News & opinion I was a passenger in a car accident – can I file a personal injury claim?

I was a passenger in a car accident – can I file a personal injury claim?

I was a passenger in a car accident - can I file a personal injury claim?

If you were a passenger involved in a car accident, you generally have an easier case to prove than the driver does.  Why?  Because as a passenger, you do not have to worry about proving liability because one of the drivers will likely be liable.  Because your hands weren’t on the wheel, no one can say you were at fault.  Liability will fall with one of the drivers of the vehicles or based on some combination (comparative negligence.)

Filing a Passenger Injury Claim

If you are a passenger injured in a car accident, your personal injury claim will proceed just like any other type of car accident claim, except if it was a two car accident, then the passenger may make the claim against both drivers.

Passenger Injury Case in a Two-Car Accident

In this instance, there may sometimes be some disagreement over liability between the two insurance companies, which can delay the passenger’s settlement.  An experienced personal injury lawyer like Stewart Guss, however, can often expedite the processing of the claim and help clarify the liability of the drivers much earlier in the process.

Multiple Passenger Injury Claims

In the event that a car with three passengers is rear-ended, all four occupants of the car are injured. Each of the injured parties will file claims against the negligent driver. If the total value of the injury cases exceeds the driver’s insurance, you may run into a situation where the injured parties may need to compromise their claims, and possibly seek other sources of recovery (underinsured motorists coverage, etc) to obtain maximum compensation.

Often a family is driving in a car and one of the parents is at fault in the accident.  In these situations, the rest of the family can make a claim on the family’s insurance policy to make sure that they are compensated for their damages.  This is because Texas does not have “interspousal immunity” laws. While the at fault driver cannot make a claim, the other passengers (often the spouse and children) can open an injury claim on the family’s own policy.  This often does not involve a lawsuit and is simply a means by which the family can recover for medical bills and compensation on the insurance policy the family may have been paying for many years.

Contact Stewart Guss

If you are a passenger who was injured in a car accident and have any questions about your legal rights, you may want to discuss your options with a car accident lawyer.  Stewart Guss will do whatever it takes to get you fully compensated for your injuries, and he takes pride in treating his clients like family.  Pick up the phone and call 713-766-5883 to talk to us about your car accident case. Remember, your consultation is FREE, and you pay NOTHING until we win your case.

Sources

  1. http://www.alllaw.com/articles/nolo/workers-compensation/why-claim-denied.html
  2. http://www.alllaw.com/articles/nolo/auto-accident/passenger-injury-claims.html
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