Car Accident Lawyers in Plano

Tate Law Offices, P.C., can help you to get your life back on track after the devastation of a car accident. We are highly skilled and dedicated car accident lawyers with many years of experience obtaining compensation for car wreck victims in Plano and throughout Texas.

If you are struggling to recover from injuries, you do not need the additional burden of fighting with insurers. Let us take that off of your shoulders. Attorneys Tim Tate and Chris Rehmet are members of the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum and are included among the Top Trial Lawyers in America®. Tim Tate also has been recognized on D magazine’s list of Best Lawyers in Plano for his work as a personal injury lawyer. While our attorneys handle your car accident claim, you can focus on your health and your family.

Contact Your Car Accident Lawyer Plano

Call your local office or reach us online today to speak with an experienced Plano car accident lawyer.

We offer free consultations, and you won’t need to pay us anything until we win your settlement.

Let Our Plano Car Accident Lawyer Go To Work For You

If you have been injured in a car accident in the Plano, Tate Law Offices, P.C., can provide a variety of services, including:

• Providing free legal advice in an initial consultation, with no further obligation from you
• Helping you obtain proper medical treatment for your injuries
• Investigating your accident to gather evidence necessary for proving your claim
• Consulting with our network of experts such as accident reconstruction specialists, medical experts, life-care planners and financial planners to document your losses
• Handling all communications with the insurance company, including filing all claims
• Negotiating to obtain a full settlement for your cost and losses
• Filing a personal injury lawsuit in your name and, if necessary, taking your case to trial.

Throughout the legal process, we will keep you informed about your case’s progress, and we will be there for you even after your case is completed. To learn more, please see “Our 10 Promises to You.”

Plano Car Accident Attorney Understands the Injuries Suffered in a Car Crash

At Tate Law Offices, P.C., we have seen the damage caused by car crashes in the Plano area, and the struggles that car accident victims and their families face afterward.

Many factors contribute to the severity of injuries in a car accident, such as the size and speed of vehicles involved, and the type of collision, such as a rear-end, side-impact (T-bone), head-on or rollover accident.

Typical injuries in personal injury claims include:

The costs of medical treatment for serious injuries may quickly exceed $100,000. An injury may require emergency care, hospitalization, surgery, rehabilitation, and ongoing care and assistance in cases of catastrophic injury or disability — all of which you should be compensated for.

Our goal is to seek all available compensation for your injuries. Our attorneys will document your injuries as well as your lost work time and evidence of the impact the crash has had on your life. We will consult medical and financial experts to project your future expenses and losses related to the injury.

The claim we prepare will document and demand compensation you are due for:

In certain situations, you may be entitled to seek punitive damages, if the at fault driver was either grossly negligent or engaged in willful conduct that led to the accident.

If you lost a loved one in a car crash in Plano, please see our section about wrongful death and survival damages for additional information.

How We Demonstrate Eligibility For Compensation After A Car Accident

Our objective is to obtain the maximum compensation available to you as quickly as we can. In most cases, we can negotiate a proper settlement and avoid the time and expense of going to trial.

Plano Car Accident Attorney: Investigate The Accident

Our attorneys and investigators will work initially to determine how and why the crash you were injured in occurred, and who should be held accountable.

A successful car accident claim demonstrates that a party other than you was at fault, and their negligence or recklessness caused the accident. In general, negligence is a failure to act as a reasonable person would have under similar circumstances.

In car accidents, the driver negligence we typically see takes the form of:

• Distracted driving – Driving while texting or talking on a cell phone, or engaging in any activity not required to operate the vehicle, such as interacting with passengers or pets, eating and drinking, or reading a map.
• Drowsy driving – Driving despite being heavily fatigued poses a safety risk. People who have erratic schedules and have irregular sleep patterns are more susceptible to drowsy driving accidents.
• Impaired driving – Impaired drivers are a public safety hazard and cause many preventable deaths and injuries each year in Plano. A driver may be impaired by alcohol, drugs or prescription medication including over-the-counter medications
• Speeding – Driving faster than the posted speed limit or too fast for conditions, such as congested traffic, bad weather conditions or the design of the road.

It is not always the other driver who is at fault in an accident. We also see negligence as a result of:

• Manufacturing or design defects – When a car accident is due to faulty tires, brakes, steering column, air bag, or ignition system failure, a detailed investigation is warranted to determine whether the manufacturer should have known about the problem.
• Dangerous road conditions – Sometimes, a local government and/or its contractors have allowed a road to fall into disrepair, or contractors have set up a highway work zone improperly, and this contributes to a crash.

Filing Claims For Compensation

Once our attorneys identify the party or parties responsible for a car accident, we work to determine the insurance policies that may provide compensation.

Based on the evidence we submit as part of a claim, our attorneys can usually negotiate an insurance settlement.

When insurers refuse to agree to a reasonable settlement, we will file a personal injury lawsuit on your behalf. A lawsuit outlines the evidence of the defendant’s responsibility and the compensation you are due, and asks the court to order payment.

As a lawsuit proceeds, we continue to negotiate with insurers to try to resolve the claim. Accepting a settlement is the client’s decision. We will notify you of all settlement offers and share our perspective on whether the offer is reasonable, based on our experience.

Accepting a settlement ends a case and results in almost immediate payment. If we cannot reach a settlement agreement, we will take your case to trial. A case may be settled any time before a jury delivers a verdict.

Resolving Your Plano Car Accident Case

If you agree to a settlement or if we obtain a jury verdict in your favor, we will obtain a check in the amount agreed to or ordered. A portion of the compensation will be used to pay your medical expenses and other outstanding bills. Our legal fees and case costs will come out of this check, as well.

We will not charge you any legal fees unless we recover compensation for you. We do not pursue cases unless we are confident we can recover enough to make you financially whole and pay our expenses, as well.

Please see our Case Results for examples of some of the settlements and verdicts we have obtained for clients. While every case has unique facts and past cases are not predictive of future outcomes, our attorneys have shown repeatedly that they can obtain results.

Auto Insurance and Compensation Recovered in Car Accident Cases

The money you recover will depend on the amount of insurance that is available in your car accident case. Almost all claims are paid through insurance.

This is important to understand if you have been injured in a car accident caused by a friend, colleague, or family member. The compensation you seek to cover your losses does not come out of their pocket. It is from insurance they bought in case of an accident, like the one in which you were injured.

The auto insurance policies that may be a part of your case include:

• The at-fault driver’s liability coverage – The State of Texas requires drivers to carry liability insurance, which pays for damages the policyholder causes in an accident. Currently, the minimum amounts of required auto liability coverage are:
  • $30,000 for bodily injury per person
  • $60,000 for bodily injury per accident
  • $25,000 for property damage per accident.

• Uninsured / underinsured motorist (UM / UIM) coverage – If you have uninsured/underinsured motorist protection, you may file a claim against the policy if the other driver had no insurance, or had too little insurance to cover your losses. The policy may also provide coverage if you were injured by a hit-and-run driver who was not identified or possibly if hit by an unlicensed driver.
• Other coverage, other parties – It is not unusual to find that the driver who caused a wreck was driving as part of his or her job when the crash occurred. When this happens, the at-fault driver’s employer also may be held liable. Our attorneys can file a claim against their business liability policy or other coverage, such as company’s vehicle insurance. We may find that the at-fault driver has an umbrella policy, which provides additional liability coverage. We can also examine your auto insurance policy to determine whether you have additional coverage, such as for medical payments, personal injury protection (PIP), collision coverage or comprehensive coverage.

Regardless of the type of insurance involved, you can expect insurance companies to try to pay as little as possible to settle your claim.

The car accident lawyers of Tate Law Offices, P.C., understand the nuances of dealing with auto insurance policies. Our legal team wants you to receive the maximum amount of money available to you under the law, as justified by what you have been put through unnecessarily.

5 Steps To Take If You May Have A Car Accident Claim in Plano

Our attorneys offer a free legal consultation to review the details of your injury and discuss your legal options. We will meet with you in our Plano law offices. If your injuries make it difficult for you to visit our office, we can meet with you at your home, hospital room or other location convenient to you. You will not be charged for consultation, regardless of whether you pursue a claim with us.

As you prepare to meet with one of our Plano car wreck lawyers, we suggest taking the following steps to protect your rights to compensation:

• Get medical attention – If you were not taken from the crash scene by ambulance, or have not yet seen a doctor, you should have a medical evaluation. Several serious conditions common to car crashes can have delayed symptoms. Tell the doctor you were in a crash, and follow all doctor’s orders for treatment and appointments. Keep all of your medical bills and receipts, and any other record of your accident and injuries.  If you do not have health insurance, please let us know. We will work to help you obtain medical care.
• Take pictures of vehicle damage – Photographs can be important in telling the story of a car crash. If your car is in your possession, photograph its damage. If it has been towed, we will work with you to acquire photos. Anytime someone is in a crash and is able to take photos immediately afterward, they should photograph each car’s position and damage, debris in the road and anything nearby that may have caused or contributed to the crash, such as road construction, overgrown foliage or a missing or turned stop sign.
• Write down witnesses contact information – Witnesses to the accident are typically the best sources for substantiating how a wreck occurred. Get names, phone numbers, and email addresses for any witnesses, including your passengers.
• Don’t talk to the insurance company — You might think you should call the insurance company to report an accident. It is better to let your lawyer deal with the insurers. An insurance company may record your phone call and use portions of what you say to deny you fair compensation. Insurance companies work hard to avoid paying proper settlements. You can rely on our accident attorneys to handle all insurance company communications for you. We can report your accident and deal directly with their adjusters and attorneys. If any insurance company contacts you, tell them your attorneys will be in touch with them.
• Call Tate Law Offices, P.C., as soon as possible – The sooner we are involved with your car accident case, the quicker we can get to work. We will move quickly to secure important evidence before it degrades or is lost. We can advise you about steps to take to protect your rights and to help us develop a strong claim for you. Our initial consultations are always free, and we don’t charge anything until we recover money for you.

Contact Our Plano Car Accident Attorney Today

Don’t wait to get the legal help you need and deserve if you have been injured or lost a loved one in a car accident in Plano. The State of Texas limits the amount of time a person has to file a claim for compensation after a car crash. Call or reach us online today to start your car accident case with a free, no-obligation legal consultation with a Plano personal injury attorney. We can help with car accidents, truck accidents, motorcycle accidents, bicycle accidents, workers’ compensation, dog bites, pedestrian accidents and much more in Plano.

Sources / More Information:

• Automobile Insurance Made Easy, Texas Department of Insurance
• Texas Motor Vehicle Crash Statistics, Texas Department of Transportation
• Traffic Safety Performance (Core Outcome) Measures for Texas, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)