Do’s and Don’ts if involved in a Motor Vehicle Accident?
If you have been involved in a Motor Vehicle Accident (MVA), you should do the following to protect your legal rights until you retain an Alberta Personal Injury Lawyer.
- Safety Always Comes First: Keep yourself and others safe at the accident scene;
- Phone 9-1-1: Immediately phone 9-1-1 for emergency services and to register a police report which you will need later to start your personal injury claim. Alberta 9-1-1 Standards note that all 9-1-1 calls should be answered within 15 seconds, 95% of the time;
- Preserve Evidentiary Records: While emergency services are on the way, you should safely take pictures of the accident scene, vehicles involved in the accident, position of the vehicles involved in the accident from various different angles and any debris from the vehicles involved in the accident at the scene;
- Get Witness Information: Having a witness can help you to determine your liability in your personal injury claim. If you have a witness available at the accident scene, you should take his or her name, phone number, and address if possible;
- Report to the Police at the Accident Scene: Once the police arrive at the accident scene, explain each and every possible truthful detail of the accident to the police officer. If you have any witness available at the accident scene, request the witness to have his or her statement recorded with the police officer if possible;
- Exchange of Information and Report to the Police at the Police Station: The police officer usually gets all important information from the parties involved in the accident to prepare a collision report, a copy of which is also provided to the parties for their record. If the police do not respond to the accident for whatsoever reasons you should exchange your driver’s licence information, vehicle licence plate information, vehicle registration information, vehicle insurance information, name, address and telephone number with other parties involved in the accident and immediately register collision report with the closest police station to the scene of the accident and get copy of that collision report. If none of the parties involved in the accident is injured, all motor vehicles involved in the accident are driveable and all the drivers involved in the motor vehicle accident have proper documentation, police may not need to attend the accident scene. Although you are required to file a collision report with a police station if the combined damage is over $2,000.00, you should still report your collision to the police even if the combined damage is under $2,000.00 and keep record of that;
- Inform Your Insurance Company: You should immediately inform your insurance company of your motor vehicle accident. You need not to talk to other party’s insurance company, but you should cooperate with your own insurance company to get benefits and compensation covered by your own insurance policy;
- Contact Health Care Practitioners: You should immediately contact your family doctor and a physiotherapist for proper assessment and treatment of your injuries. Your personal injury lawyer will later get all your treatment notes from your health care practitioners with your consent which treatment notes your personal injury lawyer will then use to prepare for your personal injury claim;
- Retain A Personal Injury Lawyer: Find a personal injury lawyer who can personally meet you, answer your questions, pursue your personal injury claim and put your interests first. Your personal injury lawyer can help you to ensure that you have all documents in order to protect your civil interests in your personal injury claim. Your personal injury lawyer can also help you to understand that how much is the worth of your personal injury claim and how personal injury claim works. Normally, there is a 2-year limitation to commence a personal injury claim action in a Court, but some personal injury claims may have a shorter deadline.
If you have been involved in a Motor Vehicle Accident (MVA), you should not do the following without first seeking legal opinion from an Alberta Personal Injury Lawyer.
People always get emotional, upset and angry after having involved in a motor vehicle accident which definitely affect their ability to reasoning, decision making and making admissions. Therefore, you should have a legal opinion from an Alberta Personal Injury Lawyer before you decide to do any of the following:
- Admission of Fault: You must be very careful while making any statement about your motor vehicle accident at the scene of the accident or in correspondence with an insurance company. You must be very truthful about facts of your motor vehicle accident, but it does not mean that you should make any admissions without first having knowledge of the complete facts of your accident. Sometimes “it takes two to tango” is very true in motor vehicle accidents and in such situations stating that “I was at 100 percent fault” can be prejudicial to your own person injury claim when the other party has also contributed to the motor vehicle accident i.e. contributory negligence.
- Failure to Get Proper Treatment: We all have daily commitments in our lives and having involved in a motor vehicle accident can put us behind with these commitments. It is needless to say that health is very important particularly recovery to get back to good health when you have been involved in a motor vehicle accident. Once you have completed your medical treatments, your personal injury lawyer will get all your treatment notes with your consent from your health care practitioners to prepare your personal injury claim and in such case if you have not taken proper treatments or have not cooperated with your health care practitioners for your treatments, you may be held liable for contributing into aggravation of your injuries which can lower the worth of your personal injury claim.
- Settle Personal Injury Claim on Your Own: People always misunderstand role of other party’s insurance company and mistakenly believe that their interests will be looked after by the other party’s insurance company during settlement of their personal injury claim. Other party’s insurance company has no contractual relationship with you, therefore they have no obligation to act in good faith while concluding settlement of your personal injury claim. You need your own personal injury lawyer who can stand by you to protect your legal rights. Alberta personal injury lawyer can evaluate your personal injury claim in the light of the case laws decided by the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench & Alberta Court of Appeal and get you a fair settlement of your personal injury claim.
If you have sustained any injuries in a Motor Vehicle Accident, please contact your own Alberta personal injury lawyer, Bikramjit Singh for free consultation to protect your legal rights. If you have sustained serious injuries and unable to come to B.Kay Law Office, your own Alberta personal injury lawyer, Bikramjit Singh can visit you at your home / hospital to discuss you matter.
B.Kay Law Office doesn’t get paid until you get paid first !
Phone: (780) 729 – 0007
Email: claims@bkaylaw.com
