Electric scooters are popping up in increasing numbers, especially in large cities. Scooters are a quick, convenient way to get around — but the increase in scooters on city streets has naturally led to an increase in electric scooter accidents.
When you find yourself involved in a scooter accident, the best way to protect yourself is to consult a lawyer.
A lawyer makes sure your insurance claim is filed correctly and fights to increase the compensation you recover. Working with a personal injury lawyer to handle your scooter accident claim helps ensure you’re fairly compensated for your injuries.
Reasons to Call a Personal Injury Lawyer After a Scooter Accident
Your first step after experiencing scooter accident injuries should be to call a personal injury lawyer. Most lawyers offer free initial consultations and work on contingency, which means you pay only if they win your case. This allows you to understand your options and even pursue compensation without having to make a financial commitment.
Consulting a personal injury lawyer doesn’t bring just one advantage — it provides several. Taking a closer look at what a personal injury firm can do makes it clear why speaking with a lawyer after a scooter accident is always the smartest move.
Preserving Evidence
When you’re involved in a scooter accident, you need to recover compensation through the other driver’s insurance policy. However, before you qualify, you need to prove that the other driver’s actions caused the crash. In personal injury law, this is referred to as proving negligence. If you can prove the other driver acted negligently, they can be held liable for the crash.
Exactly how a personal injury lawyer proves negligence often depends on the circumstances that led to the accident. Steps they take to build a case might include:
- Collecting eyewitness testimony
- Retrieving traffic or security camera footage
- Requesting that the other driver submit to drug or alcohol testing
- Hiring an accident reconstruction specialist
In some cases, liability is straightforward. If the driver was clearly in the wrong or admitted to causing the accident, proving negligence is fairly simple. However, in many accidents, the other driver will claim the crash wasn’t their fault. When this happens, you need a personal injury lawyer to build a case proving negligence.
Fighting Back Against Insurance Tactics
Once you have the evidence you need to prove the scooter accident wasn’t your fault, you can submit an insurance claim. Attempting to file a claim without first consulting a lawyer is the most common mistake people make after a crash.
Insurance companies employ strategies aimed at deliberately keeping their payouts small after a crash.
If you speak with an insurance agent after a scooter accident, they’ll ask you specific questions. These are designed to make you admit partial fault for the accident. Even seemingly conversational questions like “How are you feeling?” can be used against you to minimize the extent of your injuries.
Personal injury lawyers are well-versed in the tricks used by insurance companies. When you work with a lawyer, they communicate with the insurance company on your behalf, so you’re not unknowingly led to make statements that could hurt your chances of recovering the compensation you deserve.
Maximizing Compensation
The final major reason you should call a lawyer after a scooter accident has to do with the amount of money you stand to recover. Scooter accident compensation never happens by accident. It’s either the work of an insurance agent trying to keep your payout small or the work of a personal injury lawyer building a case and negotiating on your behalf.
The money you recover from a scooter accident might be paid as a lump-sum amount, but it’s actually made up of several different elements. Scooter accident compensation might include damages for items like:
- Medical bills
- Ambulance bills
- Therapist bills
- Assistive devices
- Prescription medications
- Lost wages and benefits
- Pain and suffering
When a scooter accident leads to severe injuries, the injured person may not be able to return to work or might require long-term assistive care. In cases like these, a personal injury attorney with experience handling catastrophic injuries can help the family recover compensation to cover long-term expenses and losses.
When you don’t have a personal injury lawyer working to summarize the damage and collect evidence, it’s nearly impossible to recover compensation for the full amount you deserve based on the injuries sustained in a scooter accident.
What to Do After a Scooter Accident
If you’ve been involved in a scooter accident, the first thing you should do is seek medical care.
When injuries are serious, seeing a doctor isn’t optional. However, a scooter accident also puts a person at risk of experiencing injuries that may not be immediately apparent. Spinal injuries, brain injuries, and organ damage are all common examples of severe injuries that can have delayed symptoms.
Regardless of how you feel, seeing a doctor protects your health by identifying whether you’ve been seriously harmed. It also helps to establish documentation that the accident was the source of the injury, especially in cases involving delayed symptoms.
At the scene of the accident, never admit fault for the crash. If you’re unsure of whether you’ve been injured, don’t say you’re fine. Instead, tell anyone who asks that you’re going to the doctor to be checked for injuries.
Finally, it’s best to never speak directly to an insurance agent until you’ve consulted a personal injury lawyer. You have limited time for recovering compensation after a scooter crash, so it’s best to act quickly. As soon as your injuries allow, you should schedule a free consultation with a personal injury lawyer.
At your consultation meeting, you can explain how the accident happened and how it has impacted you. The more evidence you can bring for a lawyer to review, the better. The personal injury attorney you speak with will review your case and explain your options.
A lawyer can’t promise up front exactly how much money they can recover for you. However, based on factors like your medical expenses, expected healing outcome, and amount of time missed from work, they can usually offer you a ballpark idea of how much you stand to gain by moving forward with them as your legal representation.
Speak with a Columbus Personal Injury Lawyer Today
Schiff & Associates has been a leader in Columbus personal injury law for over 40 years. Our experienced litigators have a strong track record of securing for clients the outcomes they deserve after another’s negligence causes injury.
If you’ve been involved in a Columbus, Ohio, scooter accident, our experienced personal injury attorneys can help. Contact Schiff & Associates and speak with a Columbus personal injury lawyer today.