I Was Injured In A Car Accident Near Los Angeles, What Steps Do I Need To Take If I Want To File A Personal Injury Claim?

If you have been injured in a car accident, there are many different steps you can take to support a future personal injury claim. Assuming that you are physically safe and able to move around, the first step to take is to preserve the evidence. There are several important things you can do in order to preserve evidence.

In the immediate aftermath of a car accident, the first thing you will want to do is to take photographs. You don’t have to have a professional camera to do this: the camera on your phone will be fine. Make sure to get photographic evidence depicting the state of your vehicle as well as the state of the other vehicle. You will want to get as many pictures as possible, both in the areas that have visible damage and the areas that do not. Some of these pictures should depict the physical location of the cars, the angle they rested in after the crash, and how close they are to one another. In addition, you should try to get pictures of of the interior of each vehicle, or at least the interior of your own vehicle. Pay special attention to photographs that note the position of your seat, your headrest, the airbag (if it deployed), and the seatbelts.

Another important step involves your car’s EDR (Event Data Recorder). An EDR is an electronic device that comes installed in most modern cars. It essentially functions as a black box, recording certain data points about what’s going on in the car at any given time. If you have an EDR in your car and get into an accident, the EDR will record what happened in the 5 seconds leading up to the accident, as well as what happened during the crash itself.

EDRs are quickly becoming some of the most convincing and authoritative forms of evidence in personal injury car accident cases. This is because EDR data is not subjective evidence. It can prove otherwise debatable facts beyond a shadow of a doubt, both to the court and to your insurance company.

For instance, if you were stopped at a stop sign and got rear-ended, you can use your EDR data to prove how long you were stopped at the stop sign, whether you were wearing your seatbelt, and whether your foot was on the brake pedal or the gas pedal. EDRs also indicate the severity of a given collision. If you are building a personal injury case, this gives you a good starting point to determine how bad the crash actually was. With that information, you can give much stronger evidence for actually having sustained the injuries you sustained in your accident.

Once you secure your EDR, you can download the information stored on the device to be used in your case. It should be noted that if your car’s airbags deployed during your accident, you will need to get the information on your EDR downloaded before the airbags are reset. Once the airbags are reset, all of the data stored in the EDR is erased. You should therefore be sure to secure the information from the EDR before any resetting or repairs can begin.

Our commitment to you is to provide one-on-one personalized legal services, which are tailored to your needs. Let me show you how my 24 years of experience representing both trauma victims and Fortune 500 companies in thousands of catastrophic car accidents can help you get the recovery you deserve. Call now for free consultation or if you already have an attorney, call for a second opinion.

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