A Georgia Car Accident Lawyer Answers Frequently Asked Questions

If you were involved in an accident with an out-of-state driver, it is important that you take certain steps to preserve your rights.

• Ensure Safety: If possible, it is always best to move to a safe location after any accident. One of the worst mistakes that people make following a collision is staying in the roadway. They run the risk of getting hit a second time if they do this.
• Gather Information: It is important to collect all relevant information related to the crash. This will include license plate numbers and insurance details from the other party. You should also document the scene with photos and videos if possible. It is also a good idea to collect information from any witnesses.
• Seek Medical Care: Accident victims should seek medical care early on. This is true even if they feel alright after an accident. Many injuries may not be obvious after a collision. They may only manifest after several days or even weeks have gone by.
• Contact the Police: The police should be contacted immediately after any car accident in Georgia. They will file a report and conduct a preliminary investigation to determine liability. This can be immensely useful later on.
• Report the Accident: Victims should also notify their insurance provider, even if the driver is from out-of-state.
• Contact an Attorney: Any person injured in a car accident with an out-of-state driver should contact a personal injury attorney. They can take steps to help maximize the value of your claim so that you can be fairly compensated for medical expenses and lost wages.

For the most part, it's best to simply treat a car accident with an out-of-state driver the same way you would any other collision. Following the above steps will help ensure that the claims process will go much more smoothly.

Accident reports can help play a crucial role in the early and even later stages of any civil claim. They are a neutral account of the incident and can be leveraged to help achieve a settlement offer. For example, they can be used to strengthen your case and show that one party was at fault for the accident. These reports document important evidence, including vehicle damage, injuries, and witness statements. It is therefore important that accident reports are accurate. If your accident report is not accurate, you can challenge an officer's findings and correct it.

It can be tempting to accept the first offer you receive from an insurance provider after a car accident. But it is virtually never a good idea to accept a first offer without consulting an experienced car accident attorney. There are a number of reasons why this is the case.

• Underestimating Damages: After any car accident, plaintiffs simply aren't in a good position to fully understand all of the potential damages. The initial offer from any insurance provider may not take into account all of your medical expenses, lost wages, and the future costs to treat an injury. In many cases, an injury can become substantially worse over time, leading to many additional medical bills.
• Waiving Future Claims: By accepting any initial settlement offer, you typically waive your right to pursue future claims. This is still the case even if new issues or complications arise that you were not previously aware of.
• Pain and Suffering: Any settlement offer that you receive may not take into consideration all of the non-economic damages that you suffered. This could include past and future physical pain as well as the emotional distress that you've gone through as a result of the ordeal. Accidents can affect people in profound ways and impact their quality of life dramatically.
• Lost Earning Capacity: Initial settlement offers virtually never take into consideration the affected party's diminished earning potential. In many cases, an accident can lead to disabilities or permanent injuries that will reduce a person's ability to have the same level of income.

The best thing to do after any car accident or settlement offer from an insurance provider is to speak with an experienced personal injury attorney. An attorney can help you receive much more compensation than you could through any initial settlement offer from an insurance provider.

The value of any car accident case in Georgia will depend greatly on a number of factors. The most important factors will typically include the severity of a person's injuries, the presence of lost wages, the extent of medical expenses, and available insurance coverage. What follows below is a useful guide to understand the potential value of your car accident claim.

• Lower-end ($5,000 - $15,000): Cases that settle in this range usually involve only minor injuries, including whiplash, bruising, or minor sprains. Medical expenses may be relatively low and only require physical therapy. Victims may need to take off only minimal time away from work.
• Mid-range ($15,000 - $100,000): Cases that settle in this range will usually involve more moderate injuries, such as broken bones or concussions. They require some recovery time. Victims may be left with substantial medical bills, including costs related to surgery. It is also common for victims to miss many days or weeks away from work.
• Higher-end ($100,000 - $1 Million or more): Cases that settle in this range will often involve very severe injuries, permanent disability, or even death. Victims may be left with significant medical bills, including long-term rehabilitation costs. They may also have ongoing pain and psychological trauma from the ordeal. In many cases, victims will need to take long periods away from work, or they may never return to their previous profession altogether.

The value of any settlement is limited in large part to available policy limits. Many drivers in Georgia only have the minimum policy limits for collisions, which is $25,000. But a victim may also have access to commercial policies if a truck, bus, or other commercial vehicle was involved. Our law firm at Butler Kahn has achieved numerous 7-figure settlements for our clients, including a $28 million jury verdict following a fatal head-on collision in Gwinnett County. We also achieved a $3 million settlement in a pedestrian accident case and a $1.7 million settlement for a car accident resulting in wrongful death.

Yes, plaintiffs are able to file accident claims even when a car accident occurred on private property. This could include parking lots, private driveways, or even private roadways. The rules of the road apply to all drivers at all times, regardless of whether or not they are operating in a public or private location. The only relevant question is whether or not the driver that harmed you acted negligently.

When you file an accident claim with an auto insurance company in Georgia, an insurance adjuster reviews relevant information and evidence to determine who is at fault. An attorney can negotiate with the adjuster to come to a mutually acceptable decision regarding responsibility. When you initiate a personal injury lawsuit, your attorney makes your case before a judge or jury. They may do this by presenting evidence such as:

• The police accident report
• Dashcam, surveillance, and traffic camera footage
• Medical records and bills
• Eyewitness accounts
• Expert witness testimony

The judge or jury then reviews the evidence, assesses the facts, listens to witness testimonies, and considers expert opinions to determine liability and award compensation as needed. Evidence is vital to building a compelling case in either situation. An experienced attorney can help you collect the information you need to pursue full compensation.

The expected cost is one of the main reasons people with valid claims don’t seek legal help immediately after a crash. However, most personal injury lawyers – including those at Butler Kahn – take cases on contingency and do not charge upfront fees.  A strong advocate can help you calculate the total value of your losses and demand maximum compensation. An attorney can also defend your rights and respond to the hardball tactics some insurance adjusters use to strong-arm claimants into settling for less than they deserve. At Butler Kahn, we understand you might feel financially vulnerable following a significant car accident. That’s why there’s no fee unless we win, meaning we don’t get paid if we don’t recover money for you. We also offer free initial consultations with zero obligation so you can understand your options thoroughly before you move forward.

There is no such thing as an “average” car accident settlement in Atlanta. Traffic collisions can contribute to all kinds of injuries and losses that vary significantly from case to case. The value of your unique case will depend on many factors, such as:

• The nature of the wreck
• The severity of your injuries
• Available insurance coverage
• Other possible sources of compensation
• The number of at-fault parties

For instance, the value of an injury claim based on a car accident resulting in traumatic brain damage and life-long medical complications will likely be much higher than one involving a broken arm. And larger insurance policies mean there could be more money available to cover considerable losses.   At Butler Kahn, we carefully assess each case we take to calculate the total compensable losses involved and the various sources of recovery. That way, we know what a fair settlement looks like and when we should consider going to trial if the defendant or their insurer refuses to meet our reasonable demands.

Georgia follows a modified comparative negligence model in personal injury cases. Comparative negligence is a legal principle that allows car accident victims to obtain compensation even if they are partially to blame for the collision. But the law prevents them from recovering anything if their share of fault is 50 percent or more. That means you can still recover compensation for your medical bills, lost wages, and other losses after an accident for which you are partially at fault. However, the amount of compensation you can recover is reduced based on your percentage of responsibility for the accident. The greater your fault, the less you may recover in compensation. As a legal principle, the modified comparative negligence doctrine only governs court decisions. However, insurance adjusters consider how claims might play out in court when they offer settlements. The adjuster on your claim will likely consider the modified comparative negligence rule when estimating the value of your car accident claim. That’s why it’s important to consult a Georgia car accident attorney who can help minimize the amount of fault assigned to you and pursue maximum compensation.

Yep. It’s smart to think about witnesses—not everybody does. Many people assume that the police officer who investigates the accident will copy down the names and contact information for all witnesses, but that doesn’t always happen. Sometimes, witnesses stop on the scene to see if anyone is hurt and needs help, or to make sure the true story gets told. But if those witnesses leave before the police officer arrives, or if the police officer forgets to write their name and contact information down in the police report, the names of those witnesses can be lost for good. (We have handled cases where this happened.) If there is any question as to who is at fault for a car wreck, it is a smart idea to write down the names and contact information for any witnesses.

Generally, the statute of limitations in Georgia for personal injury cases is two years from the date of a car accident. But in some circumstances, that period can be shorter or longer. If you were hurt by a government entity—for instance, a vehicle operated by the state of Georgia, a county, or a city—there can be an earlier deadline called an ante litem deadline. That deadline could be as short as a year or six months. In other circumstances, the limitations period could be longer. For instance, if a criminal prosecution was brought or could have been brought against the at-fault driver, the statute of limitations may be paused (or “tolled,” to use the legal term) for the duration of that prosecution, up to six years. O.C.G.A. § 9-3-99. Of course, waiting even as long as six months is not usually a good idea. It’s best to move fast so you (or your lawyer) can notify the UM insurance carrier as described above, speak to witnesses, get pictures of the damaged cars, and gather other evidence. The longer a victim waits, the harder it can be to gather the evidence.

This is a common question and unfortunately, it’s hard to answer. We’ve written in greater detail about how long a Georgia personal injury case takes here, but the short version is that our firm wraps up most personal injury cases within three months to two years from the date that we become involved in the case. Of course, some cases take more or less time, but most fall somewhere in the middle. We know our clients like fast resolutions—and we do too. How long your car accident case takes depends on several factors. First, it depends on how long it takes for your medical treatment to be complete. Faster treatment (and following doctors’ orders) leads to a faster legal result. Second, it depends on how eager the insurance company or at-fault driver is to settle your case. If the damages are big (meaning your injuries are significant) but the available insurance amount is small, the case may settle very quickly. Third, it depends on how patient you are. Sometimes it makes sense to fight it out for a while before settling the case, even though neither you nor our firm receives any money until the end of the case. Good lawyers are willing to fight it out when necessary; bad lawyers always insist on fast settlements. Fourth, it depends on where the case is filed. Cases filed in rural Georgia tend to get to trial faster than cases filed in urban Georgia. Georgia’s urban courts are busier, so cases tend to move faster in rural counties.

Tractor-trailers and large commercial vehicles can be especially dangerous because they travel with such momentum. They’re so big that when they hit something, the collision is usually serious.  For that reason, commercial vehicles are subject to certain rules or regulations that other cars aren’t. For instance, drivers of most commercial vehicles must have commercial driver’s licenses, which require the truckers to take certain special precautions (like making left turns in a certain way or taking regular breaks to stay alert). Trucking companies have to follow special laws called the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, which require medical examinations for truckers and regular maintenance procedures on the trucks. Trucking companies also have to carry higher levels of insurance than other cars. When a lawsuit is filed against a trucking company, the case can also be filed directly against the truck company’s liability insurance carrier in what is called a “direct action.” Good lawyers fight hard to keep the truck insurance company in the case. Trucking companies are notorious for playing fast and loose with the evidence. They often have “rapid-response teams” that rush to the scene of a collision so that the trucking company can prepare for litigation before the victim can even hire a lawyer. Some truckers illegally keep two sets of logbooks—one real set that shows how much they actually drove, and one clean-looking set that they’ll show to police officers who ask for it. Truck companies often fail to preserve GPS tracking evidence that shows what their trucks did and when they did it. Truck companies are serious litigators. If you or a loved one was hit by a tractor-trailer or commercial vehicle, be ready for battle.

This can be a really hard situation. If you’ve been hurt and you need medical treatment but don’t have any way to pay for it, you’re in a tough spot. You can still go to an emergency room and get treatment, but you don’t want to be dealing with the calls of bill collectors afterward. A good Georgia motor vehicle collision lawyer can help. There are companies that can provide funds for you to see a doctor, even if you don’t have health insurance or can’t immediately pay for the medical treatment. There are also some doctors or treatment providers who are willing to help victims of car accidents, even if they won’t get paid immediately. A good lawyer who specializes in personal injury cases will know companies that can help with funding treatment or doctors who can wait until later to be compensated for the treatment they provide.

This is a good question, and the decision is all yours. There is no law saying that you have to hire an attorney. We’ve talked about whether you should hire a car accident lawyer on a different page, but here’s the summary: decide carefully. We think there are some accidents where a lawyer really isn’t necessary. For instance, if you call us and say that your car was damaged but you weren’t hurt, we’ll politely explain that we don’t handle cases of that type and will suggest that you take a look at our Georgia Car Damage Manual. But if you were hurt, hiring an auto accident lawyer is usually a good idea. You’ll be negotiating against a professional insurance adjuster who negotiates settlements all day every day, and that person’s job is to pay you as little as possible. Think about it: that person may act like your friend, but his or her employer loses money every time he or she pays someone. Do you think the insurance company would hire, or keep, adjusters who paid lots of money to injured people? The company would be losing money if it did. You’ll be negotiating against a professional, so it may be a good idea to have a professional on your side.

It isn’t a bad idea to do this—but if you do, be careful. If you prefer, a lawyer can do this for you. Many people believe that after they’ve been in a car accident, their own insurance company will be their friend. Insurance companies' advertisements and commercials suggest that telling people that they’ll be “in good hands,” will get top-quality service from a nice woman named Flo, or will speak with a peppy green lizard with a British accent. That’s rarely true. Often, your own insurance company works against you. Most insurance companies are more worried about protecting their own bottom lines by making sure that they don’t have to pay any UM insurance money to you (even though you may have been paying premiums to them for years). Since your insurance company won’t have to pay UM money if you were at fault, your own insurance company may try to argue that you caused the collision. Since your insurance company won’t have to pay as much if the injuries weren’t serious, your own insurance company may try to argue that you weren’t hurt very badly. To do those things, the insurance company may record what you say over the phone and try to use it against you later. So be careful. Having said all of that, the fine print of many insurance policies says that if you don’t notify your own insurance company relatively quickly after a car accident, the insurance company doesn’t have to pay you. So it’s usually a good idea for the insurance company to be notified. You can do that yourself or, if you decide to hire a lawyer, your lawyer can do it for you. Good Georgia automotive accident lawyers notify insurance companies immediately as a matter of course and have pre-written letters ready to be sent so that the insurance company will be promptly notified in writing. Our client’s doctor explains the low back injury caused by the car accident.

If someone else caused the accident, the answer is generally yes. However, this can be tricky. Even though the at-fault driver’s insurance company should pay for your rental car, getting them to do it in a reasonable amount of time is not easy. For instance, the at-fault driver’s insurance company may refuse to pay for your rental car until they can “determine” who is at fault for the accident. If the insurance company drags its feet (and they often do), then you could miss days or even weeks of work because you don’t have your car for transportation. Or the at-fault driver might not have carried auto insurance, even though the law requires it. Another alternative is to use your own auto insurance company. Not everyone has rental car coverage, but some policies do provide it. If your policy does cover a rental car, your insurance company may be able to get you into a rental car faster than the other driver’s insurance company would do it. Your insurer can later demand that the at-fault driver’s insurer pay it back for that cost. Our Georgia Car Damage Manual provides a free, step-by-step guide to getting a rental car and handling your property damage claim. For more information on a single page, see How Do I Get a Rental Car after My Car Accident?.

If you’re in pain and the other driver is at fault, the answer is generally yes. It isn’t right or fair for someone who did nothing wrong in a car accident to be in pain, or to be unable to live his or her normal life, just because he or she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. There isn’t anything a lawyer or court can do to take the pain away, but the person who was at fault for the wreck should have to compensate the person who was not at fault for that pain and the difficulty that injuries have caused. That is why the law allows victims to collect money for pain and suffering.

This is a tough problem, but fortunately, there is usually a solution. If you need immediate medical attention, go to an emergency room. The emergency room cannot legally refuse treatment if you are in immediate need. If you suffered a serious injury and have not been treated for it, go to the emergency room now. You can sort out the details later. If you need to see a doctor, orthopedist, neurologist, therapist, or other medical professionals after a Georgia car wreck on a non-urgent basis but you don’t have any way to pay for it, there are a couple of options. First, some doctors and medical practices are willing to provide treatment and let you pay them later out of your car accident settlement. These doctors can provide the medical treatment you need, and then get compensated for their work at the conclusion of your case out of the car accident settlement or verdict. Car accident lawyers and doctors often call this “treating on a lien” because the doctor, medical practice, chiropractor, or therapist normally takes a “lien” (i.e., the legal right to collect money) from the patient’s “cause of action” (i.e., the car accident case). A reputable car accident lawyer can suggest a few doctors who are willing to work in this way. The second option involves “medical funding” companies.  Medical funding companies pay for the medical treatment that car accident victims need by paying the doctors or other medical treatment providers on behalf of the patient, much like a health insurance company would. The medical funding company then gets paid back when the case is over out of the car accident settlement or verdict. Typically, medical funding companies will not provide funding without a signed agreement with the patient and the car accident lawyer. To use either of these options – treating on a lien, or medical funding – you typically must have a good car accident lawyer. That’s because the doctor or funding company insists on it. The doctor, medical treatment provider, or medical funding company may not get compensated for the medical treatment or funding that they provide if there isn’t a sizable settlement or verdict at the end of the car accident case. If the patient hasn’t hired a good car accident lawyer, the doctor or medical funding company may be worried that there will be no settlement or verdict, or that the settlement will be too small to cover the medical costs. If that happened, they wouldn’t be paid for the medical treatment or medical funding that they provided. If that happened too often, they could go out of business. There are lots of reasons to hire a good, reputable Georgia car accident lawyer, and this is another one. If you don’t have health insurance, doctors and medical funding companies will want to see that you have a lawyer they can trust. 

If you’re hurt and the other driver is at fault, the answer is generally yes. Anyone who has been in a Georgia car accident and has been hurt should seek medical attention, either at the emergency room, at an urgent care facility, or from a primary care doctor. Since you’ve been charged with those bills but didn’t do anything wrong, the general rule is that you have a right to be paid back for what you were charged, even if you were wise enough to have health insurance.

This is another common question and another good one. Usually, the at-fault driver’s insurance will pay first. But it can depend on a few factors. Generally, the auto insurer of the at-fault driver must pay for the injuries of the person who was not at fault, as well as for the damage to that person’s car. But the at-fault driver’s insurance company will only pay up to the limits of that policy, which could be as low as $25,000 in Georgia. If your injuries or damages are severe enough to go over those insurance policy limits, then another insurance policy may kick in. If the at-fault driver has any additional liability insurance—like an umbrella insurance policy—then that additional “layer” of insurance should pay next.  But umbrella policies are rare. Sometimes, there may be additional insurance coverage for the vehicle that caused the accident. If the accident was caused by an Uber or Lyft driver, for instance, additional coverage usually applies. If the accident was caused by a tractor trailer or other commercial vehicle, the trucking company generally has insurance policies with higher limits, which will be a good thing if you or a loved one was seriously injured. More often, underinsured motorist or uninsured motorist insurance (commonly called “UM”) pays next. This can be your insurance company or the insurance company of a person who lives with you and is related to you (the law uses the term “resident relative”).  Many people have UM insurance and don’t even realize it. Your UM insurance limits could be as high as your liability insurance limits. Determining how much UM insurance you have usually requires looking at a piece of paperwork called a “declarations page.” Even if you were told that you have “full coverage,” that doesn’t actually tell you what dollar amount of insurance is available—you need to see the declarations page. Finding out how much insurance is out there isn’t always easy. Often, discovering the available insurance requires sending what motor vehicle crash lawyers call a “letter of representation” coupled with an official request for insurance information under Georgia law O.C.G.A. § 33-3-28. Other times, it may be necessary to file a case with a court before you can discover all the available insurance. For instance, it is often necessary to file a case with a court in order to find out if the at-fault driver had any resident relatives whose auto insurance policies may provide coverage. Whether the insurers of the at-fault driver’s resident relatives provide coverage for the car accident usually depends on the fine print in their insurance policies.

This is usually the first question in peoples’ minds—and for good reason. It’s important. The overwhelming majority of the time, the police officer who arrives at the scene of the accident will decide who he or she believes to be at fault. Usually, the officer will issue a citation, commonly called a “ticket,” to the person at fault. In an urban or metropolitan area, an officer normally arrives at the scene of the accident fairly quickly. If you were struck in the rear by another driver, that other driver will almost always be cited with “following too closely” in violation of O.C.G.A. § 40-6-49. Other common citations in Georgia include failure to maintain lane under O.C.G.A. § 40-6-48, failure to yield under O.C.G.A § 40-6-71, and failure to obey a traffic light under O.C.G.A § 40-6-20. Not everyone realizes it, but Georgia law allows for percentages of fault under O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33. That can make sense if both parties did something wrong—if, for instance, the first driver pulled out from a stop sign without looking, and a second driver who was speeding hit him or her, then both parties are at fault. If you were in a Georgia car accident and the other driver was 80% at fault, then you could recover 80% of the total damages (in other words, 80% of your medical bills, pain, suffering, etc.). As long you were 49% at fault or less—in other words, as long as the other person(s) are mostly at fault—you can recover at least some damages under Georgia law. Of course in many cases, only one party is at fault. If you were lawfully sitting at a red light when another driver struck your car in the rear, the other driver should bear 100% of the fault. Under Georgia law, percentages of fault can also be applied to people not involved in the lawsuit, also known as “nonparties.”  For example, imagine that Driver A was rear-ended by Driver B and sues Driver B. In court, however, Driver B testifies that the reason for the collision wasn’t that Driver B was texting and driving, but instead that Mr. Mechanic did a bad job repairing Driver B’s brakes the previous week. In that scenario, if the jury believes that Driver B is telling the truth, the jury might assign some percentage of fault to Mr. Mechanic. And if the jury assigned 60% of fault to Driver B and 40% to Mr. Mechanic, then Driver B’s insurance company would only have to pay 60% of the verdict. This idea of percentage-based fault is called “apportionment,” and is set up by Georgia law. See O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33. Watch the video below to learn more about it.

Car accidents can happen in so many different ways – head-on collisions, T-bone collisions, rear-end collisions, and sideswipes are all common. Rollovers or pole impacts can also occur. Each type of car accident puts different forces on the human body. For that reason, the types of injuries that we see vary quite a bit. However, there are some types of injuries that are most common.

Neck, Back, or Spine Injuries in Car Accidents

The single most common injury from a car accident involves injury to the neck, back, or spine. The forces from the collision cause the spine to bend rapidly in one direction, and then often just as rapidly in the exact opposite direction. This back-and-forth can damage the spine in a couple of different ways. To understand spinal injuries, we have to first understand the basic structure of the spine. Our necks, backs, and spines consist of bony blocks called vertebrae that are stacked on top of each other, all the way from our tailbones to the bottom of our skulls. Those bony blocks are separated by softer discs, sometimes called “intervertebral discs,” that keep one bony vertebra from scraping against the vertebrae above and below it. These discs allow our necks, backs, and spines to bend or flex without pain. In a severe car accident, one vertebra can break or fracture. Sometimes the fracture is small, and doctors may call it a “stress fracture.” Other times, a piece of a vertebra can chip away or break off.  Fractures like that are painful, and the damage is usually permanent. In some severe car accidents like rollovers, a vertebra may be subjected to a such force that it shatters. Doctors call that a “burst fracture.” Neck or back injuries like this are very dangerous because if the bone cuts the nerves that run up and down the spine (often called the “spinal cord”), then the victim of the car accident can be permanently paralyzed. More commonly, car accidents cause injuries to the discs between the vertebrae in the neck, back, or spine. To put it in common terms, the discs get squished. Sometimes they don’t handle that well. The discs contain fluid inside them, and sometimes the fluid has no place to go when the disc gets squished, so it presses against the disc’s outer wall. If the outer wall partially gives way, then the disc may begin to press against the nerves that run up and down the spine. That hurts. Doctors call that a bulging disc, disc herniation, or herniated disc. The rest of us may call it a “slipped disc.” A car accident can also cause a disc to become flattened or narrowed, or the car accident may make pre-existing damage to the disc worse. Car crashes can also cause the discs to rupture. Doctors may call this injury an “annular tear,” and it is very painful. If a car accident causes an annular tear, that means that the disc has essentially ripped open and is leaking fluid into the spinal canal or elsewhere. That’s difficult for doctors to repair. It hurts for two reasons. First, the disc is no longer able to keep the vertebrae above and below it separate, and the pressure between those vertebrae causes pain. Second, the leaking fluid can intrude into the canal that contains the nerves that run up and down the spine.  When the fluid starts to fill up the spinal canal, it puts pressure on those nerves.  That hurts too. Because the nerves that run up and down the spine go to every part of the body, it is sometimes not clear where the pain from a car accident is coming from. For example, if a herniated disc is putting pressure on a nerve that runs down a person’s leg, the car accident victim may feel the pain that shoots down that leg, even though the injury is really to the disc in the spine. Neck, back, or spinal injuries can therefore cause pain that feels like it comes from a foot, leg, hand, or arm. When pain from a car accident moves around like that, doctors say the pain “radiates,” and they may diagnose radiculopathy.

Treatment for Neck, Back, or Spinal Injuries

Car accidents so often cause injuries to the discs in our necks, backs, and spines that the medical treatment for them is somewhat predictable. At the emergency room or the first doctor that a client sees after a car accident, they are often given naproxen, ibuprofen, or another mild pain reducer in connection with a muscle relaxer. If the pain continues, the next step is usually physical therapy or a chiropractor. Doctors refer to this phase of treatment for car accident injuries as “conservative treatment.” If the pain continues further, there is a wider range of options for doctors and victims of car accidents to explore. They may try epidural steroidal injections or ESIs. Injections like this usually help the pain from the car accident for a few days or weeks, but whether the relief lasts longer than that varies from patient to patient. Most doctors won’t perform injections in a given place more than three times because continued injections can be harmful to the body in other ways. Doctors may also suggest radiofrequency ablations, or burning the nerves, to relieve pain from a car accident. If none of that works, doctors often suggest surgery to treat car accident injuries. The type of surgeries available varies widely, but one of the more common is spinal fusion. A spinal fusion involves placing a metal plate or other device between or on top of two vertebrae and inserting bone screws to keep the plate or device in place. The fusion essentially immobilizes the vertebrae so that they cannot move anymore. The goal is to relieve pressure on the disc that was damaged in the road accident. Spinal fusions often work well to lessen persistent pain, but they are not perfect. In the long term, arthritis around the surgical site is common, and the discs above and below the fusion tend to wear out faster. When they do, additional medical intervention may be necessary. Another common type of surgery after a car accident is a laminotomy, which removes part of the lamina in an attempt to make more room for the nerves in the spinal cord. A foraminotomy has a similar goal and involves cutting away a different part of the spine called a foramen. Discectomy surgeries involve cutting away the part of a disc that is intruding into the spinal canal.  Laminotomies, foraminotomies, and discectomies are all common following car accidents. [caption id="attachment_2365" align="aligncenter" width="500"] herniated or bulging disc[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2363" align="aligncenter" width="500"] annular tear to disc[/caption]

Concussions and Traumatic Brain Injuries from Car Accidents

Car accidents can cause concussions and other traumatic brain injuries in a couple of different ways. Most obviously, a person’s head can get slammed into something, often the steering wheel or B-post (the part of the car that supports the roof between the driver’s and left-rear passenger’s windows). If a person’s head strikes a hard surface like that, then the concussion or traumatic brain injury is easy to diagnose. Most concussions or traumatic brain injuries in car accidents don’t leave such obvious external signs, however. When a person’s head is moved rapidly back and forth in a car accident or bangs against the soft headrest, the brain can suffer injuries that are harder to see. This happens because our brains are suspended inside our skulls in “cerebral fluid,” and can therefore move inside our skulls. In a car accident when someone’s head moves rapidly back and forth, the brain often gets compressed against one side of the interior of the skull. Then when the head rebounds or bounces back, the brain can get pressed against the opposite side of the skull. Doctors call this a “coup-contrecoup” injury. This compression of the brain can cause injuries like bleeding, lesions, hemorrhaging,  or swelling. In severe cases, the swelling following a car accident may be severe that surgery is required.  Doctors may actually open the skull to relieve pressure on a swelling brain. Modern medicine is just beginning to understand the human brain. The symptoms of concussions or traumatic brain injuries following car accidents can vary widely. Common symptoms include persistent headaches, disorientation, vertigo, amnesia or difficulty remembering anger, or even personality changes.  In severe cases, some of these symptoms may be permanent. Even in less severe cases, the symptoms of a brain injury may not finish improving – in other words, the car accident victim may not reach what doctors call “maximum medical improvement” – for up to two years.

Broken Bones and Orthopedic Injuries in Car Accidents

With airbags and other modern safety measures, broken bones, and orthopedic injuries are less common in car accidents than they used to be.  Still, they happen. Broken bones are normally caused by intrusion into the passenger compartment of the car.  In severe cases, a car accident can crush a vehicle entirely. Those car accidents cause fatalities and become wrongful death cases. Where the car accident isn’t quite that severe, arms, legs, or ribs may be broken. Hand and wrist injuries are common because if a person is holding the steering wheel when the accident occurs (as most of us are) and if the forces of the car accident force the person’s body forward, the pressure on the person’s hands and wrists can cause fractures. In one car accident case, we handled, our client’s thumb was forced backward so hard that doctors had to perform surgery on his forearm to relieve pressure on the ulnar nerve – a type of surgery normally reserved for carpal tunnel syndrome. Some orthopedic surgeries following Georgia automotive accidents have to be performed on an emergency basis, meaning that doctors have to act fast to save the car accident victim from something worse.  Emergency orthopedic surgeries often involve plates, screws, and other hardware. Emergency surgery after a car accident usually seeks to stabilize the broken bone or injured area – in other words, the goal is to make sure things don’t get worse. Usually, an emergency surgery like that isn’t the final step. Physical therapy usually follows. Months or years later, the car accident victim often needs a second surgery, either to remove the hardware from the first surgery (if the bone has healed and the hardware is causing pain) or to reconstruct the affected area in a way that will give the car accident victim more long-term mobility and comfort.

Lots of people wonder how much a car accident attorney costs, but are too polite to ask when they call us on the phone. So we decided to answer that one right at the top. Upfront, it doesn’t cost anything. Talking with us is free. We don’t charge a retainer and we don’t bill by the hour. Ever. Our legal fee is a percentage of the money that we collect for you at the end of your case. If we don’t win the case and recover money for you, then you don’t pay us anything. Even if we do win the case, you don’t pay us anything until the case is over and we’ve collected money from the insurance company or defendant. In other words, our law firm gets paid if and when you do – not before. The percentage of the recovery that we charge as a legal fee – what the law calls a “contingency fee” – varies from case to case, but not much.  For car accidents, we typically charge a contingency fee of one-third if the settlement occurs before the case is filed with the court or within 90 days thereafter. If the case settles more than 90 days after we file it with the Court or if we take the case through trial, verdict, and judgment, then our fee is usually 40%. For a complex or unusually expensive case, like a product liability or premises liability case, we might charge more because the case involves more risk since those cases can get thrown out of court before trial. For most car accident cases, however, that isn’t necessary, and we charge between one-third and 40%. We also pay for all of the case expenses. In a car accident case, typical case expenses would include gathering medical records, court fees, meeting with expert witnesses, taking depositions, ordering transcripts, etc. If we don’t recover money for you through a settlement or judgment, then our firm ‘eats’ those expenses – in other words, we lose that money. If we do win your case and recover money for you, then you pay us back for the case expenses at the end of the case, when you receive your share of the money. One thing we like about car accident cases is that our firm’s interests are aligned with yours. We don’t get paid unless and until you do. Because of the contingency fee, we both do better if we recover more money. It beats charging by the hour in a case that we might win or might lose. One unusual aspect of the car accident litigation world is that all personal injury lawyers charge about the same thing. What our firm charges (between one-third and 40%) is standard across the industry. You’ll pay that rate if you hire a detail-oriented, service-based firm like ours, and you’ll pay about the same rate if you hire a billboard or TV advertiser who has thousands of cases and has non-attorney “case managers” who do all the work. In other words, you’re paying about the same thing whether you hire a good motor vehicle collision lawyer who works on your case and personally takes your phone calls, or if you hire a volume-based firm that has “case managers” doing the work and where you can never reach a lawyer on the phone. It really is striking: in one situation, you’re getting what you pay for. On the other, you’re getting a lot less.