If you’re struggling to figure out what to do after a minor car accident, it’s in your best interest to call the police, seek medical attention, remove your car from the scene once safe, and discuss your road to recovery with an experienced car accident lawyer.
Meeting with a lawyer doesn’t obligate you to pursue a civil claim or take a negligent driver to court. Instead, your free case consultation gives you the chance to:
- Work with a professional to file an insurance claim
- Outline the real value of your property damage, lost wages, and other losses
- Prevent insurance claims adjusters from taking advantage of your stress and complicating your recovery
Our car accident lawyers in Kansas City, MO, have helped hundreds of clients recover over $1 billion in damages after all kinds of accidents, even minor ones. You can trust us to take your losses seriously without burying you in legal terminology or other technicalities. Our team is on your side. Your injury. Our fight.
Call the Police
Do you have to call the police after a minor car accident? According to Missouri law, yes. Any accident involving injuries or more than $500 in property damage requires you to contact local police, who can then write up a report about your losses.
You and a Kansas City personal injury lawyer can use the police report generated by your call to argue for accident compensation later.
Get Medical Attention
Minor car accidents don’t often result in life-changing injuries. However, the stress from an accident can often make it harder to tell whether or not you’re going to have to deal with whiplash, bruising, or even minor fractures in the weeks to come.
It’s with the risk of developing injuries in mind that our team recommends you work with emergency responders or at least schedule an accident follow-up with your general practitioner after an accident.
Medical professionals do more than ensure you’re in good health–they also create some of the first records of your physical losses. A Kansas City car accident lawyer can go on to use those records to demand reasonable compensation from an insurance company or a liable party.
Contact our Kansas city personal injury lawyers now.
Move Your Car to Safety
On one hand, you should never move too far from a crash site after a minor car accident–driving onto a different street or back home can see you accused of a hit-and-run.
On the other hand, Missouri’s “Steer It Clear It” Law requires you to move a vehicle to the shoulder or a road in the wake of an accident, so long as you can safely drive your vehicle.
What does this mean for you? So long as you’re not seriously injured, no one at the scene has died, and you can operate your car, you need to move your car to the shoulder after a minor car accident. If you can’t move your car, you can call a tow truck or allow police officers to direct the clearing of the road.
Account for Your Losses and Document the Scene
Even minor car accidents can leave you and your family struggling to deal with abrupt losses. If you need to invest in car repairs, phone replacements, or even minor injury treatment, you’ll likely find yourself dealing with bills you weren’t prepared to pay.
One of the easiest ways to make those bills payable is to hold a negligent driver accountable for your losses. You can do this by first tracking what losses you sustained as a result of someone else’s inattention.
Keep track of all of the paperwork related to your car maintenance and medical expenses. You can even track your paystubs to see if you’re making less money after your accident. Our Kansas City car accident lawyers also recommend that you take photos of the scene and get bystanders’ contact information so you can use that evidence to build your case later.
Don’t Accept Settlement Offers or Give Statements About Your Losses
You are under no legal obligation to accept any settlement offers made at the scene of your accident. Even if a liable party means well, their initial settlement offer may not cover the full value of your losses. It’s in your best interest to wait and consult an attorney before accepting any loss-based compensation.
Likewise, insurance claims adjusters and affiliated parties cannot force you to give statements regarding the nature of your accident and losses at the scene of a collision. In fact, we recommend not giving insurance companies statements about your collision until after you’ve secured legal representation.
Unfortunately, insurance claims adjusters and other parties do not want to provide you with the financial support you need to pay your bills. They’ll use any excuse to deny your claim–meaning they may purposefully misinterpret your post-accident statements to their advantage. If you wait until you have an attorney to discuss your losses, you can protect your right to recover.
Work With a Lawyer to File an Insurance Claim
When building an insurance claim after a minor car accident, you need evidence to prove your right to damages. The evidence you use to make your case can take on a range of forms, including:
- Photos from before and after your accident
- Videos of your accident
- Statement from bystanders
- Analysis of the accident scene conducted by an investigative professional
- Environmental damage
- Physical debris
- Electronic evidence, as relevant
An experienced attorney can help you gather this evidence while building your insurance claim. We can then format our findings to suit an insurance company’s expectations and submit that claim for a provider’s consideration. We can represent you throughout negotiations to make sure a provider recognizes your right to a fair settlement.
Outline Your Right to Civil Action
Insurance companies can go to extreme lengths to deny you the right to ask for compensation, especially after minor car accidents. If you’re struggling to pay your bills and need financial aid, it may be in your best interest to take a minor car accident claim to civil court.
More specifically, you can work with a Kansas City car accident lawyer to file a personal injury claim against the party responsible for your losses. Doing so does not obligate you to go to trial but instead gives you the right to call a liable party forward for settlement negotiations.
Negotiations allow you to outline the value of your losses in private, where a liable party may agree to offer you the settlement you deserve. If you can’t get a liable party to cooperate with you during this stage, your attorney can prepare you to go to trial, where you can argue for car accident damages in front of a judge.
File a Car Accident Claim Before Your Statute of Limitations Expires
Missouri has a generous personal injury statute of limitations. Mo. Rev. Stat. § 516.120(4) gives car accident victims up to five years to finalize the paperwork necessary to bring a claim forward in civil court.
Our team still recommends that you schedule a free car accident case evaluation sooner rather than later. The more time our team has to build your case against a liable party, the more substantial your argument for compensation can become.
What’s more, you need to file a claim within the five years following your accident, or else you may unintentionally waive your right to legal action. Most Missouri courts will not consider any claims brought forward after a case’s statute of limitations expires. The sooner you contact an attorney, the faster we can present your case to a civil representative.
You Have the Right to Justice After a Minor Car Accident
Minor car accidents can still prove financially devastating, especially if your injuries or property damage turn out to be worse than they first appeared. Working with a car accident attorney From Foster Wallace doesn’t obligate you to pursue a civil case against a negligent driver, but it does give you the opportunity to financially recover from your losses with minimal stress.
Your car accident case consultation with our team comes free of charge and lets you check in with a legal professional with any questions you might have about your recovery. Let’s get together today to discuss what steps you can take to recover after a minor car accident.
