Wichita Auto Accident Lawyer

HOW IMPORTANT ARE EVIDENCE AND PHOTOS IN AUTO ACCIDENT CASES?

If fault is not an issue, then photos and witness statements aren’t as important in an auto accident case. However, if fault is an issue, then they can become critical and a failure to get a timely witness statement can be deadly to your case. The problem with the witness statement is that if you don’t get one as soon as possible, then he or she may forget the most important points of the case.

The same thing happens with photos. If your accident was affected by the conditions of the road and you don’t have pictures taken at the time of accident that shows what those conditions were, you won’t be able to accurately depict the scene of the accident. The same can be said about property damage. There have been cases where people have come to an attorney claiming that their vehicle was destroyed as a result of an accident. However, they didn’t take any pictures of the vehicle and now the vehicle is gone or was sold. It was important in that particular case because the property damage actually shows how the two vehicles collided, which supports the plaintiff’s theory of the case and debunks the defendant’s theory.

If you don’t take photos shortly after an accident of the property damage, the scene of the accident and photos of the injuries that you have suffered, you won’t be able to document the damages properly. Many people suffer bruises from an accident that shows that they were wearing their seat belt. If you don’t take pictures of that bruising, you may not be able to prove that the collision was so violent that the seat belt caused injury and bruising to your body and is consistent with what you are now claiming.

Photos of the injury are worth a tremendous value to the case because most people are able to heal quickly after an accident, even if they have horrific injures. If you can’t show the photos of how bad the injury was at the time of the accident, you may not be able to paint the right picture for the jury or insurance adjuster in order to get them to understand how badly injured you really are. With photos, you can show how serious this accident really was and, therefore, how valuable your claim should be to them in the settlement of the case or to the jury in the awarding of damages.

WHAT ARE THE COMPONENTS OF A COLLISION CASE THAT MAKE IT VIABLE?

A viable case is one that involves quality medical care that was consistently provided shortly after the accident until the plaintiff reached maximum medical improvement. The medical care has to be documented in well written medical records that can be understood by the insurance company. You should have a good narrative report from the doctor explaining how you were injured in the accident. It also narrates all of the injuries in the accident, explaining further how these injuries are going to affect the plaintiff the rest of their life, both in work, at home and with leisure activities. These sets of facts are probably the best set of information that you can gather or get for a good quality case.

An example of a poor case would be where there is inconsistent medical care with large gaps in treatment. Perhaps, additionally, the doctor didn’t write clearly in his medical reports what it is that you were treating for and didn’t clearly state his opinion as to how this treatment is causally connected to the accident. That, by definition, is an example of bad facts that will lead to either litigation or a low settlement value.