Motor vehicle collisions whether involving slightly more than minimal impact or extensive physical damage to the vehicles involved must be handled properly from the outset in order to ensure that any injuries received because of the trauma forces involved in the accident are properly evaluated. Each case as in all personal injury causes of action must be handled with specific attention to detail. There is no substitute for the proper gathering of information by an experienced trial lawyer. The overall scenario involved in the accident must be analyzed not only from a standpoint of what the official police investigation, if same exists, demonstrates as far as facts in the accident, but often other factors must be analyzed including road conditions, road design, the interplay of actions, which effected the offending driver, be it cell phone or text use, impairment, and various other factors, often there is the need for accident reconstruction analysis. In many motor vehicle accident one must also explore the area of equipment failure from both a mechanical standpoint as well as a potential product liability prospective.
It is imperative that you have a personal injury attorney analyze the available insurance coverages as well as all avenues of recovery related to those insurance policies. Even if you are a limited tort insured, there are exceptions to the application of limited tort depending upon the circumstances of each particular accident. Moreover, although your declaration page on your insurance policy may have you listed as a limited tort insured, depending upon the conduct of the insurance company in gaining your consent to such limited tort election, you may be a full tort insured by virtue of law. Moreover, there are interplays between various forms of health insurance, government benefits, and the benefits available under any particular automobile based insurance policy, which must be analyzed by an experienced attorney in order to protect your rights and maximize your recovery.
Special attention must be given to areas involving hit and run accidents, phantom car accidents, pedestrian accident and bicycle accident involving motor vehicles, both from a coverage prospective as well as investigatively.
Not all, but many injuries received as result of being in a motor vehicle accident are not immediately apparent at the scene because of a combination of physiological factors, and the overwhelming belief of most people that they are just “shaken up” and will eventually get better. This is not a decision that any individual should make. Therefore, it is advisable to seek immediate medical treatment and follow-up on that medical treatment for the benefit of your own health outside the area of potential litigation and recovery.
If you are involved in a motor vehicle accident and have any pain or discomfort, you owe it to yourself to seek medical treatment, which is paid for initially under your motor vehicle insurance.
Do not hesitate to seek a free consultation with a qualified personal injury attorney should you be involved in an accident. It is your constitutional right in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to do so.
