Santa Monica Car Accident Lawyer

Article Updated:  April 23, 2022

Santa Monica Car Accident Lawyer

With our headquarters situated in Los Angeles, you have come to the right place in search of a Santa Monica car accident lawyer.

Not only are we in your backyard, but we have recovered over $35,000,000 for car accident victims just like you.

Below, we will walk you through what to expect in resolving your car accident claim.  We offer FREE no-strings attached consultations to every accident victim in Los Angeles.  You will speak with a real lawyer, not a help-desk or paralegal.  To schedule your free consultation, call, email, or complete a contact form.

Car Accident Liability

The first thing every lawyer will analyze in your case is the issue of liability.  Liability consists of two elements:

♦   Duty

♦   Breach

Duty means that the other driver had an obligation to do something.

Breach means that driver failed to do that thing.

For example, drivers have a duty to keep their eyes in the direction that their vehicle is traveling.

If a driver is looking at their phone, they have breached that duty.

If you were rear-ended, you probably think liability is not an issue in your case.  Guess again.  In well over 90% of rear-end collisions, the insurance company does not concede liability pre-suit, and only admits to liability on the courthouse steps (if at all).

I’ve had insurance company’s refuse to admit to liability in cases where my client was rear-ended while stopped at a red light.  It’s absolutely bonkers how they’ll fight over everything.  But that’s why you need good legal representation.

It is you, or your lawyer’s, job to prove liability.

We prove liability by using a variety of statutes, rules, and driving handbooks.  We cross examine the defendant on these items, and get them to confess that they had the relevant duties.  They won’t admit they “breached” those duties, but we can get them to confess to facts which get us across that same finish line.

Once liability is proven, either pre-suit or during litigation, you must establish your injuries and damages.

Car Accident Pain & Suffering

Your damages, or what you lost from the car accident, fall into two categories:

♦   Economic damages (medical bills, lost wages, property damage)

♦   Non-economic damages (pain and suffering)

Economic damages come with a sticker price, so I won’t discuss those here as they are fairly straight forward.

Non-economic damages are trickier.  What is the value of your aching neck or back?

For starters, we have internal lists we use to help our clients discover every opportunity to highlight your non-economic damages.  One thing to keep in mind is that 9/10 neck pain does not have a set value or settlement range.  Rather, the point of our lists is we help mix-and-match your life activities to your specific injuries, and that’s where the true value rests.

Consider this example to highlight the point.  Is a lower back injury with related pain worth more to a receptionist or a construction worker?  I can tell you juries consistently award the construction worker more.  The receptionist gets to sit in a chair for work and doesn’t use her back as much as a construction worker, that’s why.  If the receptionist has two infant children at home whose diapers she has to bend over to change, then the value of her lower back injury is higher than someone without two infant children.

This highlights that your pain and suffering is very case specific.  It’s not something that can be even remotely analyzed without a very deep dive into the nuance of your case.

To get our help building your non-economic damages to ensure you get a full recovery, call or email us to speak with a Santa Monica car accident lawyer from our office.

Accident Lawyer Tips

This is hands down the #1 tip every car accident lawyer should give to anyone who might be, or who has been, in a car accident: go to the emergency room ASAP after the accident.  No exceptions, even if you don’t feel injured.

Why?  Because the great majority of injuries are soft tissue injuries.  Unlike broken bones, soft tissue injuries are not a sudden onset injury.  Rather, they take days and weeks to develop.

Guess what happens if you want days or weeks for the pain to develop before you see a doctor?  You have what the insurance industry calls a “treatment gap”, which they use to argue “he couldn’t have been that hurt!”

If you didn’t go to the doctor right away, you should read this article.  If you need help figuring out which doctor to visit, we have an article on that, too.

Most of our soft tissue injury clients start their treatment with either a chiropractor or physical therapist.  The critical thing is that you seek some medical treatment, with any medical provider, as soon as you leave the accident scene.

This helps keep the value of your settlement high, assuming you do the other 100+ things correctly.  I say that only half-joking, because handling a personal injury claim really is a full time job.  Either be prepared to spend many hours every week chasing down the needed tasks, or outsource that work to a law firm so they can do it for you while you try to move on with your recovery and life.

Santa Monica Accident Data

Before you review the Santa Monica accident data below, let me explain why this data is relevant to your claim.

In every car accident claim, one of the issues that must be proven is “foreseeability.”  That is, was is reasonably expected that you could be injured in the way that you were.

Accident data helps establish foreseeability, and here’s an example of how we’ve done it.  One of our lawyers was in a trial that was hotly contested on all issues, including foreseeability. In opening statement, our lawyer discussed accident data.  The opposing lawyer objected, and a bench conference ensued. During it, our lawyer explained why the accident data was relevant to foreseeability.  The opposing lawyer, fearful of the jury hearing the data again, conceded and stipulated on the issue of foreseeability.

That’s the type of chess piece maneuvering we accomplish for you.  With that said, here’s the Santa Monica data:

You’ll see that for underage drinking collisions and bicycle collisions for riders under 15 years old, Santa Monica ranks #1.

Obviously, then, the foreseeability of those injury related car accident claims is highly foreseeable based on this data.  You’d be surprised how many defendants argue, “I didn’t expect that,” as an excuse to why they hit you.  This data shuts that right up, and proves how negligent they really were.

Want to learn more?  Call, email, or submit the contact form below for a free consultation.

Santa Monica Car Accident Settlements With IAG

If you were in a car accident in Santa Monica, you need legal help to make sure you don’t get stiffed by the insurance company.  More importantly, you need tenured counsel who knows the insurance company’s tricks and will make sure you receive full compensation for all of your pain and suffering.

We have one mission, and that’s to help injury victims, including those throughout Santa Monica and Los Angeles, receive justice for their personal injury claims.

Call, email, or message us to speak with a Santa Monica car accident lawyer today.  We are on standby 24/7 to help you.

Speak with a Santa Monica Car Accident Lawyer

Santa Monica Car Accident Lawyer
Serving Los Angeles, California & Nationally

Serving all of Los Angeles, including Arcadia, Beverly Hills, Claremont, Canoga Park, Chino, Chino Hills, Covina, Diamond Bar, Downey, East Pasadena, El Monte, Encino, Highland Park, Inglewood, La Verne, Long Beach, Malibu, Montebello, Monterey Park, North Hollywood, Northridge, Pasadena, Pomona, Rancho Cucamonga, Reseda, Rosemead, San Gabriel, San Dimas, Santa Monica, Sherman Oaks, South Bay, South LA, South Pasadena, Sunland, Tarzana, Thousand Oaks, Torrance, Van Nuys, Venice, West Covina, West Hollywood, and Westlake Village.

Serving all of California, with a focus on Kern County, Los Angeles County, Orange County, Riverside County, San Bernardino County, San Diego County, Santa Barbara County, and Ventura County.

Serving nationwide in all 50 states on a case-by-case basis with a national network of relationships and on a Pro Hac Vice basis.