Crockett Law Group | Car Accident Lawyers of Palm Springs

Yes, in most instances. Just because you have pre-existing injuries does not mean that you are not entitled to recover compensation for your personal injuries in a motor vehicle accident. This commonly comes up with individuals who may have a bad back or back pain, and suffer a serious back injury in a crash. Although a victim may have “degenerative conditions” in his or her back before an accident, that does not operate to bar any recovery for an accident caused by a negligent driver. However, your damages may be reduced under the doctrine of comparative fault or as allotted by experts. This is often why, even if you do not have any pre-existing conditions, that insurance adjusters and defense lawyers will try to claim that you have pre-existing conditions that warrant reducing the total damages award. Do not let this happen to you. Call our experienced car accident lawyers at the Crockett Law Group to learn how we can help prevent your claim from being minimized or denied.

Yes, if you were injured in a motor vehicle accident—or really any personal injury accident—and commence a lawsuit, you will likely have to turn over or allow access to your medical records. Even though there are HIPAA protections for protected health information, you will still need to disclose or allow access to your medical records. This is because, by filing a lawsuit, you are placing your health in controversy. This allows a defendant to investigate your claims of personal injury, including to determine if you had a pre-existing injury before the accident. This right is not absolute and some of your medical records may be precluded. For example, if you have a broken arm in a car accident and the defendant wants your dental or OB/GYN records, those can be protected in a preclusion motion. However, your general primary care records and emergency room visits for other conditions will likely need to be disclosed. If you were injured, call our car accident lawyers in Palm Springs.

Yes, under California law, victims of a car accident who may have been partially at fault for the accident may recover compensation for their personal injuries. This is because California is a comparative fault state, meaning a victim’s recovery will be reduced by his or her fault. There are many different types of comparative fault states. Some allow for this offset as long as the victim is less than 50% at fault for the accident, whereas other states—like California—follow a “pure comparative fault” standard. This means that a victim can recover compensation no matter how much potential fault they may have for a crash—even if 99% at fault. For example, if a victim is 30% at fault for a car accident and recovers $100,000 in a lawsuit, the court may reduce the total award to $70,000. If you have questions about your comparative fault, call our car accident lawyers in Palm Springs, CA at the Crockett Law Group to schedule a FREE consultation with our team.

Yes, California’s “statute of limitations” governs the period during which you must file a personal injury lawsuit.

In a contingent fee arrangement, the lawyer agrees to accept a fixed percentage of the recovery, which is the amount finally paid to the client.

Yes. We work on a contingency fee basis, which means that we don’t get paid until we win your case. We don’t bill by the hour and you don’t pay us a retainer fee. You pay us nothing at all until we successfully recover a settlement on your behalf.

It depends. Reaching an injury settlement can take weeks or years. The amount of time it takes depends on a number of factors, such as: the type of personal injury case it is (e.g., car accident, slip and fall, or wrongful death); the severity of your injuries; the extent of treatment you require after the accident; who the defendant is and their willingness to settle out of court; etc. Contacting an attorney right away is the best way to ensure that your case gets settled as quickly as possible.

We strongly encourage our clients to resist the urge to use social media altogether until their case has closed. Any information about you on social networking sites (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) is readily available for insurance companies to see. It’s a means for them to evaluate your personality, credibility, and character. You can bet that an insurance company will search these sites and the rest of the internet for any information they can use against you to limit payment or avoid it altogether. If you do choose to continue using social media, you should at a minimum refrain from discussing your personal injury case.

As a personal injury law firm, we handle cases in the Coachella Valley where someone suffers an injury caused by another person who acted negligently. There are a wide variety of negligence cases that fall under personal injury law that we handle, including car accidents, truck accidents, motorcycle accidents, slip and falls, wrongful death cases, and other types of negligence cases.

There are three types of damages the Crockett Law Group could potentially recover for you in Palm Springs if you were injured due to someone else’s negligence: medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering. Medical expenses encompass both previous and future medical expenses you’ll have to spend on your recovery. Lost wages are recoverable if you were out of work temporarily or permanently because of your accident-related injuries. Pain and suffering damages include things like physical pain, mental suffering, emotional distress, disfigurement, inconvenience, grief, anxiety, humiliation, loss of enjoyment of life, and physical impairment.