http://www.727injury.com (727) 381-2300 St Petersburg Personal Injury Attorneys McQuaid & Douglas
The question was, what do you do after being involved in an accident in a parking lot? So parking lot accident cases are actually extremely common happen day in and day out. You name the parking lot, the business, the location, they're all over the place here in Pinellas County, Florida. Now parking lot accident cases are normally what's considered low impact type accidents. In other words, both cars are not moving at high speeds normally, but that doesn't mean that somebody can't be injured in the accident. So if you've been involved in a parking lot accident and you're unsure about what exactly you should do, a here are a few steps to take. So first my advice is you call the police, don't rely on a handshake with the other driver. Uh, always call the police because the Haint, remember the handshake is not binding on the other person's insurance company as to whether they're going to pay for either your injuries or your damage to the car.
So call the police. Now, don't be surprised if the police do not issue a ticket because most parking lot accident cases are on private property. So, uh, there's an issue about whether they can violate the traffic laws on a private property. So don't be disappointed if a ticket isn't issued, but at least you've documented, documented it with the police. You have a report number, someone has investigated it and hopefully pulled witnesses, which then leads me into the next, the next topic. Get witness information. If somebody is walking by and says, I saw that or get their phone number before they leave because you would be shocked at the number of people who deny it was their fault and then you're left scrambling. It's just your word against the other person's. Even though you know you weren't at fault, you don't have an independent witness. So called the police pull any witness information that you can.
Next, I would contact a lawyer because if there's an issue about liability, the lawyer can put the business on notice and ask them to preserve or even view the video. Hopefully there's a video that shows the accident. Uh, I actually had a case, uh, quite recently where a woman was backing out of a elderly woman, was backing out of the space. My client was stopped beeping at her to try to have her stop car kept going rammed right into the side. My client of course was nice. It was an elderly elderly driver. Uh, didn't call the police thought for sure. Okay, this woman's going to do the right thing. We contact the insurance company for the elderly woman. She's, Oh no, your client was speeding through the parking lot. Your client was at fault. So luckily, uh, there was an independent witness and it was all on video.
So I don't know what exactly that elderly, elderly woman was doing, whether she was confused or maybe something more nefarious. But it just goes to show you just can't trust anyone out there. So if the lawyer can hopefully pull any type of witness statements, maybe get the video and help prove up your case. And then finally, the purpose of the lawyer is, is basically to assist you in getting and monitor your medical treatment. So with these low impact cases, you really have to watch your medical bills. You've got to make sure that you keep the bills down because you have to think that with a low impact injury, the insurance companies are not going to be writing a blank check. So the lawyer, the lawyer's role is to protect you, make sure you're doing the smart thing, and then also at the end of the day, recover the settlement for any type of injuries that you've sustained.
*The above has been transcribed by a third party service and has not been checked for accuracy
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