Mirror of Justice

Road Traffic Accident Personal Injury Law Process

July 16th, 2009 at 01:07am Under Personal Injury Law

The following outlined procedure will help you understand the Road Traffic Accident Personal Injury Law Process.

1. Report to police and ICBC: Reporting the road traffic accident to the police is of paramount importance and should be done at the earliest. The police will issue you with a file number as reference that could be quoted as a reference for future correspondence. In UK, you would need to report the accident to ICBC through a telephone. ICBC will also issue a file number and sets up an appointment for you to see an adjuster.
2. Meeting the solicitor and an ICBC claims adjuster: A consultation with the solicitor is recommended before you meet the adjuster appointed by ICBC. This will go a long way in protecting your interests. The best scenario would be to make your solicitor accompany you to meet the ICBC claims adjuster, so that all information you give out to the adjuster is accurate and your solicitor has the first hand information is building your case at a later date.

3. Negotiations with ICBC: Negotiations can begin anytime after the meeting with the adjuster. The negotiations can go on until you go to court or the case is settled. More than 90% of the ICBC cases are settled before they come to trial. To get the most out of them negotiations normally continue up to the date of the trial.

4. Filing a lawsuit: After a few meetings with your solicitor, the solicitor will review the circumstances and the evidence that keep you out of blame’s way. The solicitor would then carry on to reviewing the evidence of damages to your claim by interviewing witnesses for assessing liability.

The solicitor then takes a call on whether to file a lawsuit or not and if necessary, will assess the timing of the lawsuit. The timing would depend on the negotiation level with ICBC, your personal injury symptoms and the size and complex nature of he claim itself.

5. Trial date: Trial date should be set as early as possible, but it is advisable to leave it to the solicitor to do as he/she feels best.

6. Documentation and Pre-trial examinations: After the lapse of 6-12 months from the beginning of a lawsuit, each party to the accident is examined by the lawyers of the other side before trial. This is done to try and gather evidence of liability on your part, so that they could deny part or all of the coverage. In a normal procedure, documents are exchanged that include evidence pertaining to wage loss and other opportunities which may have been lost due to the accident.

7. Trial: If the negotiations fail before trial, going to court becomes necessary. The court hears out the evidence for fault finding, your losses due to the accident and a decision is made by the judge or jury to find the fault and to ascertain the amount of damages suffered.

8. Appeals: If the decision of the court is not acceptable to any of the parties involved, an appeal can be made to the B.C. Court of Appeal. The decision is reviewed, based upon the evidence and facts. A decision is taken to uphold the previous decision or overturn it accordingly.

Drunk-driving Accidents

July 14th, 2009 at 09:03am Under Drunk Driving Law

Drunk driving accidents are unfortunately quite common. Drunk driving is one of several “outside factors” which can sway your personal injury case decision in your favor – using a cell phone while driving is another outside factor.
Outside factors are the actions of the other driver that didn’t directly cause the accident but contributed to, and prove, negligence. A drunk driving accident may have been caused by the driver speeding, failing to signal or running a stop sign. The drunkenness is incidental, but highly relevant.
Because of this, when an accident involves drunk driving the drinking is generally considered an intangible. So even if there’s no charge of drunk driving, it’s important to bring up anything alluding to the driver drinking. For example, smelling alcohol on the driver’s breath or seeing empty bottles in the car. Emphasising these things can help your case.
Aside from drunk driving accidents, cell phone accidents are increasingly common. If the other driver was talking on a cell phone when the car accident happened, you’re likely to win a quick personal injury settlement.
Cell phones have been proven to cause accidents by distracting the driver. Some studies have shown that cell phones are responsible for the same number of accidents as drunk driving. Mentioning this to the insurance adjuster will strengthen your case, but they’ll still put up a fight. (There are also studies claiming that cell phones cause very few accidents, but those studies can be quite easily debunked.)
Before talking with the adjuster about this factor, research both sides so you know what to say – do a search online for studies relating to the dangers of cell phone use while driving. The study most likely to be used to counter your claim says that only a small percentage of accidents in North Carolina were caused by cell phone use. The study involves statistics from the 1990’s and doesn’t show the number of actual cell phone users in North Carolina at that time.
When drunk driving accidents happen a law has clearly been broken and charges will usually be made against the driver. That indictment alone should have the insurance adjuster hurrying to make an offer.
With cell phone use it isn’t that easy since many states don’t have laws against using them while driving. Without the element of a broken law and resulting charges, it may be more difficult to prove the driver was using a cell phone. This will come down to your word against theirs, but that’s okay. If you know you’re right, then make sure the adjuster realizes that if your claim goes to court, you will demand the other driver’s cell phone records. This will prove your case.
If your case involves a drunk driving accident or a cell phone accident, make sure to stress it in your demand to the insurance company. Drunk driving accidents are so common that the mere mention of the word ‘drunk’ will do most of the work for you. With cell phone use, reference at least one study. This’ll show the insurance adjuster you know what you’re talking about and that your argument is solid.