Car Accident Lawyer Palm Desert CA 92260

Palm Desert saw 176 traffic collisions in 2018, according to UC Berkeley data. These collisions led to 250 injuries and five deaths.

We’re here to deal with the insurance companies for you and obtain you fair compensation for your injuries if you’ve been injured in an accident in Palm Desert. We can obtain a fair recovery for you which can cover your medical bills, your lost wages, the cost of your wrecked car and more, and we can find you the best doctors so you can obtain the best treatment for your injuries.

Call our personal injury lawyers now for a free consultation if you or a loved one has been injured or killed in a car accident in Palm Desert or the Palm Springs area. You may be eligible for financial compensation. You can also fill out the “Do I Have A Claim” form on the right or use the texting feature on this page.

Do I Need A Palm Desert Car Accident Lawyer?

If you’ve been injured in a car accident in Palm Desert, you may be wondering if you need car accident lawyers to handle your claim, or if you can handle it yourself. The answer is that while you are entitled to financial compensation for injuries caused by someone else’s negligence under California law, insurance companies don’t care, and won’t offer you the compensation you’re entitled to unless you are represented by experienced lawyers with a reputation for success like Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers.

The number one priority of any insurance company is to make money. Thus, if they don’t have to pay you what you deserve for your injuries, they won’t, and if you don’t have a lawyer, they don’t have to pay you what you’re entitled to under the law. When insurance companies refuse to pay injury victims what they’re entitled to, all injury victims can do about it is file a lawsuit over it. However, you cannot win a lawsuit like this without a lawyer, and the insurance companies know this, so they will only offer you a small fraction of what you’re entitled to if you’re not represented by an attorney.

However, while it is common for insurance companies to present lowball offers to unrepresented claimants, it is also common for insurance companies to suddenly change their mind and present fair offers to claimants after the claimants obtain legal representation. Most of our cases settle out of court because insurance companies fear and respect the experienced car accident law firm of Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers. They know that we have a 30+ year track record of success. They know it’s a waste of time and money to take us on in court.

In addition, talking with insurance companies can be very risky for injury victims. It’s best for injury victims to have a lawyer talk with insurance companies for them. The reason why is that insurance adjusters are trained to trick injury victims into saying things that lower the value of their claims. You may think it’s no big deal to respond “fine” when an insurance adjuster asks “how are you today,” but an insurance adjuster can use your response as evidence your injuries aren’t actually as severe as you claim. Insurance adjusters can and will use the tiniest little thing you say against you, so call us today for a free consultation so we can handle all negotiations with insurance companies for you while you simply focus on recovering from your injuries.

We Can Obtain You A Recovery By Proving Negligence

Negligence is the concept at the heart of a typical car accident claim.

Negligence is defined by California Civil Jury Instructions No. 401 as:

Negligence is the failure to use reasonable care to prevent harm to oneself or to others.

A person can be negligent by acting or by failing to act. A person is negligent if that person does something that a reasonably careful person would not do in the same situation or fails to do something that a reasonably careful person would do in the same situation.

California Civil Jury Instructions No. 400 states that a plaintiff must prove the following to establish a claim that they were harmed by a defendant’s negligence:

1. That [name of defendant] was negligent;
2. That [name of plaintiff] was harmed; and
3. That [name of defendant]’s negligence was a substantial factor in causing [name of plaintiff]’s harm.

A driver in California (or, in effect in many cases, their insurance company) is liable for any damages that their negligence causes. A car accident attorney at Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers can obtain you financial compensation for your injuries and other damages by proving another driver’s negligence caused your car accident.

Negligence On The Road

Negligence on the road takes many forms, from speeding, inattentiveness and loss of control to drunk driving, drugged driving and fatigued driving.

It is negligent to not properly maintain your car, as it is dangerous for lights or brakes to not work, for example.

It is negligent to fail to obey traffic laws, including right-of-way laws.

Driving while distracted by a cell phone is an extremely common example of negligence on the road.

Comparative Negligence: An Explanation

Comparative negligence in California is explained by California Civil Jury Instructions No. 405, which states the following must be proven by a defendant to reduce their liability based on comparative negligence:

1. The plaintiff was negligent; and
2. The plaintiff’s negligence was a substantial factor in causing their own harm.

The plaintiff’s damages are reduced by the jury’s determination of the percentage of the plaintiff’s fault if the above can be proven. This means that if you were in an accident and a jury in your car accident case rules you were 15% at fault, the damages you’re awarded are reduced by 15%.

Damages We Can Recover For You

There are many kinds of damages we can recover for accident victims who are injured in a car crash in Palm Desert. Personal injury lawyers at Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers can help you recover compensation for:

• Loss of wages: You may have missed time from work due to the injuries sustained in your car accident. You might have had to miss work to attend medical appointments or procedures, or you simply might have been unable to work. You may be eligible to recover financial compensation for any wages you were unable to earn due to your injuries.
• Lost earning capacity: You may be permanently unable to do the work you used to due to your injuries. You may even be permanently unable to work, period, because of your injuries. You might qualify for financial compensation for any lost earning capacity.
• Medical bills: If you’ve been seriously hurt in a car accident, you have obviously incurred medical bills as a result of your injuries, and you may incur medical bills in the future which are related to your injuries. You may qualify for compensation for any past or future medical bills incurred as a result of your injuries.
• Pain and suffering: Car accidents can lead to physical pain and mental suffering. If your accident was caused by someone else’s negligence, you are entitled under California law to financial compensation for this pain and suffering.
• Wrongful death: We are truly sorry for your loss if you have lost a loved one in a car accident. You may qualify for financial compensation for funeral expenses, burial expenses, the loss of your loved one’s companionship and love, any income your loved one may have earned, any pain and suffering your loved endured before their death, and more.

You may also be entitled to compensation for:

• Damage to property, including your car
• Costs for rental cars
• Modifications to a home or a vehicle to accommodate a disability
• Inconvenience
• Disfigurement
• Out-of-pocket expenses
• Punitive damages in certain claims, such as claims involving drunk driving

What If I Just Made A Pre-Existing Injury Worse In My Accident?

You may still be eligible for financial compensation if someone else’s negligence caused an accident which aggravated your pre-existing injury. If this occurred to you, you may qualify for financial compensation for any or all of the above if they are related to the aggravation of your pre-existing condition.

However, cases involving pre-existing conditions are very complex and can be quite difficult. These are not cases you want to be handling on your own. We have been handling cases like these since 1990. Call us today for a free consultation so we can put our experience and expertise to good use and recover the financial compensation you deserve for the aggravation of your pre-existing injury.

How Long Do I Have To File A Claim?

Insurance claims involving auto accidents will typically not be very successful if the threat of a lawsuit doesn’t linger over the insurance company. Insurance companies don’t have a reason to pay you what you deserve if you can’t file a lawsuit against them over a lowball offer and win.

The thing is, there is a time limit for filing a car accident lawsuit in California. That time limit is two years from the date of your injuries. This time limit is known as a statute of limitations.

If you don’t file a lawsuit within this time limit, you will be barred from filing a lawsuit and you will lose all leverage over insurance companies. For this reason, it’s important that you call Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers as soon as possible for a free consultation if you’ve been injured in a car accident. Car accident claims can take a long time to put together, so calling us today gives us as much time as possible to put together a convincing claim and, if necessary, file a lawsuit to force the insurance company to pay you what you deserve.

What Should I Do After A Car Accident In Palm Desert?

If you’ve been injured in a car accident in Palm Desert, Riverside County or the Coachella Valley, the steps you take after your accident can have a huge impact on your ability to recover all of the financial compensation you’re entitled to for your injuries. You should do the following after a car accident:

1. Get To A Safe Place

If you are able to, get yourself and your vehicle to safety. Move as far to the side of or off of the road as you can.

2. Check To See If People Are Hurt

Check to see if you have been injured. Check if anyone else who was involved in the car accident was hurt, if you’re physically capable. If anyone has been hurt, call 911.

3. Contact Law Enforcement

You are legally obligated to call highway patrol or the police if any death or injury happened in your accident. However, there’s another reason to make this call: police reports can be very important evidence when it comes to convincing insurance companies to pay you the compensation you’re entitled to. For this reason, you’ll want the police to show up and create an accident report, which you will want to ask for a copy of.

4. Collect Evidence

You should collect the names, contact info and insurance info of any drivers involved in the car accident. You should also collect the names and contact info of any accident witnesses.

Take photographs or video of the accident scene, including weather conditions, road conditions, property damage, traffic signals and signs, etc. Take pictures or video of your injuries.

Document how you remember the accident occurring as soon as you can afterwards, as memories can quickly fade.

Keep a file related to your accident. Keep any paper documentation related to your accident in this file, such as medical bills, other bills, medical documentation, etc.

Keep a diary that details all of your post-accident experiences. Note any details about your recovery, such as pain and suffering you go through, medical appointments, medical treatments, etc.

5. See A Healthcare Provider Immediately

Do this even if you don’t think you’ve been hurt. People who are in car accidents often don’t realize they’ve been hurt until weeks or months after the accident.

However, if you wait weeks or months after an accident to get your injuries documented by a medical professional, insurance companies can claim your injuries may have been caused by something other than your accident, using this excuse to avoid paying you what you deserve. It’s important to have any injuries documented by a healthcare provider as soon as you can.

6. Be Careful What You Say Or Post

Insurance companies can and will use anything you say or post online against you in order to avoid paying you what you deserve. Keep talking at the scene of the accident to a minimum. Don’t admit fault or apologize.

Be extremely careful about what you post online after your accident. You may wish to not post on social media at all until the resolution of your case. Insurance companies will monitor your social media after an accident, looking for the tiniest thing you post that they can take advantage of.

Don’t speak with insurance companies after an accident. Let your lawyers do that instead.

7. Call Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers

We can handle every aspect of your case for you while you focus on recovering from your injuries, and calling us gives you the best chance of recovering the financial compensation you’re entitled to from your injuries.

Car Accident Lawyer Palm Desert CA 92260

The Palm Desert car accident attorneys at Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers have been specializing in claims involving car accidents since 1990, having obtained over $750,000,000 on behalf of clients in that time. We’ve amassed a large database of the finest doctors in California in that time; doctors who work on a lien. This means that they won’t charge you until your case is over.

Our personal injury attorneys can protect your legal rights and get you to the best doctors. We know the best experts to hire to prove that someone else’s negligence caused your injuries and we can deal with the insurance companies for you. We can do all of this for you while working on a contingency fee basis: we will not charge you a penny if we do not obtain a recovery for you. We will only charge you legal fees if we obtain a recovery for you and that fee will simply be a small percentage of your recovery.

Call us now for a free consultation if you or a loved one was hurt or killed in an auto accident in Palm Desert. You may be eligible for a financial recovery.