Tyler Pedestrian Accident Lawyer

You want to talk to a Tyler pedestrian accident lawyer if you were injured or a loved one died in an accident in Tyler, Texas. When a person on foot gets struck by a motor vehicle, the walker can suffer debilitating injuries. 

You need to be able to focus your attention and energy on regaining your health. So when Domingo Garcia handles your claim, we take care of the legal matters so that you can devote your time to getting better. 

Pedestrian Accidents Are Increasing

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) says that the number of crashes involving pedestrians in the United States has been increasing since 2009. In 2017, nearly 6,000 pedestrians lost their lives in traffic crashes.

Types of Injuries Victims of Pedestrian Accidents Suffer

The injuries to pedestrians are almost always far more severe than any injuries the driver or passengers might experience. 

Here are some of the common injuries a person might suffer if they were injured in a pedestrian accident: 

• Broken bones
• Concussion or traumatic brain injury (TBI)
• Spinal cord injury
• Amputation
• Disfiguring scars
• Damage to internal organs
• Paralysis

Sometimes, the injuries the pedestrian experiences are fatal. 

Intangible Harm from a Pedestrian Accident in Tyler

In personal injury cases, you might be familiar with compensation claims involving out-of-pocket expenses like medical bills or lost wages. Later, we will cover these types of losses, also called economic damages.

You do not want to overlook other significant categories of harm, so-called intangible damages, that a person could suffer because of getting injured in a pedestrian accident. For example:

• Loss of enjoyment of life. If despite completing your medical treatment, it is not possible to restore your body to its previous level of functioning because of your injuries, you might not be able to engage in certain activities that used to bring you joy before the accident. Not being able to ride your motorcycle again is an example of this loss. 
• Pain and suffering. Getting your medical bills paid does not provide any compensation for the physical discomfort of getting hurt from someone else’s carelessness. Also, it is inconvenient and emotionally distressing to suffer injuries in a pedestrian accident.
• Disfigurement. Pedestrian accidents can involve some gruesome wounds, which can leave disfigurement behind after they heal. Monetary damages for scars and other types of disfigurement are allowed under Texas law. 
• Diminished quality of life. If you lost your independence and ability to meet your needs because of catastrophic injuries, you might have a diminished quality of life. For example, a person who will never be able to stand up on their own and walk across the room because of an unexpected injury might not have the same quality of life as they did before the accident.  
• PTSD. Traumatic events, like getting hit by a car while out for a walk, could cause an individual to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This condition can lead to insomnia, strained interpersonal relationships, difficulty holding a job, and other adverse consequences.  
• Disability. Persons who suffer life-changing injuries, like severe head trauma, might lose the ability to ever work for a living again. In addition, not being able to support yourself financially is a substantial economic loss and a blow to a person’s self-esteem. 

These categories are a few examples of the many possible types of intangible losses a person could experience from an accident.

Determining Liability in Pedestrian Accidents

The person who will be legally responsible for your injuries is the person who caused your accident. Possible liable parties can be:

• Driver. If you were struck by a motor vehicle, the driver of that car could be liable for your injuries, but not automatically. The driver must have been careless in some manner. For example, the driver lost control of their vehicle and drove over the curb and onto the sidewalk, where they struck you. 
• Another walker. Many people walk around with their eyes glued to their cell phones. Let us say you stopped on the sidewalk at an intersection, waiting for the traffic light to change. A person behind you did not watch where they were going because of cell phone distraction. As a result, they plowed into the back of you, causing you to lose your balance and fall into the path of an oncoming car.
• Bicyclist. Sometimes people riding bikes are so busy trying to avoid getting hit by vehicles that they forget to look for people walking. A bicycle does not have the size or weight of a motor vehicle, but it can still injure you and knock you into the street. 
• Governmental agency responsible for maintaining the sidewalks or streets. A poorly-maintained sidewalk or street could cause a pedestrian to trip and fall onto the road.
• Governmental agency responsible for lighting. Inadequate lighting of public spaces like sidewalks and streets could cause a pedestrian accident. For example, the walker might not be able to see well enough to navigate their surroundings safely, or the driver of a car might not be able to see the pedestrian.

We will explore the possibility of multiple defendants in your pedestrian accident injury claim when we speak with you about your claim. 

Our Firm Can Help if Your Loved One Died from a Pedestrian Accident

Pedestrian accidents have a high rate of fatalities. This is not surprising when you consider the weight of a moving vehicle coming into direct contact with a human.

Wrongful death lawyers from our firm can help the legal beneficiaries pursue justice and go after compensation from the person whose negligence took away their loved one. 

Pedestrian Accidents Can Cause Devastating Harm

If you were a pedestrian accident victim, you could face even more disruptions to your life than a driver or passenger who gets injured in a collision between two motor vehicles. After a pedestrian accident, you might find yourself facing issues like:

• Physical injuries. Odds are, you will suffer much more severe wounds than a person inside a motor vehicle would. Treatment for these injuries can cause significant discomfort as well.
• Long recovery. Significant injuries usually involve pain at the outset and discomfort during the recovery. Some injuries require months of healing.
• Missing work and income. No one plans on getting injured in a pedestrian accident. But, when this happens you could be out of work for weeks or months without pay and exhaust your savings. 
• Job loss for an extended absence. Your boss still needs to get the work done that you used to perform. If your employer hired someone else to fill in for you, you might not have a job when you are able to return.
• Might not be able to perform the same job duties. Some injuries leave a person with less strength, endurance, range of motion, or other functional limitations than they had before the accident. If you experience this outcome, you might need to look for a less demanding type of work, which might mean lower income than before.
• Ongoing medical treatments. Let us say that you suffered a spinal cord injury resulting in paralysis. You might have to go for respiratory or physical therapy for the rest of your life.
• Lose mobility or independence. Getting struck by a vehicle when walking can result in injuries like a shattered leg, hip, or pelvis. You might never be able to walk without assistance or be required to use a wheelchair. 
• Long-term nursing care at a nursing home or in your residence with home health care. After devastating injuries, you might not be able to take care of your daily medical treatments or personal care without aid from a trained professional. You might have to move into a long-term care facility or pay for home health care and assistance to get the help you need.

Getting injured in a pedestrian accident could change your life forever, not in a desirable way. After suffering severe injuries, you need a pedestrian accident attorney to fight your legal battles so you can focus on your health. 

How Our Firm Can Help with Your Pedestrian Accident Case

To put it bluntly, the legal team at the Domingo García is passionate about helping clients whose lives have been impacted by someone else’s carelessness. Therefore, we will bend over backward to go after the compensation that you deserve. Here is a summary of steps that we take when we pursue monetary damages for a client: 

• Provide guidance and legal advice. For example, you might not know if you have a valid injury claim or who the law will hold responsible for the harm you suffered. We can answer your questions and let you know how to protect the value of your case.
• Perform an investigation. We investigate every personal injury case that we accept. We make sure that we leave no stone unturned. We want to ensure that we check out all potential defendants whose negligence might be responsible for your pedestrian accident.
• Collect evidence. Evidence can be testimony from eyewitnesses, opinions of expert witnesses, documents, video footage from security or red-light cameras, and other items. 
• Build a solid pedestrian accident case. We work tirelessly to pull together the strongest arguments and evidence possible for our clients.
• Communicate. You should never have to worry about what is happening in your pedestrian accident claim. We provide frequent updates to our clients. We take the time to listen to and answer your questions. Also, we return phone calls and emails promptly. We pride ourselves on the quality of service we provide. 
• Provide information to the insurance company. The at-fault party’s insurance company will likely request much more information than you might expect them to need. They use this tactic, in part, as a sort of “fishing expedition” to look for any excuse to deny your claim. For this reason, it is best for all information to go through a lawyer to provide to the defendant’s insurer.
• Negotiate directly with the insurer. You will not have to negotiate with the claims adjuster if we take care of your case. We will negotiate directly with the insurer on your behalf. You will know what is happening in your case at all times, and we will do all the heavy lifting for you.
• Evaluate documents. Legal documents, like settlement papers, tend to have a lot of fine print. Before you sign anything from the insurance company, we can review it and let you know if you should sign. We do not want you to sign away your legal rights improperly.
• File a personal injury lawsuit. Most personal injury claims settle without having to go to trial. Despite that fact, sometimes we have to file a lawsuit to protect your right to compensation from expiring due to time limits. Also, it might be necessary to have a jury decide your case. However, we can still negotiate with the insurance company after filing a lawsuit. 
• Perform pre-trial work like discovery and filing motions. For example, if we have to file a lawsuit, we will engage in discovery, which means exchanging information with the defendant’s representative. We might also file motions concerning various topics involved in the litigation. 
• Appear in court for motions arguments and pre-trial conferences. Often, there are several court dates before the trial date. We handle those on your behalf and let you know if you need to attend any of them with us.
• Prepare the case and exhibits for trial. Texas law has strict requirements for getting evidence admitted to court. Therefore, we will prepare your case for trial and create the necessary exhibits.
• Participate in the trial. We will handle that event for you if your case goes to trial.  

You do not have to go through your accident claim or lawsuit alone. We can be right there by your side during every step.

Common Types of Pedestrian Accidents

Various situations can lead to a pedestrian accident. Here are a few that can cause a pedestrian to get injured:

• Fell on the uneven surface of the sidewalk, street, or crosswalk.
• Got struck by a motor vehicle or bicycle while walking, often at the entrance to an alley or parking lot. 
• Got hit while walking in the crosswalk or intersection.
• Was struck by a vehicle when walking on the shoulder of the road.
• Got hit when walking through a parking lot.

We will need to evaluate the details of what happened to determine whose fault caused your accident.

Our Results in Pedestrian Accident Cases

Pedestrian accidents in Tyler often result in devastating injuries or fatalities. If you suffered severe injuries or a close relative died from an incident, you will want to work with a law firm that gets excellent results.

Here are a couple examples of the settlement outcomes we won for our clients:

• Roadside worker struck and killed by a commercial vehicle $2,750,000
• Roadside worker injured $1,000,000

If you want a law firm that will be kind and respectful to you while also being a heavy hitter to the other side, you can contact us today for a free case evaluation.

Pursuing Damages in a Pedestrian Accident Claim

Pedestrian accident claims often involve two types of compensation: economic and non-economic losses. Do not get confused by the term non-economic losses. You can win monetary damages for non-economic losses. They have a financial value but are not as simple to calculate as economic losses tend to be.

Economic Losses

Economic losses generally have documentation, like receipts or employer records, that make determining the appropriate dollar amount relatively straightforward. These are some of the types of economic losses that people typically seek:

• Past medical bills. This category is for the expenses you incurred for the initial treatment of your wounds and the follow-up procedures, like surgery or physical therapy. You can also include the ambulance, emergency room, physical therapy, diagnostic tests, prescription drugs, doctors, and hospital.
• Future medical expenses. If it is reasonable for your doctor to anticipate that you will need additional healthcare services for your injuries after the case gets resolved, we could estimate that cost. 
• Past lost wages. This category is for the wages you missed starting with the date of the pedestrian accident. This loss also includes lower income if you had light duty or restricted hours when you returned to work. In addition, if you had to take a lower-paying position because of limitations from your injuries, that loss can be included here. 
• Future lost income. Going forward, if you cannot earn as much money as before the accident occurred and the decrease is because of the harm you suffered, you have diminished future earning capacity. 
• Rehabilitation facility. After a devastating injury like spinal cord damage or severe head trauma, an individual might need inpatient or outpatient care at a specialized medical facility. This treatment could last for weeks or months. 
• Long-term care. Long-term care can have high costs, either in a residential facility like a nursing home or in the community, through home health care and assistance. The person who caused your injuries should be responsible to pay this expense, not you.
• Mobility equipment. This category could include crutches, splints, canes, wheelchairs, powered scooters, and adapted vehicles.
• Home modifications. You might need lift equipment at your bedside or in the bathroom if you cannot ambulate independently because of your injuries. Also, home modifications due to your injuries could include wheelchair ramps, lowered countertops, light switches, and other devices.

Non-Economic Losses

As explained earlier, these items seldom come with bills or invoices, but they have financial value, nonetheless. If you suffered physical injuries in your accident, you might be able to include intangible, also called non-economic losses like these in your claim: 

• Past pain and suffering
• Future pain and suffering
• Disfigurement and scars
• Disability
• Diminished quality of life
• Loss of independence

Every injury claim is different. Therefore, the monetary damages you can pursue will depend entirely on the unique facts of your pedestrian accident case.

Five Mistakes to Avoid After Getting Hurt in a Pedestrian Accident in Tyler

Here are just a few of the missteps that could decrease the financial value of your claim:

1. Do not hesitate to get medical treatment. You do not want to delay getting a medical examination and starting treatment for your injuries. The more time that goes by between the accident and your seeking medical assessment and treatment, the more challenging it is to link your injuries to the accident.
2. Complete the treatment the doctor prescribes. If you do not complete the entire prescribed course of treatment, the defendant could argue that they should not have to pay you as much because you might have recovered better if you had completed the treatment.
3. Stay off of social media. The insurance company will likely be able to access your social media accounts. As a result, your postings, whether they are comments or photographs, could get taken out of context and used against you. We advise our injured clients to take a break from social media until their case is resolved. 
4. Recorded statements. The claims adjuster might ask you to provide a recorded statement, in which the adjuster asks you many questions and records your responses. The recording then gets transcribed. Despite what the adjuster says, a recorded statement does not provide any benefit for you. Instead, the insurance company will use the transcript to look for reasons to deny your claim. 
5. Accepting the first offer. The initial offer from the insurance company, particularly if it happens early in the claims process, is usually a lowball offer. You should never accept a settlement offer, even verbally, until you talk to a pedestrian accident lawyer. 

When you hire our law firm to handle your pedestrian accident case, you benefit from our legal guidance and experience with these types of cases.

Contact a Tyler Pedestrian Accident Attorney Today to Get Started

Hiring a Tyler pedestrian accident lawyer for your claim will not cost you any money upfront. At Domingo Garcia, we do not charge fee deposits at the beginning or at any point during these cases. Instead, we work on a contingency-fee basis, meaning we get paid a percentage of the settlement or jury verdict you receive.

Also, you do not owe us any money unless you win. You can receive a free consultation with no obligation. We have bilingual team members for your convenience.