PODCAST
Episode 4: What to do if you are involved in a car accident?
Audio Transcript
You are listening to ask Gloria Power Rocks or Richard’s law firm Episode 5 car accidents, so we’re here again with our co-host Wax or Richards and we’re learning a little bit about car accidents today.
Now everybody known somebody that’s been accident everybody heard all the commercials and things on TV but I would like to know.
I’m sure everybody else I like to know.
What do we do if we’re in a car wreck?
So what’s the first thing we do other than get out the car?
What do we do?
Number one don’t leave this.
Please do not leave the scene and #2 relax calm down if you can. I’ve been in a car accident more than once more than twice and I seem to start panicking. So relax, calm down the. The main thing is you should be trying to seek medical attention.
Uhm, if you’re injured, definitely you want to stop and get some medical attention that you probably will need.
And if you have passengers in the car, definitely you want to maybe take a look back to make sure that they are OK and then call diamond one and get some medical attention immediately.
OK, so let’s time getting this medical attention.
The police get on the scene.
I don’t know about you know everybody, but not everybody is comfortable talking to police.
Should we talk to police?
Should we make a statement?
Is that going to help?
Is that going to hurt?
Yes, you should.
Whether you are the victim in the accident or the cause of an automobile accident, limit yourself to discussing the.
You should also avoid taking the blame for the accident or making accusations, but it would not hurt to talk to them because they become, you know, a witness.
Should you know you decide to sue the adverse party or the other party, or you want to explore a claim, they become a witness in your case.
So it won’t.
Hurt to to talk to them, but just limit discussing your fax.
OK, that seems easy enough.
Now how soon should I hire a lawyer?
Should I wait until maybe?
I’m I decided I’m hurt.
Should I wait until I find out whether or not I need to get something fixed in my.
How soon should I hire?
A lawyer in the case of an accident.
You should hire a lawyer as soon as possible.
Please do not wait because when you wait you end up hurting your case.
You have viable evidence at you know which is number one in your car.
So we would like to get that evidence immediately.
We would like to start exploring the facts of your case immediately so that we can start building your case from the outset.
If you wait, you lose not only valuable time because stories can change pretty much daily because of our, you know, vulnerable memory.
But aside from that, we need to get to evidence we need to talk to witnesses.
Maybe that were there and sometimes people change their numbers.
We need to get to this car and get our investigator out to look at the car to see maybe if there are some other things.
Going on with the car, we need to get that little black box and we all know that you know if you wait so many days you won’t be able to get to that information because it will delete on on its own in some cases.
So very, very quickly.
I would say the same day.
OK, now should I notify the other drivers insurance company accident shoulder from my insurance company what?
Should I do?
What should be my next step of action after I do, I get a lawyer and then do it like you know people, your friends cleaning accident?
What should be the next step?
Well, that’s completely up to you.
Of course, I’m not going to tell you what to do, but I will give you a suggestion or recommendation unless you want to jeopardize your case it.
Is far better to hire a personal injury attorney to handle any communication with the other side.
In this case the insurance company.
They are not your friends, that is number 1.
That people need to understand they’re not your friends.
You need to know how to deal with them.
You need to know you need to have someone that can communicate with them effectively.
That is aggressive and that will pretty much understand the lingo and can talk the talk and walk.
The walk as well.
So I would not recommend speaking with the insurance company, hire an attorney and let them.
Do their job.
OK cool, what if the other person runs off?
We we all heard about hit and run accidents.
I think that’s that would be the last thing people want to know.
What if somebody runs off?
What in that case would you do?
Well, we’ve had that happen in the past before with the with the case that we we’ve taken and we were able to get that insurance information because we had our investigator pretty much tracked them down based upon their license plate.
So if you can do it, though, if you can and you’re not, you know physically hurt.
Get a piece of paper.
Write down the insurance information.
Write down their drivers, license the drivers license information as well.
We actually have a card, a car accident card that is actually on our website and it lists out the 10 steps that you need to take if you.
If you’re in an accident on on the other side.
You can record all of this material information on the back of the card as well.
As the police report number or any police report information as well.
OK, now last thing I’ve I heard that you need to make a police report.
You called the police document.
Make sure to make a report.
Some people might be a little bit afraid of having a portal or having a record of their accident.
Why is It important that they actually keep report.
Well, your attorney needs a copy of the police report for a number of reasons.
We need to get information about the other driver involved in the accident.
Went to get information about the Jarvis insurance company and to see what the police have recorded about how the accident occurred.
This is very important because there are certain elements underneath your state law that we have to meet.
If we’re on the plane of side and again this becomes our evidence, this becomes evidence that we need to.
Factually explore and start building your case from the beginning and that police report is one of the most vital pieces to building your case and meeting those elements that the attorneys have to show on a legal side in order to prove your case.
If the police report is inaccurate, your attorney can contact the investigating officer because it’s important to get it correctly as soon as possible in order to avoid messing up the facts.
In fact, I remember a case I had like this years ago with the client and the the police report got he he.
Wrote it backwards so he put our client was at fault and the other.
Party was not at fault and it was pure era.
It was probably late.
He was probably tired.
Who knows, but we were able to finally track down that police officer and get him to do an amended report.
You know and get it notarized, so you definitely want to get that done and speak with the lawyer.
To help you get that done.
That seems like all really good information, so we’ve learned a little bit more about what to do in an accident.
Not so frantic, you said, don’t run, you know called, please talk.
To them get report get alloy.
Here if we want to get a lawyer, where can we find you?
If we want to use you, we like this podcast.
What we find you, again, my name is attorney Roxell Richards. I’m your personal injury attorney. You can find me on the World Wide Web at roxellrichards.com or you can email email us here at intake@roxellrichards.com
Time so that we can review your case and see if it meets our case criterion.
Or you can let’s see.
That’s a email.
I said email. I said phone number yeah oh you can even fax if you want 713-974-0003.
But give us a call if you if you are unable to come to our office.
We also do our services via online so we can, you know do everything online.
We can even make house calls to you hospital.
Visits, you name it, we can.
We can get there and do the job.
OK, great, well this has been asked lawyer Episode 4 car accidents pad, Barack.
So Roxell Richards
You better ask the lawyer