Pella Car Accident Injury Attorneys

Unexpected accidents and injuries can derail lives. In these tough moments, car accident injury lawyers become invaluable allies. They advocate for those injured by others' negligence, ensuring they obtain fair compensation. This article explores the vital role these lawyers play, guiding individuals through their claims and helping them rebuild.

What Should I Do if My Spouse is Injured in an Accident?

Few things are scarier than receiving a call that a loved one has been involved in a car accident in Iowa. Even after the initial scare of not knowing if the person is OK and will make it, stress and anxiety levels can skyrocket. This is especially true if the person injured is your spouse and the primary breadwinner of the family.

If this has happened to you, you are most likely faced with questions like:
- How are we going to pay the medical bills?
- What is going to happen to her job?
- How will we put food on the table?
- Who is going to help me with the kids?
- How am I going to be able to care for her after she is out of the hospital?

In order to give your spouse the best chance at a full recovery and also to protect your family’s legal rights, here are some important steps to take:
1. Get your wife the medical treatment that she needs, making sure to follow all of the doctor’s orders.
2. Find out the insurance coverage of the at-fault party’s insurance to see if there is enough to cover the cost of the medical bills.
3. Find out how much uninsured and underinsured coverage you have on your own policy, in the event that the at-fault party does not have enough.
4. Utilize the medical payments coverage on your policy. This money will help cover the costs of co-pays, prescriptions, medical supplies, and any other out-of-pocket medical expenses.
5. Request that your wife’s doctor put in writing the amount of time she is being kept off of work for when it comes time to calculate and prove lost wages.
6. Do not sign anything without first reviewing it with an attorney, especially if they are documents provided by the at-fault party’s insurance company.

Account for Emotional Damages if Filing a Car Accident Claim

According to the Iowa Department of Transportation, there were 29,188 crashes in Des Moines between the years 2004 and 2008. After a car accident, drivers may experience both physical and emotional injuries. Emotional damages range from relatively minor distress that people feel after an accident to severe mental conditions.

Emotional Issues After a Car Accident

After a car accident, people commonly feel anger, anxiety, shock, irritability, agitation, and self-blame. Sometimes the feelings manifest themselves physically in:
- Severe anger
- Shouting
- Loss of appetite
- Lack of energy
- Nightmares
- Hypervigilance
- Difficulty concentrating
- Forgetfulness

Every person's mind and body have different ways of processing emotions and traumatic events. While some emotional responses to accidents pass, others may experience more debilitating conditions. This may be especially true after serious accidents involving severe injuries or fatalities. Some drivers, for example, might experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Those experiencing PTSD can have a variety of symptoms including:
- Hyper-alertness
- Reliving the accident
- Emotional numbing
- Avoidance

For example, the victim may avoid driving in cars or have flashbacks and hypervigilance while in a car. Others might experience depression or anxiety related to the accident as well as their injuries. Accident victims who suffer serious physical injuries may become depressed as a result of the injury. For example, a driver who suffers a spinal cord injury might also experience depression related to the effects of the injury.

Emotional and mental health conditions can cause limitations in patients’ lives and may require treatment with mental health professionals. Auto accident claims should address these damages.

Pursuing Damages for Emotional Effects of a Car Accident

There's a distinction between economic damages and noneconomic damages. Economic damages include things like medical expenses and lost wages that are fairly easily quantifiable, while non-economic damages are monetary awards for emotional distress, pain and suffering, loss of the enjoyment of life, and other intangible damages related to the accident, which might heavily rely on evaluating the effects of the plaintiff’s or claimant’s emotional damages.

If a car accident victim needs to seek mental health therapy or take medication for PTSD or another mental health condition related to the accident, these expenses can be covered in a personal injury lawsuit as economic damages. But it’s important to consider future expenses as well as those already incurred. Mental health professionals may offer insight into how long treatment will last so the parties can determine a fair amount for damages.

Proving the Damages

Claimants and plaintiffs pursuing car accident claims must prove causation, i.e., that the accident led to the damages. The accident victim might provide testimony about certain emotional damages, for example. Accident victims can also keep a journal of their emotions and feelings after the accident to use as evidence as well as a way to cope. In many cases, medical records from mental health professionals and other professionals can establish the condition arose from the accident.

We know it’s hard to take the next step after experiencing emotional distress and other mental health conditions after an accident but you should consult with a qualified car accident attorney to discuss how to quantify such damages when pursuing compensation. Walker, Billingsley & Bair helps accident victims in Des Moines and nearby communities pursue fair compensation that accounts for all of their damages. 

Accident with Delivery Truck: Here's What to Do if You're Hit by UPS/FedEx/Amazon

With the growth of the internet and online ordering, there are more delivery trucks on the road than ever. Now with ever stricter expectations, forcing drivers to go quicker and drive dangerously to keep their job. If you or a loved one are involved in a crash, consider some of the following things:

Call 911 and Seek Medical Attention

Anytime that you are in a motor vehicle accident and feel like you have sustained any injuries the best thing to do is call 911. If you are feeling pain at the scene or suspect that you have been injured, then it is best to take the ambulance to the emergency room. Sometimes you are hyped up on adrenaline and may not feel the pain until later. If this happens, seek medical care as soon as you start feeling pain.

Take Pictures

If you can stand on your own then it would be a good idea to take photographs of the scene of the crash and the damage to the vehicles. If someone is with you that is not seriously injured, then they could take pictures as well. If the police officer asks you what happened on the scene, and you believe it is the UPS, FedEx, or Amazon driver’s fault then explain to the officer what happened because it is better for you if the other driver gets ticketed for the crash and/or the officer puts in the police report that it was the other driver’s fault.

Refuse Recorded Statement

You may get an in-person visit or a call from an insurance adjustor or investigator hired by UPS, FedEx, Amazon, or their insurance company to “investigate” the accident. Make no mistake that this person is not interested in the truth, but rather is interested in trying to reduce the company’s liability. They may ask you for a recorded statement which is almost always a bad idea for you to provide for several reasons including:

a. Anything you say can and will be used against you later in your case.
b. You may be on medications that are prescription pain pills that affect or impair your ability to think.
c. These investigators and insurance adjustors are trained to ask you questions in such a way that you may unintentionally answer wrongly causing damage to your case. There are many techniques and tricks that they can use to make you look bad later.

For example, they may ask you “Have you had back pain before?” If you say “no”, but you have previously seen a chiropractor or had other treatment for your back then this makes you look like a liar. The question really means “At any point in your life have you ever had back pain?” Most of us have had some back pain during our life which we may or may not have seen a medical provider for. As you can see, they can ask you many questions that you may not fully understand which could cost you thousands of dollars in your case.

Property Damage

If the UPS, FedEx, or Amazon driver was at fault, then you should receive a letter and/or phone call from an insurance adjustor within a few days about taking care of your property damage. If your vehicle was totaled then you are owed the fair market value of your vehicle, plus tax and registration fees. If the vehicle is repairable then you should receive a rental car while it is being repaired. Also, if the damage exceeds 70% of the fair market value of your car at the time that it was damaged then the car will end up with a salvage title. If this happens, then you should also be able to recover the difference in the fair market value of your vehicle with and without a salvage title.

Personal Injury Settlement

If your injuries were minor and you only required a few medical appointments, then you can probably try to settle your personal injury case on your own. However, if you were hospitalized, sustained broken bones, or required surgery you will likely want the help of a qualified Iowa car accident attorney. There is no precise formula for determining how much your case is worth (3 times the medical is not standard) as there are many factors to consider when determining how much your personal injury case against UPS, FedEx, or Amazon is worth. Some of these factors include:

1. How severely were you injured?
2. Did you have documented objective injuries from x-rays, CT scans, or an MRI?
3. Were you hospitalized following the crash?
4. Did you require surgery because of your injuries?
5. Did you miss work and if so, how much?
6. Are some of your injuries permanent in that you will have to deal with them for the rest of your life?
7. Have you had prior problems with the same areas that were injured in the car accident?
8. Did you go to all your doctors and other medical appointments?
9. Did you do what your medical providers recommended such as home exercises recommended by a physical therapist?
10. How has your personal life been affected? Are you no longer able to participate in the hobbies that you once enjoyed?
11. Are you partially at fault for the motor vehicle crash? Iowa has a comparative fault law, and your damages are reduced by your percentage of fault. For example, if you have $100,000 in damages, but are found to be 25% at fault then your damages are reduced to $75,000.

These along with many other things will affect the value of your case. If you call an attorney and they tell you within a few minutes what your case is worth, this is a red flag that they may just be telling you a high number in hopes that you will come in and hire them.

Before a qualified car accident attorney would tell you how much your case is worth, they would want to:

1. Find out how much insurance coverage the other driver has. In a case where you were injured by a UPS, FedEx, or Amazon truck this is probably not a big factor as they have both insurance and assets to collect upon.
2. Request and review the accident report, witness statements, photographs, and potentially interview witnesses to the crash.
3. Request and review your medical records and see what your doctors have reported that you have told them along with looking for prior medical conditions that the insurance company will try to use against you.
4. If necessary, talk to your doctors to obtain written reports that your injuries are caused by the car crash.
5. And much more.

Our normal practice is when a client hires us, once we know all the facts, we will prepare a detailed settlement proposal that we will send to our client to review. We will also gather Client Impact Statements from family, friends, and co-workers who have personally seen the changes that the crash has made. Once our clients have reviewed the settlement proposal and we have all the information ready, then we will submit it to the insurance company.

Sometimes, instead of trying to settle the case first, we will file a lawsuit in the beginning. This could be because we suspect the other driver may try to flee without being served for several reasons. Whichever way is best in your case, we will discuss our recommendations and with our advice, you will make an informed decision about how to proceed. Eventually, once the insurance company makes offers in your case, we will help you determine whether to settle your case or not.

Seeking Legal Assistance

Seeking legal counsel from experienced Iowa car accident attorneys such as those at Walker, Billingsley & Bair can provide invaluable support in filing insurance claims or pursuing personal injury lawsuits. With a comprehensive understanding of Iowa law, their team can help gather evidence, establish liability, and secure the compensation deserved by accident victims.

Suffering from the aftermath of a car accident shouldn't impede your pursuit of justice and fair compensation. The Iowa injury lawyers at Walker, Billingsley & Bair work hard to level the field between injured Iowans and insurance companies.

That's why we provide this FREE book; The Legal Insider's Guide to Iowa Car Accidents: 7 Secrets to Not Wreck Your Case. To learn more about what our legal team will do to help you protect your Iowa injury claim, contact Walker, Billingsley & Bair to schedule a no-cost consultation. Call 641-792-3595 to order your free accident book today.