Sacramento Passenger Injury Lawyers
When a car accident occurs, everyone’s attention usually goes to the drivers of the vehicles who were involved. Drivers may not be the only people involved in an accident. For example, the passengers may need medical attention as well. In fact, in many crashes, passengers are the ones who are in dire need of immediate medical attention.
If you were the passenger in a car accident that resulted in an injury, you need to know what your legal rights are in Sacramento. You may be able to recover compensation from the party that caused the accident, but there are complicated aspects to filing these claims. If you were injured as a passenger in an accident, a knowledgeable and experienced personal injury attorney at Eric Ratinoff Law Corp. can help you with your claim.
What Are My Rights as a Passenger in an Accident?
Passengers in cars or trucks are rarely the causes of crashes. Nearly every accident is caused by one of the drivers. Because it is so rare for a passenger to cause a car accident, enforcing your legal rights as a passenger is much simpler than enforcing them as a driver. All a passenger has to do is file a personal injury claim against all of the drivers involved and collect compensation from whichever one is found responsible for the accident.
What Are Typical Damages for Passengers?
The injured passenger may be entitled to collect damages that are the direct result of the accident. The following damages are common in car accidents:
- Property damages
- Medical expenses
- Lost wages
The passenger is responsible for providing evidence of the damages they suffered in order to recover compensation.
How Your Relationship with the Driver Could Affect Your Claim
Most of the time, the passengers in a vehicle have a personal relationship with the driver of their vehicle. Typically, a driver and passengers are family members or close friends. Except for ridesharing services, drivers and passengers are rarely complete strangers to one another.
This personal relationship between the driver and passengers often makes injured passengers hesitate to file a claim for compensation. Nobody wants to sue a close friend or relative. But if you are injured, you will need medical care, and most drivers’ insurance policies cover this.
You most likely will not be going against the actual driver, unless the driver was driving without insurance and would be compensating you out of their own pocket. In most cases, the compensation for your injuries would come from the responsible driver’s insurance company.
Other Potential Insurance Complications for Passengers
Insurance companies are wary of people faking a car accident and creating a lawsuit for injuries that they brought upon themselves. If a passenger brings a claim against an at-fault driver with whom they have a personal relationship, insurance companies are bound to investigate the incident more closely to see if it is an instance of insurance fraud.
Contact the Sacramento Passenger Injury Attorneys at Eric Ratinoff Law Corp.
If you were a passenger who was injured in a wreck, you still have legal options. You were hurt through no fault of your own; therefore, you should be compensated for your injuries. There will be complicated matters associated with the claim that you file, and an experienced lawyer can help you.
You should not hesitate to contact the Sacramento passenger injury attorneys at Eric Ratinoff Law Corp. With over twenty-five years of experience, our attorneys are ready to help you. To schedule a free consultation, call us at (916) 970-9100 or fill out this contact form.
