These are the top five tips to follow if you’ve been in an accident.
Tip number one: if you’re in an accident, look for witnesses immediately. You want someone to be able to corroborate what you said happened, so if you get in an accident and you’re capable of looking around afterwards then try to find out if there were any witnesses. If there were witnesses, get their contact information, especially if they won’t wait for the police to arrive. A lot of the time when someone witnesses an accident they don’t have time to wait for the police and give a statement. Their contact information is important in this situation so that your attorney can contact them later.
Tip number two: take pictures. Take numerous pictures from all different angles, of both vehicles, so that you can try to show your story. You may already know this, but in most cases you don’t want to move the vehicles because you want to show them in situ to make it easier for the police and investigators to recreate what happened in the accident.
Tip number three: do not post on social media. Do not do it. Don’t talk about the accident. Don’t post about the accident. If you were not at fault and you were injured, then absolutely don’t post on social for the next good six months to a year. What I mean by don’t post on social media is that you certainly shouldn’t post about the accident, but also don’t post about cliff jumping or skydiving during the next year, because that is all discoverable information. The take away from this should be that if you are injured, it’s not your fault. If you have to seek medical treatment you certainly don’t want the other side to be able to look at your social media profile and try to mitigate the amount of injuries you have by showing how active you are. What I mean by that is don’t go skydiving, don’t take pictures of hikes, don’t be jumping around doing things in the gym and post it on social media because that can all be used against you.
Tip number four: look around the accident scene for cameras because there might be a camera that recorded the accident. As an example, in the latest case I received the accident occurred at an intersection, and at the corner of the intersection there was a restaurant that had outside security cameras. The restaurant actually ended up recording the accident unintentionally, as the camera was facing directly toward the intersection. Having that footage makes it very easy to show who was at fault. After you locate a camera the next step is to ask for the footage right away. A lot of times businesses that have security cameras will automatically erase recordings after a certain amount of time has passed. This something your attorney can do for you as well.
Finally, tip number five: remember that a lot of police officers have body cameras. Where this could come in handy, for example, is a case I had where my client was injured by a drunk driver. That body camera footage just helped reiterate that the guy was drunk because he was on the footage being belligerent to the police officer.
Bonus tip number six: call your attorney. Insurance companies are not in the business of giving out money. If you want to actually be compensated for what happened to you, you’re going to need to call an attorney. If you have recently been in an accident and need representation or have questions regarding an accident, visit our Website for more information.
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