Alabama, like the majority of states, has fault-based car accident damage claim laws. Meaning, it is necessary to determine fault before filing an insurance claim for a car, motorcycle, or truck accident. In Alabama, the driver at fault is responsible for damages paid. If you are found even slightly at-fault of an accident, your damages can be substantially lowered if not entirely denied. Determining fault is a hard process that police, insurance, the court, and your defense lawyer will investigate to determine. This determination of facts can play an essential role in your case. An in-depth analysis, including inspections of the vehicles, site, and factors involved can all help determine what happened and who might be at fault.
What Does Front-End and Rear-end Damage mean?
Front-end damage is one of the more common forms of car damage after an accident. Head-on collisions can be especially damaging and may cause extreme wreckage and injury to both the driver and passenger(s). As the name suggests, front-end collisions means the car hit another vehicle or object on the road, potentially a tree, divider, or steel barrier.
In some situations, front-end damage means the driver of the vehicle with front-end damage is at fault. This is sometimes the case when you have rear-end damage to your vehicle, or some other forms of damage. However, front-end damage does not always mean you were at fault. There are situations where the other driver was acting recklessly which caused someone to hit them with the front of their car.
Rear-end damage typically means that the car of the driver was hit by someone else. This means the car was struck by someone or was forced to back into someone else or something else. Rear-end damage usually places blame on the other driver, but there are situations that can negate this.
How Can an Attorney Help You Determine Fault?
An attorney can help handle your case especially if there were other forms of damage to your vehicle. If damages to your vehicle are not as straight-forward as front-end vs. rear-end, an attorney can help perform a professional analysis of all factors involved. For example, if the sides, mirrors, tires, roof, or windshield are damaged (in a rollover accident) an attorney can investigate to determine a timeline which shows who’s at fault.
Getting an honest account of all damage incurred to your vehicle is a large part of a car accident claim. Generally speaking, the more damage, the more settlement recovery is necessary. While this is an important aspect of an investigation, a personal injury attorney can do even more for their clients. There are other types of evidence and facts than can be recovered and determined from a car accident and its aftermath. For example, eye witnesses, physical evidence, video evidence, cell phone records are all important aspects to an investigation. All of these things put together by an experienced personal injury attorney can help maximize your claim in ways the insurance companies are not inclined to do.
Speak with one of our attorneys! We will provide legal advice to strengthen your case and advise you of what to do next.
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