Escondido Personal Injury

The idea of California as a big, beautiful state with a diversity of people, places to go, and things to do has been repeatedly celebrated in classic songs and movies. In Escondido, as is the case all across the state, Californians spend a large part of each day in their cars getting to and from work and out and about enjoying life. When you think of California, you think of cars and the freedom they afford on the open roads.

Unfortunately, when lots of people are traveling at the same time for different reasons and in different conditions, accidents can and do happen, some proving fatal. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there were 3,176 traffic fatalities in California in 2015. The cause of these fatal crashes varied, with almost one third involving alcohol-impaired drivers. The NHTSA statistics show that while fatal accidents can happen on freeways, thoroughfares, and rural roads, the greater percentage occur in more densely populated urban areas and involve passenger cars. When drivers and passengers survive these car crashes, many do so with life-changing personal injuries and disabilities.

If you are involved in a personal injury accident, you will most likely want to focus all of your attention on getting the physical and medical help you need to return to normal life, as rightfully you should. Unfortunately, you may have sustained severe injuries in the crash that keeps you off work for a period of time, or that are so damaging and disabling, you are no longer able to work at the level you did before the accident or not able to return to work at all. To maintain a reasonable standard of living in such a case, steps will need to be taken to recover your accident-related losses.

As soon as possible after your personal injury, it would be beneficial to begin investigating the conditions that caused it. Steps that should be immediately taken include examining and photographing the accident scene to preserve evidence that you may need later, identifying and interviewing witnesses, and beginning to establish who or what was at fault for the accident. An Escondido personal injury attorney might be able to assist you by focusing on helping to recover your losses while you attend to getting your life and health back on track.

When you are injured and suffer losses in a car accident, you may be entitled to recover economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages are actual monetary losses which can include:

• the costs of the emergency, medical, and rehabilitative care
• required daily living assistance
• lost wages while you are unable to work
• loss of earning capacity when you can no longer work at jobs that paid as well as before the accident

Non-economic damages include non-monetary losses such as the reasonable value of pain and suffering, emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment of life. Your personal injury attorney may be able to identify other economic and non-economic damages to which you may be entitled.

Once the accident has been thoroughly investigated, all responsible parties identified, and your present and future losses tabulated, you should be ready to attempt settlement of your case. Your personal injury attorney, through negotiations with the responsible party or parties, or their insurance companies, may be able to recover your losses without the need to go to court. However, if efforts to settle your case without going to court are not successful, your lawyer may choose to file a claim for you in civil court to seek recovery of your damages.

As a client of the experienced attorneys at El Dabe Ritter Trial Lawyers, you will be provided with responsive and individualized attention and assistance to protect your legal right to recover your losses. We also make sure you are able to return to enjoying your California life as soon as possible by helping to get your car repaired and your accident-related bills paid. At El Dabe Ritter Trial Lawyers, we have recovered over $20 million in settlements and verdicts for our clients, and we work on a contingency basis, so you pay nothing until we settle or win your case.

Escondido Car Accident Lawyers

If you are an individual who has experienced injuries in a car accident in or around Escondido, you need to educate yourself on the different ways in which Escondido car accident lawyers can help victims of car accidents caused by someone else’s negligence.

Building A Car Accident Case

There are specific legal requirements that must be met in order to prevail in a car accident personal injury case. You must demonstrate that the other driver not only had what legally is known as a duty of care, but that the duty of care was breached, and legally caused your injuries.

A duty of care is the easiest part of what is involved in laying the foundation in a personal injury case. A driver of a motor vehicle on California roadways has the duty to drive in a reasonably safe manner, considering the prevailing circumstances at the time. In other words, a driver needs to be more vigilant in inclement weather than is the case on a clear day.

The next step in building a personal injury case based on a car accident is a demonstration that a driver breached a duty of care. For example, if a driver is texting while driving and a collision ensues, texting would be considered a breach of that duty of care.

Finally, the breach of the duty of care must be what legally is called the proximate cause of the accident. Returning to the texting and driving example, if the inattentive driver rear-ends your car and you suffer whiplash, proximate cause would be said to exist. It is reasonably foreseeable that texting while driving could result in this type of incident.

On the other hand, if someone looking out the window of a building witnesses the accident, and has a heart attack as a result, texting and driving likely could not be established as being the proximate cause of the heart attack sustained by a witness fairly far off from the accident scene and in a building. A texting driver could not reasonably foresee this type of consequence from using a mobile device in this manner while driving.

Although this may all appear to be pretty cut and dry, it is not. Establishing liability in this manner in a personal injury case following a car accident can be a highly complicated process. This is a prime example of where a trained, experienced personal injury attorney is of invaluable assistance to you if you are injured in a car accident case.

Dealing With Car Insurance Companies

An automobile insurance company is in business to make money for its shareholders. It does not exist to ensure that you get the compensation to which you are entitled following a car accident.

Because of this reality, an insurance company will oftentimes do whatever it possibly can to delay paying you compensation and to avoid paying you an appropriate amount of compensation. As a result, this represents another area when a car accident attorney can be vital to you.

An experienced car accident lawyer knows the drill when it comes to taking on an insurance company. A skilled attorney understands the claims process, including how to take on even the largest, most obstinate of automobile insurance companies.

Filing a Car Accident Lawsuit

A personal injury lawsuit, arising out of injuries sustained in a car accident, is complicated. One misstep and the entire case can end up thrown out of court. Missteps understandably happen time and again when a person tries to go it alone and without legal representation in a personal injury case.

An experienced attorney, like a member of the legal team at the El Dabe Ritter Trial Lawyers, has the wherewithal and skill necessary to effectively maneuver through even the most complicated car accident lawsuit. The El Dabe Ritter Trial Lawyers will schedule an initial consultation with you to discuss the facts and circumstances of your case. The firm does not charge a fee for an initial meeting between you and a car accident lawyer. An appointment can be scheduled at your convenience.

Contact Our Office Today!