Car Accidents

Helping People With Their Car Accident Injury Claims

Read the many ways Orange County car accident lawyers at Russell & Lazarus have successfully resolved their clients’ accident claims. While we can never guarantee these results for other cases, these case results will show you the importance of hiring an experienced law firm that handles only personal injury claims.

If you have sustained injuries in a car accident, you will want experienced counsel on your side. There are many different factors that may cause a car accident. Some of these may not be obvious. To help prove liability, Orange County car accident lawyers can help review the facts in your case as well as determine who should pay.

If you would like an idea of how your specific car accident claim could end up with a positive result, contact Russell & Lazarus today at (800) 268-9228 for a complimentary case evaluation.

Car Accident Case Results

• Semi vs. Semi – Even careful semi-truck operators are at risk from injury by careless semi-truck operators. A trucker who was sleeping in the camper compartment of his semi-truck was thrown from the sleeper onto the floorboards when another semi-truck ran into our client’s parked vehicle. The fall from the sleeper onto the floorboards caused head, neck, and back injuries.

Awarded: $125,000

• Uninsured Drunk Driver vs. Pedestrian – Tragic death occurred when a drunk driver struck and killed a pedestrian who was lawfully crossing the street. When the investigating officers went to the driver’s home to arrest him on charges of vehicular manslaughter, the drunk driver then barracked himself in his home and fired gunshots at 13 officers. Officers were able to subdue the driver. The driver is now being held on charges of vehicular manslaughter as well as 13 counts of attempted murder for shooting at the officers during the arrest. The driver himself was an uninsured motorist at the time of the collision. As such, when presented with the claim, the decedent’s uninsured motorist carrier was required to tender their policy limits pursuant to the terms of the decedent’s automobile insurance policy. Uninsured motorist insurance is an additional insurance coverage for automobile liability policies to pay for injuries caused by an uninsured driver. The amount of uninsured motorist coverage to get depends on what you, as the purchaser of the insurance, chose to purchase. We encourage drivers to purchase as much uninsured motorist insurance as they are able to reasonably afford.

Awarded: $500,000

• Underinsured Motorist vs. Motorist – The driver of a vehicle with $15,000 in coverage struck our client’s vehicle causing injuries to our client’s back and neck. The insurer for the other driver agreed to tender, or pay, their policy limit of the $15,000 pursuant to the terms of their policy. At the time of the collision, our client maintained an uninsured/underinsured motorist policy with $1,000,000 in coverage. The tender of the other driver’s policy limit then satisfied the condition precedent necessary to allow our client to pursue her additional damages above the other driver’s policy limit against her underinsured motorist policy for the harms caused to her by the other driver. After litigating the underinsured motorist claim with her own carrier, we were able to obtain an additional $150,000 new money for our client to help her to resolve her case for a total of $165,000 in combined recoveries from both the defendant’s insurance carrier and our client’s own underinsured motorist carrier.

Awarded: $165,000

• Underinsured Motorist vs. Pedestrian – A motorist with a modest $20,000 liability policy limit struck a pedestrian in a parking causing serious injuries. After recovery of the $20,000 policy limit from the carrier insuring for the other vehicle, the pedestrian’s own insurer was presented a claim for underinsured motorist damages for the policy limit of $100,000 less the $20,000 obtained from the defendant driver’s automobile liability insurance carrier. Uninsured motorist coverage converts into underinsured motorist coverage when a responsible party has less insurance coverage than you have in uninsured motorist limits. The underinsured motorist coverage will get a credit for any payments made by the other party’s insurance, and the claimant is able to seek recovery of the difference between the amount paid by the other party’s insurance and the amount of the underinsured motorist limit. In addition, at the time of the collision, our client had an additional coverage through her automobile insurance called medical payments coverage. Medical payments coverage pays for medical bills incurred due to injuries sustained in an automobile collision. We also helped our client to obtain an additional $25,000 in medical payments coverage for medical expenses incurred due to the injuries sustained in the collision thereby helping our client to recover a combined total of $125,000 from the defendant’s insurance, our client’s own underinsured motorist coverage, and our client’s own medical payments policy.

Awarded: $125,000

Work With Experienced Orange County Car Accident Lawyers

Generally, liability for a car accident hinges on whether a driver was careless or negligent. An Orange County car accident attorney can explain that this usually means that a driver failed to exercise “reasonable care.” This can mean speeding, running stop signs, or driving distracted.

However, an Orange County motor vehicle accident attorney will also explain that proving negligence can be extremely difficult. For example, there may be many contributing factors to an accident. Moreover, it may be hard to pinpoint one driver’s negligence. Some types of proof that your attorney can use include:

• Police Reports. Responding officers may take notes as to the cause of an accident. They may also take photos of skid marks or other circumstances. An experienced attorney knows how to comb through a police report to gather the evidence to support your case.
• Red Light Cameras. These cameras can capture a negligent driver in the act. However, you may need the assistance of an Orange County car accident attorney just to access these photos and have it admitted into evidence.
• Hospital and Paramedic Reports. These reports can be invaluable in showing causation and fault. The nature of injuries such as in rear-end accidents can be telling.

These are just some common types of evidence that an experienced attorney will use to help prove your case. If you have any questions regarding the circumstances of your case, talk to an attorney as soon as possible.

Contact Orange County Car Accident Lawyers

To discuss strategies to get a positive result in your accident claim, contact an Orange County car accident attorney at Russell & Lazarus by calling (800) 268-9228 for a free evaluation.

DISCLAIMER: The results are specific to the facts and legal circumstances of each of the clients’ cases and should not be used to form an expectation that the same results could be obtained for other clients in similar matters without reference to the specific, factual, and legal circumstances of each client’s case.