One of the questions that Ventura County car accident attorney Emery Ledger of Ledger & Associates gets asked the most frequently is “How do I know if I have a good car accident case”. As you may imagine, every car accident is different. The people involved are different, the vehicles are different, or maybe the road conditions are different. There are so many variables to a car accident scenario that it is impossible to answer that question as it applies to you specifically without a detailed analysis of your specific set of facts. It is, however, possible to explain some of the factors that go into determining whether someone has a valid car accident case.
The first issue that must be considered is negligence. Negligence is a legal term that is used to mean blame or fault. If someone was at fault in a car accident, then they were negligent. In the State of California, more than one person or entity can be to blame – or negligent – in the same car accident, says Ventura County car accident attorney Emery Ledger of Ledger & Associates. This is known as the comparative negligence theory. It means that if three cars are all involved in a collision, they could all share some of the responsibility for the collision. Sometimes a company or municipality even shares some of the blame. If there was a dangerous road condition that the city should have fixed, then they may be partially to blame. If the vehicle you were driving in is found to have a defective part, then the manufacturer may share some or all of the blame as well. Even if you were partially to blame – or partially negligent – you may still be entitled to compensation if your proportion of the negligence was less than everyone else involved. Any money you receive as compensation will be reduced, however, by the percentage of negligence that is yours.
Once you have established that someone else is more negligent than you, then you have to prove that you suffered damages in the car accident. If you were physically injured in the car accident then you suffered damages. If you suffered physical damages in the car accident, then you may also be entitled to non-economic damages – what most people think of as “pain and suffering”. You will also have to establish that the damages you are claiming you suffered were a direct result of the car accident.
Once you have gone through all of this, and determined that you do, indeed, have a valid car accident case, then you may start to evaluate what your case is worth. Valuing a car accident case can be a long and complicated process depending on how badly you were injured and what kind of future medical problems you may have as a result of the car accident, according to Ventura County car accident attorney Emery Ledger.
If you would like an individual evaluation of your potential car accident case, please feel free to contact Ventura County car accident attorney Emery Ledger of Ledger & Associates for a free detailed evaluation. He can be reached at 1-800-300-0001 or online at www.ledgerlaw.com
