Our Process

The steps you take immediately after sustaining an injury could affect both your right to compensation and the final amount you receive. To preserve the value of your personal injury claim, we recommend doing the following:

Report the Accident

If you’ve been involved in a car crash, you should call your local law enforcement to report it. Call 911 if you or anyone else is or may be injured. The responding officer may issue a ticket if it is determined that the party who caused the wreck violated the law. Additionally, the police will file a police report, which contains basic details like the identities of the parties involved. This report will prove valuable when seeking compensation.

For accidents like a slip and fall, contact the property owner or the individual who caused the accident. Do so as soon after the accident as you can and be sure you document this contact in writing.

Seek Medical Attention

Personal injury victims often don’t understand how seriously they’ve been hurt. They may believe their injuries are minor or even non-existent. However, in the hours and days that follow, injuries may reveal themselves or worsen significantly. Proper treatment requires you to see a medical professional for any injury, no matter how minor.

Seeing a doctor is also necessary to protect your legal claim. If you unreasonably delay medical attention or forgo it entirely, the insurance company and attorneys representing the at-fault party may blame you for aggravating your injuries and, therefore, argue you deserve less compensation. They may claim that some other party caused your injuries. Seek treatment from a doctor to preserve both your health and possible legal claim.

Document Everything

Because the accident scene will be quickly cleaned up, you need to document as much of it as possible. Take photographs and record videos of the vehicles or scenes in general. Photograph any injuries. If there were any witnesses, obtain their names and contact information. Identify the exact location of the accident and note any businesses in the area that may have surveillance cameras. Keep track of your medical bills and any lost time from work.

Ruppersburg Injury & Accident Attorneys represent the victims of numerous types of accidents, including:

• Car, truck, and motorcycle accidents
• Bicycle and pedestrian accidents
• Slip and fall accidents
• Premises liability accidents (those involving hazardous property conditions)
• Medical malpractice
• Dangerous and defective consumer products
• Nursing home abuse and neglect
• Dog bites
• Wrongful death

Every case is different, but most victims can ask for compensation for medical bills, lost time from work, pain and suffering (and other similar losses), and property damage. You can also ask for reasonably estimated future damages and, in some cases, punitive damages.

The insurance company of the “at-fault” driver should pay for you to rent a replacement car while your car is being repaired. The insurance company will only pay for what it considers a reasonable replacement. For instance, the insurance company won’t pay for you to rent a Ferrari (unless you were driving a Ferrari, that is!).

If the other driver doesn’t have insurance or you choose to submit your property damage claim to your own insurance company, your insurance company may pay for you to rent a replacement car if your insurance policy provides that sort of coverage.

If your car was totaled, you are entitled to the fair market value of your vehicle. This means that you are entitled to what a car dealership or another person would buy and sell that same car for. A good way to determine the fair market value of your vehicle is to look at Kelley Blue Book or what similar cars sell for in your area or online.

If your car just needs repairs, you are entitled to the reasonable cost of those repairs. If the cost of the repairs is greater than the fair market value of your car, the insurance company will consider your car “totaled” and pay you the fair market value of your car. For instance, if you have a car with a fair market value of $10,000 and the accident caused it to need $12,000 in repairs, the insurance company will pay you the $10,000 fair market value of your car.

Say you get into a car wreck with another driver that doesn’t have insurance. Your car is totaled and you are injured. Your insurance policy has uninsured motorist coverage and you make a claim. An adjuster calls and wants to take a statement from you. Should you do so? Yes.

Under your insurance policy, you have a duty to cooperate with your insurance company as they investigate your claim. If you do not agree to give them a statement, they could claim you are not cooperating and refuse to settle your claim.

However, you are allowed to have your attorney present during your statement. We meet with our clients to prepare them to give recorded statements and walk them through what sort of questions the insurance adjuster will be asking.

Please realize that when you are making a claim with your own insurance company, your insurance company isn’t necessarily looking out for your best interests. Their interest is now settling your claim for as little as possible. This is why it is important to meet with your attorney to prepare for your recorded statement and have your attorney present during it.

If the other driver was at fault, his or her insurance company should pay for it. You can also submit the property damage claim through your insurance company and then let your insurance company recover from the “at-fault” driver’s insurance company.

If the other driver doesn’t have insurance, your insurance company should pay for the damage to your car, assuming your insurance policy has collision coverage.

My firm represents clients on a contingency fee basis. This means that I do not charge a fee for initial consultation, do not charge an upfront fee to take your case or bill you by the hour. My fee is a percentage of the settlement or verdict at trial. In short, the only way we get paid is if we win or settle your case. If I don’t recover anything for you, you don’t owe us anything.

Many TV lawyers will charge you a 40% fee if they are able to settle your case without filing a lawsuit pre-suit and a 45% fee if they file a lawsuit. While these fees are appropriate in very difficult and complex cases like product liability, medical malpractice and legal malpractice cases, that is simply too much for most injury cases.

My firm handles attorney’s fees differently.

If we are able to settle your case without having to file a lawsuit, our fee is 33%. With a pre-suit settlement, we believe this more accurately reflects the work we’ve put into your case. If we file a lawsuit in your case, the fee is 40%. The fee goes up if suit is filed because lawsuits require much more work, are more expensive, take longer to settle or get to trial and involve more risk than settling your case without filing a lawsuit.

Our firm also advances the expenses associated with your case, such as the cost to file the lawsuit and have the defendant served with it, the cost of getting your medical records, court reporter and deposition fees and fees your doctors may charge for consultations and testimony. Our firm is repaid for these expenses out of any settlement or win at trial.

The term “property damage” refers to personal property such as a car, truck or motorcycle. If your car is damaged or totaled in an accident, you have a claim for the damage against the driver who caused the wreck.