A car accident in Dallas can change everything. A victim’s life may be changed forever or even lost, and their family’s lives may never be the same again. However, many victims and their families can recover financially and find some justice after an accident in Texas, and our firm can do a great deal to help.
A Dallas car accident lawyer with Domingo Garcia can negotiate with the insurance company to settle a claim, or we can sue the other party if it helps you recover your due damages and hold the other party accountable in your case. Our attorneys can also help determine all your damages and demand compensation for you. During a free consultation, we’ll tell you more about working with our firm’s Dallas car accident lawyers.
How Common Are Car Accident Injuries in Dallas, Texas?
Unfortunately, car accident injuries are quite common in Dallas and the rest of Texas. Sadly, many of these injuries are serious or even fatal. In 2021, almost 240,000 people were injured in motor vehicle accidents in Texas, according to the Texas Department of Transportation. Nearly 20,000 people suffered serious injuries. That same year, 4,489 people lost their lives.
With Texas having an increase of 15.22% in car accident fatalities from 2020, the roadways are becoming more dangerous. If this trend continues, injuries and deaths may become more common in the coming years. If so, more people may seek representation from car accident lawyers and wrongful death lawyers as they rightly should until a change is enacted to make Texas roadways safer.
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What Should I Do After a Car Accident in Dallas?
Car accidents are personal injury incidents. As a personal injury victim in a car accident, you should try to follow certain steps to help yourself physically and financially. These steps include:
Seeking Medical Attention
You might have received emergency medical attention or hospital care after your accident if you suffered catastrophic or severe injuries. In this case, you should ensure you have received all the necessary care, including follow-up care. It’s important for your health, your family’s emotional well-being, and, potentially, your claim.
However, if you haven’t received any medical attention yet, you should seek attention immediately. Even if you feel fine, you could have serious injuries without any current symptoms. For example, whiplash and concussions are common in car accidents, and those injuries may not have any symptoms until a few days after an accident.
If you do not have health insurance or know a doctor, Domingo Garcia attorneys will help you find a doctor or clinic to treat you immediately. These medical providers will not charge you until your case is settled.
Seeking Out Evidence
If you’re feeling up for it, you can collect certain evidence for your case. Your medical bills, for example, can serve as evidence of certain physical and financial damages. Medical bills and treatment plans may even help you receive some compensation for emotional or mental damages. In addition, the police report can serve as evidence of the other party’s negligence and liability.
Contacting a Personal Injury Lawyer
After obtaining proper medical attention, your next call can be a car accident lawyer at Domingo Garcia. Especially if you are injured and cannot seek out evidence to support your claim by yourself, contacting a personal injury lawyer can help preserve your rights after a car accident.
A Dallas car accident lawyer from our firm can connect you with medical professionals and collect evidence for you. Our personal injury attorneys will also take any calls from the insurance company, protect you from incrimination, and pursue compensation for you as you recover from any possible injury.
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How do Car Accident Cases Differ from Other Personal Injury Cases in Texas?
Generally, car accident cases are really similar to other personal injury cases. They all involve injury, personal liability, and economic and non-economic damages. However, car accident cases can be very different, possibly involving such things as:
Driving While Intoxicated
When a driver operates a vehicle with alcohol, narcotics, or controlled substances in their system, they are driving while intoxicated. Driving while intoxicated (DWI) is a criminal offense, so DWI cases are criminal cases. The intoxicated driver may face serious charges and have the civil liability to compensate the victim.
Driving While Distracted
Driving while distracted is a common cause of car accidents in Dallas. Often, a driver will operate their vehicle while using a cell phone or another device, which distracts them, leading to an accident.
It can be difficult to prove distracted driving, and as a result, it can be difficult to prove the at-fault driver’s negligence and liability. This can complicate car accident cases.
Multiple Liable Parties
Often, only one party is liable in a personal injury case. However, in a car accident case, many parties may be liable. For instance, a driver, a vehicle manufacturer, and the local government may share liability if the driver drove recklessly, a vehicle part malfunctioned, and the local government left debris on the road. Holding multiple parties liable can complicate or lengthen a case.
Multiple Victims
Car accidents can involve family members, friends, colleagues, and others. If multiple people are harmed in an accident, multiple parties may have damages and hold claims against the at-fault driver. Once again, generally if more people are involved in the case, the case may have more nuances and complications.
Punitive Damages
These particular damages are rare in most personal injury cases and even most car accident cases, but they can be quite common in car accident cases involving gross negligence in Texas. For instance, if a driver sped through an intersection, this could be considered gross negligence, and punitive damages may be awarded to a victim.
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What Damages Can I Get in My Dallas Car Accident Case?
Your injuries may be very serious. As a result, you may have many economic (financial) and non-economic (intangible) damages to claim. Of course, you can claim all these damages. However, you may want help determining all your damages because you may be overlooking certain intangible damages that can be difficult to notice. A Dallas car accident lawyer from our firm can help you determine what these damages may be.
After contacting a lawyer with Domingo Garcia, they can help you list out your damages which may include:
- Medical bills: These can include bills for emergency medical attention and hospital care related to injuries, like a brain injury; bills for medications, like an anticonvulsant; bills for therapies, like occupational therapy; bills for mental health services; and bills for accommodative home renovations and assistive medical devices
- Property bills: These bills could be for repairing or replacing a personal injury victim’s car or property in the car at the time of the accident.
- Work-related damages: Some of these damages can include a loss in earning capability; an inability to earn any income during recovery or ever again due to the severity of the injuries; and benefits a personal injury victim can’t collect due to their unemployment or lowered employment status.
- Intangible damages: Typically, intangible damages are pain and suffering and mental anguish. However, they can also include damages like reduced life quality.
- Special damages: These damages vary depending on the victim’s specific situation. For example, if a person is disabled due to their injuries, they may have to hire a babysitter to look after their child. The cost can be considered a special damage.
- Punitive damages: In car accident cases, punitive damages can be awarded to the car accident victim to punish the grossly negligent driver and discourage them from negligent driving in the future.
- Other damages: These can be disability due to a catastrophic injury, like a spinal cord injury; and disfigurement due to a severe injury, like a laceration caused by shattering glass within a vehicle.
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What Are Wrongful Death Damages in a Dallas Car Accident Case?
Many car accidents in Dallas are fatal. An intoxicated or distracted driver may easily lose control of their vehicle, leading to a tragic accident. The victim’s family may never recover from the tragedy.
You and your family may be suffering a tragic loss right now. If so, we’re very sorry this is happening to you, and we are sorry for your loss.
As you and your family continue without your loved one, your family may have many damages you can demand from the other party. For example, your wrongful death damages may include:
- Medical bills that haven’t been resolved yet
- Property-related bills
- A lower income for your family
- Other financial damages, such as funeral and burial/cremation costs
- Mental anguish
- Other intangible damages, such as lost spousal support, lost consortium, or lost parental support
- Special damages
- Punitive damages
- Your loved one’s physical pain before passing
- Other damages your loved one may have experienced
How Much Can a Dallas Car Accident Lawyer Help Me Receive in My Case?
You may have some proof of the value of your financial damages, such as your medical bills. However, you likely don’t have any way of establishing the value of all your damages, including intangible ones. Until you have some way of establishing their value, you won’t have an idea of what your case is worth, and you won’t be able to convince the insurance company of the value of your case.
A Dallas car accident lawyer from Domingo Garcia can help to establish all your damages. For instance, your lawyer can look at the market value of your vehicle to determine the cost of replacing it. Your lawyer can also refer to a car accident reconstructionist who can simulate the accident, which could help to establish your physical damages.
Your lawyer can even establish your intangible damages for you. When you contact the personal injury lawyers from Domingo Garcia, we can help place a value for your Dallas car accident damages, both economic and non-economic.
Preventing the Insurance Company from Devaluing Your Case
Vehicle insurance providers are for-profit businesses. Because of this, they want to reduce the amounts they have to pay out to car accident victims. So, these companies devalue the victims’ cases all the time.
One of the best ways to prevent an insurance company from devaluing your case and reducing your payout is to have your damages professionally evaluated. Our lawyers have evaluation methods for intangible damages, and most insurance companies recognize these methods. There’s a good chance the insurance company in your case will recognize the method used and approve of your lawyer’s evaluation.
Our firm’s lawyers can provide professional evaluations for your car accident in Dallas that Texas insurance companies will take seriously.
How Can a Dallas Car Accident Lawyer Help Me Prove My Case?
A lawyer from our firm can help you list and evaluate your damages, but that won’t be enough to establish those damages and your case. In addition to evaluating your damages, your lawyer will also have to collect and prevent evidence for your case.
There may be many sources of evidence for your case. Your doctor may be an excellent source, especially if they’re willing to offer a written statement about your physical, mental, or emotional damages. Your lawyer may be able to hire a car accident reconstructionist or a human factors expert who can provide court testimony about your case. Your lawyer can also seek out witnesses who can provide testimony.
There may be many other sources of evidence for your case, such as:
- A witness’s cell phone footage of the scene of the accident
- Your collection of photos of the accident scene
- Traffic camera footage of the actual incident
- Vehicle dash camera footage of the accident
- The other driver’s employee profile if the other driver was a truck driver
- The other driver’s breathalyzer test results, if applicable
- Your pay stubs showing your salary
- Repair records for the other driver’s vehicle
- The accident reports the authorities wrote up at the scene
- Your medical history, which could prove your accident-related injuries are recent
How Can a Dallas Car Accident Attorney Prove Liability in My Case?
Your lawyer needs to build a case for your damages and against the other driver. To prove the other driver’s liability for your damages, your lawyer must establish the driver’s negligence in the case. To establish negligence, your lawyer must show:
- The other driver owed you the responsibility of driving carefully on the road to keep you safe, such as by driving the speed limit, looking out for pedestrians and other drivers, maintaining their vehicle, or controlling the vehicle on the road)
- The driver was irresponsible and did not drive carefully, such as by speeding or being distracted while driving
- The driver’s irresponsible actions resulted in the car accident
- The car accident caused your damages, such as a brain injury and the cost of treating it
Who Pays for a Car Accident in Texas?
In Dallas and the rest of Texas, the liable party’s insurance company typically pays for the other party’s damages. This is because Texas is an at-fault state. In no-fault states, each party’s insurance company typically pays for that party’s damages.
However, Texas is a comparative negligence state. Being a comparative negligence state means that even if you were partially responsible for the accident, you can receive damages. A car accident victim who shares partial responsibility can expect to have their payout reduced by the percentage of responsibility they share. For example, if the evidence finds you responsible for 25 percent of the car accident, your payout may be reduced by the same amount because of Texas’s laws.
How Can a Dallas Car Accident Attorney Help Me Collect My Payout?
Once your lawyer has identified the at-fault party’s vehicle insurance provider, they can start pursuing compensation from them. However, the process isn’t as simple as presenting your case and your list of damages to the insurance company. Instead, your lawyer must communicate and negotiate directly with the insurance company and its lawyers.
Negotiations can be very tricky. For example, the other side can be indifferent to an injury victim’s damages or act in bad faith. Still, our lawyers have methods of convincing the other side to cooperate and negotiate fairly. For instance, in your case, your lawyer may threaten to sue the other party. Often, the threat of a lawsuit is enough to convince the other side to settle a case fairly.
Sometimes, the other side refuses to settle. If this happens in your case, your lawyer from Domingo Garcia won’t hesitate to sue. Our lawyers will file the lawsuit for you and then negotiate your verdict with a judge.
Should I Sue in My Dallas, TX Car Accident Case?
You and your lawyer may decide to sue if negotiations don’t work out, or there may be another time to sue in your case. Alternatively, the best time to sue may be now.
Typically, lawsuits are for cases involving gross negligence or catastrophic or severe injuries, like brain damage. If your case involves any of those things, you may want to sue immediately rather than go through negotiations. Your lawsuit will hold the other driver directly accountable for their negligent actions and may help you recover damages you couldn’t recover in an insurance claim. For example, you typically cannot recover special damages in an insurance claim in Texas.
You and your lawyer can discuss whether to sue and when. But remember, the statute of limitations in Texas for personal injury claims is generally two years from the date of the accident.
Catastrophic and Severe Injuries in Dallas Car Accidents
Car accidents can result in various injuries to just about any area of the body. But some areas are more vulnerable than others, and some injuries are more serious. The most serious injuries can be classified as either severe or catastrophic. Some of these injuries can include:
- Head trauma: This can result in a traumatic brain injury (TBI), like a concussion. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, TBIs occur when the head impacts a part of the vehicle, like the steering wheel, or when the neck is jolted suddenly and severely. TBIs can result in permanent damage and disability or even death.
- Spinal trauma: This can cause a disc slip or rupture, nerve damage, and paralysis. If the trauma is especially severe, it can result in paraplegia (paralysis of the lower area of the body) or quadriplegia (paralysis of both the upper and lower areas of the body).
- Neck trauma: The neck is especially vulnerable in car accidents. Whiplash is common but not nearly as serious as a damaged larynx or a crushed trachea. These two injuries can have lasting effects, such as difficulty with movement, breathing, and eating.
- Trauma to the chest: This can cause broken ribs and a broken sternum. These injuries are quite common in regular-speed car accidents and more common in high-speed accidents. Sometimes, a broken bone can actually pierce an organ, which can cause fatal injury.
- Trauma to the legs: This kind of trauma can cause broken bones and torn ligaments in the legs. These injuries can cause long-term complications, like issues with walking. Leg injuries are more common in side-impact crashes.
Texas Laws That Apply to Dallas Car Accident Cases
If you handle your case independently, you’ll have to understand the Texas laws that apply to it. However, if you let a lawyer from our firm take your case for you, you’ll have to understand only a couple of the applicable laws. Your lawyer can explain these laws in detail and how they may affect your case.
The Fault System
Since Texas is an at-fault state, you should probably file your claim through the other driver’s insurance company. However, if you have personal injury protection (PIP) coverage with your insurance company, you can file your claim and receive money quickly that will not affect your rights against the at-fault driver.
But if your injuries are severe or catastrophic, you likely shouldn’t file a claim at all. Instead, you should probably file a lawsuit. Insurance companies rarely make fair settlements on substantial cases without a lawsuit filed by an experienced car accident attorney that they know will take the case to trial. Our long history of successful jury verdicts in car accident lawsuits are well-known by insurance companies throughout Dallas.
The Texas Statute of Limitations for Car Accident Lawsuits
You’ll have to meet the filing deadline if you want to file a car accident lawsuit in Texas. This deadline is within two years from the date of your accident, according to Texas’s car accident injury statute of limitations.
You should consider the deadline even if you’re unsure about filing a lawsuit. Filing a suit may become a good option at a point in your case. Your lawyer can help you meet the deadline.
About The Dallas Car Accident Lawyers at Domingo Garcia
If you choose not to handle your case alone, you should choose one of our firm’s attorneys to represent you. Our Dallas car accident attorneys have represented people like you for over three decades in Texas. We know how to handle difficult car insurance companies and their lawyers during negotiations. We also know how to present your case to a judge during litigation. You can be confident in our attorneys’ ability to represent you.
We’re so confident in our attorneys that we’ll offer to work for you on a contingency-fee basis. This means your lawyer will offer their services at no cost until and unless they obtain compensation for you.
Your attorney will be invested in the outcome of your case as well as your health and wellness. If you still need any medical services since your accident, your attorney can help you get them, even if you lack health coverage. For instance, your attorney may be able to get your medical payments delayed until after recovering compensation for you.
About Our Clients’ Successes at Domingo Garcia
Over the years, our firm has been very successful. We owe much of our success to Domingo Garcia, our firm’s lead attorney. One of his first success stories was in 1995 when a jury awarded $1,100,000 to Domingo’s client, who was a car accident victim. After that first success story and many others like it, Domingo’s successful career was publicly recognized when he was awarded a spot in the Texas Top 50 Settlement for 2019.
In a more recent case, Domingo Garcia won a $9,000,000 settlement for a young child that suffered a traumatic brain injury in a car accident caused by a negligent commercial vehicle driver.
Reach Out to Domingo Garcia for Your Dallas Car Accident Attorney
Your or your loved one’s accident may have changed everything for your family. However, one of our car accident attorneys in Dallas can help you recover financially. Your attorney can even help you recover physically by connecting you with a medical provider.
One of our lawyers can do a great deal for you, from working for you on a contingency-fee basis to fighting for you in the courtroom. We’ll tell you more during a free consultation and case review with a member of our team. Connect with us today to learn more and consult with your car accident lawyer from Domingo Garcia.
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