Murphy & Murphy Law Offices

Here’s a common question that people always want to know: how do I find the best personal injury attorney for my Ventura County car crash and motor vehicle accident claim? The lawyer that you choose to represent you is going to be one of the most important factors in your injury case. The insurance companies know who does this on a regular basis. They know who will do a good job and who is ready, willing and able to go to trial. You don’t want an attorney who will just fold like a deck of cards and take whatever the insurance company offers them. You want the lawyer that is going to be looking out for your interests and protect you. You want someone who handles personal injury cases and that’s it. You don’t want somebody that takes everything that walks through the door, and they only dabble in personal injury. Personal injury cases have become so complex and the insurance companies have attorneys that this is all they do, and you need someone who is going to be able to stand up to them and go head-to-head. You need someone that only does personal injury. You don’t want some lawyer who is just out of law school and is just learning on your case. You need someone who has years of experience and has a solid track record with the insurance companies, so that they know they are a serious and legitimate attorney.

Never give a recorded statement to the insurance company for the other driver until you’ve spoken to a lawyer and gotten advice. The insurance company and the insurance adjusters have an agenda. That agenda is to protect themselves and to protect their money. It’s not to protect you. It’s not to help you with your claim. It’s to save as much money as they can. The manner in which they ask the questions are slanted to help them and not to help you. If you’re like most people, you’re going to be honest; you just want to help them, and you just want to get your claim settled, but you don’t have the experience that they do. You’re not on an even playing field with them; you’re at a substantial disadvantage. My advice is never give a recorded statement to them until you’ve had a chance to talk to an attorney.

There are a number of reasons why you need an attorney to represent you, especially if you have sustained a very significant or life-changing injury in a car crash. First reason is this. The insurance company for the other driver is not on your side. They are not looking to protect you. They are trained, have years and years of experience, and their job is to protect the interest of the insurance company, and that means paying you as little as possible. Here’s the other thing – and most people don’t know this – there are studies that have been conducted repeatedly by the insurance industry, and they have found that people who are represented by a skilled and experienced attorney often receive as much as three times more than people who have not been represented by an attorney, and that’s after the attorney has been paid. In addition to that, if you’ve been seriously injured, these are often very complex cases where the insurance company will put them into litigation no matter what. You need a skilled and experienced trial attorney to be in your corner, and to be on your side, so that you’re on equal footing and equal ground. Otherwise, you’re fighting a battle where you’re completely out-manned, out-gunned, and outnumbered. You don’t want to be in that situation.

If you or a loved one, or a family member, has been seriously injured in a Ventura County car crash and you’ve had a wrongful death or life-changing injury, you need to know what steps you should take to protect yourself and to protect your family. Unfortunately, when people are thrown into a situation like this, they’re often overwhelmed and confused by all of the stuff that you have to deal with. You’ve got all of your everyday obligations and all of a sudden, thrown on top of that, you’re hospitalized. You may have surgeries, doctor’s appointments, and bills piling up, and everything else. You’re overwhelmed. What should you do? The first thing and the primary concern that you should have is to make sure that you are doing what your doctors order and what you need to do medically to get as better as you can, as quickly as you can. Follow your doctor’s orders, take all the medications, go to all your appointments. Do what is necessary so that you can get back to normal.

If you’ve been involved in a slip and fall in California, you need to know what it is that caused you to slip, fall and be injured. Was it a liquid or slippery substance that was on the floor? Where did it come from? How long had it been there? These are all very important questions and information that you need to know. The other thing that you need to do that is critically important is fill out an incident report. You need to be able to establish that not only were you there, but that you fell and that you were injured. That property or business needs to investigate and figure out what it was that caused the injury. If you don’t fill out an incident report, you will not have the evidence that’s required for you to meet your burden of proof, and you may not be able to receive any type of compensation. You’ve got to let that business owner know that you fell and were injured, and that they are on notice of that.

If you have been seriously injured in a car accident here in California, there are a few things that you should do. At the scene, you want to make sure that you get the driver’s information, find out who the witnesses are and what they can tell you, and how to contact them. Also, you’ll want to take pictures of all the vehicles that were involved in the crash. Take several pictures that show all of the damage – skid marks, broken car parts on the road and things like that. However, if you are so seriously injured that you are immediately taken away by an ambulance, then in that situation, obviously the police or the highway patrol will get that, or you can have somebody else who was in your vehicle with you get that information.