Head-on car collisions are especially dangerous, causing serious injuries and wrongful deaths. If you suffered an injury or lost a loved one because of a head-on auto accident, hiring a car accident attorney may be your next step. Your lawyer will evaluate your accident-related damages and lead an insurance claim or lawsuit on your behalf.
Having a lawyer handle your case may enable you to spend more time on recovery. You may experience psychological, physical, and financial benefits due to your decision to hire an attorney.
The Severe Consequences of Head-On Car Collisions
Physics dictates that head-on accidents put victims at great risk of injury and death. The momentum of two vehicles traveling in opposite directions suddenly stops, and the energy created from the collision is immense. Your body may have absorbed the brunt of that energy, causing serious injuries as a consequence.
Experts identify head-on collisions as the most serious type of accident, and an accident victim may:
- Lose their life
- Suffer debilitating pain
- Suffer one or more disabling injuries
- Experience intense psychological and emotional distress
- Face a long-term work interruption
- Endure severe financial harm
A lawyer will take a more specific view of your damages, examining exactly how your head-on car collision has affected you.
What to Do Following a Head-On Car Collision
You may have two primary considerations after your car accident:
- Your health
- The financial recovery you hope to obtain for accident-related damages
How to Protect Your Health
Nothing should come before your health, particularly when you have been in a violent head-on accident. Protect your health by
- Immediately seeking medical attention (at an emergency room, urgent care facility, or doctor’s office)
- Clearly explaining that you have been in a head-on collision
- Explaining any pain, abnormal symptoms, or other issues you’ve experienced since the accident
- Asking the doctor for images, diagnoses, and a treatment plan
Keep in mind that certain injuries, including but not limited to whiplash, may not immediately produce symptoms. Even if you don’t have clear and obvious injury symptoms, you need to receive a thorough medical examination from a qualified doctor.
How to Protect Your Possible Financial Recovery
Hiring a car accident attorney is how many car accident victims prioritize their financial recovery. Many accident victims have little idea how to seek fair compensation for accident-related damages, and having a lawyer can provide much-needed clarity.
Top Benefits of Hiring a Head-On Car Collision Lawyer
Hiring a car accident lawyer provides you with several valuable benefits, including:
- Experience-based advice: If you don’t have ample experience fighting for compensation after a car accident, you may feel lost in the dark. An attorney’s experience allows them to provide sound, experience-based advice you can rely on without second thought.
- Start-to-finish legal services: No detail of your case will be beyond your lawyer’s control. Your attorney, their fellow lawyers, and their paralegals will oversee every aspect of your claim or lawsuit, so you don’t have to stress about it.
- Financial support: Your chosen law firm will cover the upfront cost of completing your head-on car accident case. The firm may also invest resources you might not otherwise afford, like expert opinions and services.
- Protection of your case (and your sanity): Besides ensuring you don’t have to deal with case-related concerns, your lawyer will protect you from anyone who might undermine your case. This includes insurance companies and civil defense lawyers.
It will not take long to realize the many benefits a lawyer affords. You may feel great relief and peace of mind when you recognize that an experienced legal professional is leading your fight for compensation.
Compensation a Lawyer Can Seek After Your Car Collision
Victims of head-on collisions are often not the same after the accident. The psychological, physical, and financial effects of the accident may have long-term consequences, and your recoverable damages may include:
- Healthcare costs: This may include the cost of emergency services, surgery, hospitalization, medications, and rehabilitation.
- Mental health treatment costs: If you seek counseling or any other forms of mental healthcare for pain and suffering, your attorney will include your care costs in their case.
- Pain and suffering: Attorneys can seek compensation for pain and suffering resulting from a car accident, which can include post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), chronic pain, anxiety, depression, and lost quality of life.
- Vehicle repair costs: Your lawyer will demand fair compensation for repairing or replacing your vehicle. Head-on accidents often cause total vehicular damage, in which case your lawyer will seek money covering its actual cash value.
- Lost income: If injuries or psychological distress from your head-on collision interfere with your work, your lawyer will seek fair compensation for lost income, diminished earning power, lost bonuses and promotions, and other professional damages.
Head-on collisions are overrepresented in fatal traffic accident figures. If you have lost a loved one, you can hire a head-on car accident lawyer to seek a fair financial recovery. Your damages may include loss of consortium, pain and suffering (including grief), lost financial support, and several other harms.
A Lawyer Will Provide Full Legal Service While You Recover
Law firms recognize the distress and pain that head-on car accident victims suffer. This is one reason attorneys provide start-to-finish, full-service representation to accident victims like you.
When you agree to have a lawyer handle your case, their services will include:
Securing Relevant Evidence Right Away
Evidence tells the story of a head-on car accident. Your lawyer and their investigators will immediately seek case-related evidence, including video footage, witness testimony, a police report, expert testimony, and photographs of vehicle damage.
Making a Record of Your Damages
Your legal team will obtain proof of your accident-related damages, which may include:
- Healthcare records (including any explicit diagnoses of injuries and symptoms)
- Images of your injuries
- Medical bills
- Evidence that you have lost income since the accident
- Your own account of pain and suffering
- A mental health expert’s diagnoses of psychological and emotional conditions
- Invoices for vehicle repair, vehicle replacement, and temporary transportation
Your attorney might rely on qualified experts in medicine, mental health, and transportation. These experts may help value your damages and ensure your lawyer’s settlement calculations are accurate.
Calculating an Appropriate Settlement Value
After considering both your economic and non-economic damages, your legal team will determine exactly how much compensation you deserve. Your attorney will also consider any damages you are likely to suffer in the future.
Representing You in Settlement Negotiations
Most car accident cases settle, and settling will likely be your lawyer’s preferred option—it is the fastest way to get you paid. Your lawyer will enter settlement negotiations with:
- Documentation of your damages
- Evidence of who caused the head-on accident
- A detailed calculation of your damages
- Any other materials that are relevant to negotiations
Just as importantly, your lawyer will have prepared their verbal argument, accounted for counter-arguments they might hear, and will intend to emerge victorious from settlement talks.
Leading Any Necessary Lawsuit or Trial
Car accident lawyers should always prepare for the possibility of a trial. When those liable for head-on car accidents don’t agree to fair settlement terms, attorneys can file lawsuits.
If liable parties still refuse to settle fairly after your lawyer files a lawsuit, your case may go to trial. Your lawyer and their experts will fight for a fair financial recovery in court.
Can I Afford a Lawyer’s Services?
You, and every other head-on car accident victim, can afford to hire a car accident attorney. This fact is due to contingency fees, which are the most common fee structure among car accident lawyers.
When you agree to a contingency fee, you:
- Don’t bear the cost of completing your case
- Pay no upfront fee to your lawyer
- Rely on the law firm to pay for transportation costs, filing fees, expert fees, and every other case-related expense
- Agree to pay your law firm a reasonable percentage of any financial recovery they secure for you
If your lawyer does not obtain compensation for you, they do not get paid. This means that the law firm takes the financial risk for you. Every lawyer wants to recover their fee, so your attorney will have a great incentive to obtain as much compensation as possible for you.
Who Is the Right Lawyer for My Case?
You are the best person to identify the right law firm for your case. You need a roadmap to identify that firm, though. Start by searching online for car accident lawyers in your area, and then evaluate each law firm’s:
- Reputation among its former clients: Scour reviews from a law firm’s former clients. These reviews should indicate how well-liked a law firm is among those it has served. Ideally, you will find a law firm with overwhelmingly positive reviews from its former clients.
- Quality and quantity of case results: While not every car accident lawyer advertises case results, many do. Take notice if a law firm has a lengthy record of securing large settlements and verdicts for car accident victims.
- Years of experience: You should not disqualify a relatively young lawyer. However, experience matters in the legal field. If a law firm has many years of service to car accident victims, this may factor into which law firm you choose.
Hiring a lawyer isn’t all cold numbers and data. You should also connect with your lawyer and be comfortable with the law firm at a personal level. This is where the free consultation process comes into play.
Take Full Advantage of Free Consultations
Free consultations are standard practice for head-on car accident lawyers. These meetings are usually phone calls between a car accident lawyer and a firm’s case intake specialist. During this call, you may:
- Find out information about the firm that is not available on its website
- Ask the law firm why it is qualified to lead your claim or lawsuit
- Gain an impression of how the law firm’s employees interact with clients
- Ask which lawyer will be leading your case
- Determine whether or not a law firm is a good fit for your case
Free consultations are just one factor you can consider when determining which law firm to hire. They are, however, an important factor that can be valuable to your lawyer search.
How Soon Should I Hire a Lawyer After a Head-On Car Accident?
You should wait no longer than you have to before hiring a car accident lawyer. Speed is imperative when choosing an attorney because:
- Your case may have a statute of limitations: States impose filing deadlines for head-on car collision cases. Time can slip by after an auto accident, and you should be wary of missing the filing deadline. Avoid this problem by hiring your car accident lawyer as soon as possible.
- Your lawyer must secure evidence as soon as possible: Many types of evidence in car accident cases can be lost or erased if you wait to collect it. Your lawyer is ready to gather such evidence, but you must hire them first.
- You deserve to focus wholly on recovery: Until you hire a lawyer, you may be dividing your time and attention between your recovery and your case. Once you allow your legal team to take over your case, you can begin focusing more completely on your recovery process.
Let your attorney take the lead in your case. They will handle every step of the claims and legal processes. If your lawyer needs anything from you, like a statement, they will explain how to proceed. This will prevent you from exhausting time, energy, or worries in your case.
Find Your Car Accident Lawyer Today
Considering the time-sensitive nature of your case, do not wait to start your search for a lawyer. The internet is a valuable resource in identifying and evaluating law firms serving your area. Make your choice carefully, but do not delay in hiring a lawyer.
Your personal injury attorney will start your case as soon as you hire them, so don’t wait to find that attorney. Case evaluations are free, but they have great value to you now and in the future.
