It’s a sound you will never for­get … the squeal­ing of brakes, the crunch of metal and the shat­ter­ing of glass. You have just been in an auto acci­dent and your life could be headed down a com­pletely dif­fer­ent path. An auto acci­dent can mean med­ical bills, lost wages due to injury, car repairs and many other expenses. The last thing you need is the kind of has­sle the insur­ance com­pany is happy to give.

That’s were The Keener Law Firm comes into the pic­ture. The firm that will put YOU and your needs first!

If you have been injured in an auto acci­dent, we urge you to con­tact our firm today. An expe­ri­enced lawyer is here to help you, to lis­ten to your case and guide in you in the best direc­tion to receive the jus­tice you deserve. And remem­ber, motor­cy­clist have the same rights as those as the dri­ver of a car.

Also if your car wreck involved a trans­port truck, you could be look­ing at an entirely dif­fer­ent case. This is a unique and com­plex traf­fic acci­dent of which you need an expe­ri­enced attor­ney who knows the laws involv­ing trans­port trucks. Our firm is com­prised of pro­fes­sion­als, auto acci­dent lit­i­ga­tors and lawyers who know the let­ter of the law in these cases. Don’t go it alone, let us put YOU first!

What You Need to Know About an Auto Accident

Many vic­tims of auto­mo­bile and motor­cy­cle acci­dents in Geor­gia try to han­dle their own per­sonal injury cases in the hopes that the insur­ance com­pa­nies involved will set­tle as promptly and fairly as their adver­tise­ments sug­gest. Unfor­tu­nately, insur­ance com­pa­nies don’t respond that way. They are not good-will ambas­sadors. A lawyer from the Keener Law Firm is pre­pared to help you through this chal­leng­ing time. We treat our clients like family.

Being involved in a car wreck in Geor­gia is a fright­en­ing, con­fus­ing expe­ri­ence. This list of pro­ce­dures below is designed to ensure that you fol­low all of the steps imme­di­ately fol­low­ing a car accident.

The adjuster’s job is to make the insur­ance com­pany money.

The insur­ance adjusters thrive off of the con­fu­sion that a car acci­dent causes the vic­tim. Stop the con­fu­sion by call­ing the Keener Law Firm today.

What to Do When You’re Involved in an Auto Accident

If you’ve been in a car acci­dent and are look­ing for infor­ma­tion about how to assess your rights and respon­si­bil­i­ties and where to go for help, you’ve come to the right place.

A per­sonal injury attor­ney from our firm is on call 24/7 to help if you have suf­fered an injury or been involved in a job-related acci­dent in Georgia.

Pro­ce­dures

• Stop your vehi­cle immediately.
• Stay calm and do what you can within rea­son to avoid block­ing traf­fic. Never leave the scene of an acci­dent in which you were involved, no mat­ter how slight the col­li­sion. Fail­ing to stop at an acci­dent may sub­ject a per­son in Geor­gia to crim­i­nal action for leav­ing the scene of an acci­dent, even though the acci­dent is not your fault. Pull over to the side of the road as soon as pos­si­ble with­out endan­ger­ing any other per­son and with­out obstruct­ing traffic.
• Check to see if any­one was injured.
• Take care of any per­son that is injured, includ­ing obtain­ing med­ical atten­tion as soon as pos­si­ble. Call 911 in order to expe­dite med­ical care and notify the police. Do not assume that just because you can’t see an injury that a per­son is not hurt.
• An acci­dent should be reported to the proper author­i­ties. The report may not only be help­ful later if you deter­mine that you are injured or there is dam­age to your car, but it may be help­ful later if the other per­son tries to avoid respon­si­bil­ity for the accident.
• If an insur­ance adjuster shows up, don’t give any state­ments, and don’t sign any­thing. Insur­ance adjusters thrive off of the con­fu­sion that an auto acci­dent causes in people’s lives. The adjuster’s job is to make the insur­ance com­pany money by pay­ing less money to peo­ple who are injured.
• If pos­si­ble get the names, addresses and phone num­bers of wit­nesses. Make a men­tal note of what wit­nesses say, like, “That black car was fly­ing.” Iden­tify the wit­nesses so there will be some­one to sup­port your case if it goes to court.
• Write down their names and addresses of wit­nesses, since the police do not always get the names of all the wit­nesses. Ask them what they saw and make a note of phrases they used like “slammed into,” “plowed,” “speed­ing,” or “he ran the red light.”
• Beware of insur­ance rep­re­sen­ta­tives at the scene of a car wreck in Geor­gia. Some insur­ance com­pa­nies send adjusters to auto acci­dent scenes in order to catch peo­ple off guard with incrim­i­nat­ing ques­tions or to have them sign away any rights they may have to future compensation.
• Visit your doc­tor as soon as possible.
• Even if you are not sure whether or not you are injured or any­one else in your vehi­cle is injured in the acci­dent, it is best to be exam­ined by a doc­tor at the ear­li­est pos­si­ble time or to go to the near­est emer­gency room. If you are exam­ined by a doc­tor, make sure that you are spe­cific in explain­ing to the physi­cian how the acci­dent hap­pened and any and all injuries and prob­lems you are hav­ing. The early med­ical records are reviewed very care­fully later on.
• Take pho­tos of your car as soon as pos­si­ble after the car acci­dent. When the adjuster asks for proof of dam­age, it is dif­fi­cult to dis­pute a pic­ture taken of your car at the col­li­sion scene. Pho­tos of the dam­age will help tell your story. If pos­si­ble, take pho­tos of the other cars involved as well. These pic­tures will help sup­ply infor­ma­tion about the sever­ity of the impact.
• Inform your insur­ance com­pany of the collision.
• Make sure that you call your insur­ance com­pany imme­di­ately to report the acci­dent. Fail­ing to report the acci­dent imme­di­ately could, in some instances, result in the insur­ance com­pany not cov­er­ing you for the acci­dent. You should con­tact the com­pany imme­di­ately, and if you are injured, make sure that you ask the com­pany to start pay­ing your med­ical bills and open up a file in order to not only pay the prop­erty dam­age costs but all of your med­ical expenses.
• Do not imme­di­ately pay any tick­ets, as it may imply you are accept­ing liability.
• If you receive a traf­fic cita­tion or ticket it does not mean that you are at fault. How­ever, if you are antic­i­pat­ing bring­ing a claim against the other dri­ver and receive a ticket, it is best to get advice from an attor­ney prior to pay­ing the ticket.
• Coop­er­ate with your insur­ance company’s inves­ti­ga­tion com­pletely. Make sure you keep a copy of all the doc­u­men­ta­tion you receive regard­ing the acci­dent. Also, if you pro­vide a state­ment under oath to any insur­ance com­pany, get a copy of it.