Lafayette Ridesharing Accident Attorneys Helping Victims Recover Compensation

1. CONTACT THE POLICE.
   As with any car wreck, the very first thing you should do is contact the police. The police will investigate the incident, write a report, and issue a citation. It is very important to have a police report when making a claim for your damages because the police report helps to prove whose fault it was. Without a police report, it may be difficult to prove that the wreck was not your fault.
2. DOCUMENT THE WRECK YOURSELF.
   Take pictures of the scene. Get the names, contact information, and insurance information for everyone involved, including witnesses if there are any.
3. DOCUMENT YOUR INJURIES.
   If you have any injuries or develop any, take pictures of the injuries and keep a written record of your symptoms. This will be important information to tell your doctor when you seek treatment, and you will need to be thorough. If you end up filing a claim for your injuries, insurance companies will not pay you for your injuries just because you say you have them. They will require proof that will be found in your medical records.
4. GET THE RIGHT KIND OF TREATMENT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
   If you have any injuries whatsoever, you should seek medical treatment. This is not the time to “wait and see.” The longer you wait to get treatment for your injuries, the less you are likely to be compensated for them. The insurance company will argue that if you waited, it must not have been that bad.
5. But keep in mind that getting medical treatment for an injury after a car wreck is not as straightforward as it should be. If you are not having acute symptoms like broken bones, cuts, etc. that require immediate attention, some doctors may not be willing to see you. Likewise, some doctors will not take litigation cases because they do not want to be involved in the legal process. If you need help finding a doctor who has experience treating car wreck injuries (and yes, there is a difference) we’d be happy to give you our recommendations.
   The billing process after a car accident is also not as simple as it should be. Your insurance company may not want to pay for your treatment if they believe someone else should be responsible. Don’t let the confusion keep you from getting treatment though. Your attorney will help you sort out the billing questions.
6. HIRE THE RIGHT KIND OF ATTORNEY.
   We support people who want to handle their minor car wreck case themselves without getting an attorney involved. In fact, we even wrote a book to explain how.
   But when your car wreck involved an Uber or Lyft, handling the case yourself is not the right strategy. The reason is because there are multiple insurance companies that could be responsible for your damages, and each of them will likely try to pass the responsibility off to someone else. And just by nature, a car wreck involving an Uber or Lyft is likely to involve multiple people seeking compensation, which muddies the waters even more.
   It’s also important to hire a lawyer who has experience dealing with complex commercial claims and cases that involve multiple claimants, defendants, and insurance carriers. In these cases, your lawyer needs to have the right experience to know how to identify the parties who should be responsible for your damages and to hold those parties responsible when they try to point fingers at others.

Finding the right lawyer to handle your Uber/Lyft injury claim doesn’t have to be difficult, and we’d be happy to answer the questions you have about your case at no charge. Give us a call at 337-347-7177.