Cleveland Personal Injury Firm Provides Post-Accident Action Plan

As the most common form of personal injury case, motor vehicle accidents affect millions each year. These cases require experience, dedication, and specialized legal expertise. For more than 35 years, Cleveland personal injury law firm Lowe Scott Fisher Co., LPA has been protecting the rights of individuals who are seriously injured in automobile accidents and providing expert advice on what to do after an accident.

Following a serious automobile accident that results in a personal injury or a wrongful death, most individuals know that it is important to exchange insurance information with the driver at fault and inform the investigating police officer about the accident. However, many are unaware of a number of additional steps that should be taken to completely protect the victim’s legal rights.

• Make sure that the car the victim was in is not destroyed. Crashworthiness claims are lawsuits against car manufacturers for failing to design or build a car that protects the safety of the driver or passenger in the event of an accident. However, in order to have a valid crashworthiness case, the car or truck involved in the accident must be preserved. If the vehicle is either sold for scrap, salvaged or otherwise changed from the condition it was in following the accident, then a crashworthiness case is significantly more difficult to build. Over the past two decades, James Lowe and partners at Lowe Scott Fisher have successfully obtained millions of dollars in compensation for car accident victims by pursuing automobile crashworthiness claims.
• Look around the accident scene to see if something out of the victim’s control contributed to the accident. For example, a homeowner or municipality may be responsible for personal injuries incurred in a car accident if the homeowner or municipality has allowed trees or shrubbery to go untrimmed so that traffic signs such as a stop sign, yield sign or a speed limit sign are blocked from the driver’s view. Also, if the victim’s car went into a skid as a result of unusual amounts of dirt or debris on the roadway, check to see if the accident may have been caused by a construction company or a trucking company leaving behind the excessive debris. Municipalities, counties and the State of Ohio have an obligation to keep roadways open and in good repair.

“As soon as our firm gets involved, we begin investigating the scene of the accident to preserve the evidence as early as possible and help the victim obtain the maximum compensation for his or her injuries,” explained partner Ryan Fisher. “Our personal injury lawyers carefully inspect the road where the accident occurred-looking for potholes or damage to the road that may have contributed to the personal injury or wrongful death. Furthermore, our attorneys will check into the accident history for the specific part of the road to determine if the road was poorly designed or constructed.”

Since 1976 the award-winning trial attorneys at Lowe Scott Fisher have successfully represented people in the areas of motor vehicle accidents, automobile product safety, personal injury, home and workplace safety, medical malpractice, and birth injuries, as well as families of victims of wrongful death. U.S. News & World Report named the firm to its “Best Law Firms” list (2010-2012), while lawyers from the firm were again honored as Ohio Super Lawyers for 2012.