result, they will often delay and deny claims to try to frustrate you into giving up or accepting a low settlement. Knowing your rights will help you withstand these tactics and pursue everything you deserve under the law.

Auto insurers can also defend a covered driver by trying to shift the blame to you. Arizona law uses a legal doctrine called comparative negligence. Under this rule, your compensation gets reduced in proportion to your share of the fault for your injuries. For example, if an adjuster says you were 30% at fault for your injuries, the insurance company will only pay 70% of your losses.

This defense usually takes one of two forms. First, the adjuster may try to blame you for the crash. Thus, if you were speeding when the other driver ran a stop sign, the adjuster can argue that you could have avoided the collision by slowing down, and as a result, you share the blame for the crash.

Second, the adjuster may blame you for worsening your injuries. This defense usually applies to your post-crash activities.

An adjuster may point out that you aggravated your injuries by failing to follow your doctor’s treatment plan or resuming work against your doctor’s recommendations. The insurer may even use photos from social media of you playing football with your kids to argue that you worsened your injury.

We respond to these tactics by presenting evidence and witness testimony to place the blame where it belongs. For example, we may need an accident reconstruction expert to explain you could not have avoided the crash.

Litigating Against Negligent Drivers and Their Insurers

We will file a lawsuit to keep your claim alive if the adjuster stands firm on a claim denial that we believe we can overcome. Likewise, we can file a lawsuit if the adjuster refuses to accept a fair offer.

Filing a lawsuit does not necessarily mean your case will reach trial. Once we file a lawsuit, the insurer must defend the covered driver. Insurers sometimes settle rather than pay to defend a case. Similarly, insurers fear juries since they are often unsympathetic toward insurance companies.

We prepare every case as if it will reach trial. Our hard work pays off if we need to prepare and file a lawsuit. The complaint describes your claim and the compensation you seek.

After the insurance company responds on behalf of the covered driver, the lawsuit enters the discovery phase. Both parties exchange evidence. We use this process to learn about the insurance company’s defenses and prepare our arguments against them. We will also disclose your evidence to the insurer, illustrating the strength of your case to give us leverage in settlement negotiations.

Each party will file pre-trial motions. The judge will oversee these motions to determine the evidence and legal arguments the parties can present at trial.

You get to choose whether a judge or jury decides your case. Accident victims often choose a jury, since they are often more sympathetic than insurers. Don’t worry, though. We will work with you to determine the risks and benefits of using a jury in your case.

At trial, each side presents its evidence. We will advocate for a verdict in your favor and full compensation for your injuries.

Contact a Glendale Car Accident Lawyer Today

Your car accident probably altered your life. Rather than forcing you to shoulder the losses from your injuries, Arizona law gives you the right to pursue injury compensation from the driver responsible for causing them.

Gerber Injury Law has over 19 years of experience representing car accident victims. Our Glendale car accident attorney will stand with you throughout your accident claim, providing legal advice, representation, and advocacy.

We understand the challenges you face and will work hard to earn your trust and respect. Contact us for a free consultation to discuss your injuries and how we can help you pursue financial compensation.