A serious car crash can change your life. It can result in serious and even lifelong injuries, as well as emotional trauma and financial losses. Even minor car accidents can cost thousands in medical and property damage expenses. After an auto accident in Mesquite or elsewhere in Texas, Fielding Law can help. Our Mesquite car accident lawyer have significant experience handling auto accident cases. We can help victims get back on their feet with knowledgeable and aggressive representation. Mesquite personal injury lawyers will advocate on your behalf and help you get the compensation you need and deserve.
At law firm Fielding Law, we are dedicated to helping victims of auto accidents and personal injury find the compensation they deserve. We only take cases involving these two specialties, meaning we have the time to dedicate to you and your requirements. Our specialization in personal injury and car accidents also means our Mesquite accident attorneys know the relevant laws inside and out, and can pass this knowledge on to you and your case.
We provide free, confidential consultations to auto accident victims in the Mesquite area, and we work on a contingency fee basis, meaning we never charge a fee unless we secure compensation on your behalf. Our firm is aggressive, effective, and affordable.
A personal injury lawyer at the Mesquite law firm Fielding Law can help with medical bills, take over communications with insurance companies on your behalf and help you secure compensation for your injuries.
If you wish to settle your claim with the other driver’s insurance company, we can handle the negotiations for you and get you the compensation you deserve.
We are also prepared to take your claim to trial if settlement offers aren’t enough to adequately cover your losses. Our aggressive car accident lawyers have the resources and experience to carry your case where it needs to go for fair and just recovery. We want to help you receive payment for your past and future medical expenses, lost wages, physical pain, emotional suffering, or the wrongful death of a loved one after a accident by car.
Call (214) 661-1537 to schedule a FREE consultation or fill out a contact form
Decades of Experience
The attorneys at Fielding Law have decades of combined experience that we offer to our clients. Our focus on auto accidents and personal injury means that we have a deep and comprehensive understanding of injury law and litigation. Collaboration with one of our Mesquite car accident attorneys means setting yourself up with powerful resources to approach your case, call us for a free consultation.
Availability for Our Clients
The focus of our lawyers is on you 100%. We aim to bring our knowledge and experience to bear in your auto accident and personal injury case. When you schedule a consultation with a motor vehicle accident attorney from Fielding Law, we dedicate ourselves to bringing you quick and appropriate representation. Our team of experienced and compassionate lawyers work closely on your case, first understanding what it is you need and your story.
The services we offer are client-centric. We aim to advocate for your case as much as possible within the law. Most injury and accident cases settle out of court, but we will never settle for less than you deserve. Our team is willing to go to trial if it is what your case needs. At Fielding Law, we believe in taking care of everyone who deserves compensation.
If you or a loved one were seriously injured in a car accident, call Fielding Law today. Our initial consultation is free and comes with no obligation to retain our firm. We can answer the questions and concerns you may have about your recent auto accident, and explain your rights and legal opportunities for the future. With one-on-one support and direct access to a Mesquite accident attorney, you’ll feel an immediate peace of mind. Call our Mesquite Personal Injury Attorneys at (214) 661-1537 or submit our intake form to schedule your free consultation today, we are available 24/7 to take your call.
How an accident attorney can handle other insurance companies:
If you were involved in a minor, property damage only car accident you may be able to handle your insurance claim without the help of an attorney. However, if anyone involved in the crash sustained injuries or if the crash involved multiple vehicles, we recommend that you at least speak with an attorney for a few reasons.
Insurance companies are in business to make money for shareholders and may not treat you fairly. Having an attorney to advocate on your behalf can help prevent you from being taken advantage of. In fact, the simple act of hiring an attorney is often enough to greatly increase initial and subsequent settlement offers.
Serious accident claims can be extremely expensive to handle properly. Medical bills, missed work, crash investigations and hiring experts can be too much to handle alone. The right attorney can help cover these expenses and make sure that your case has the best chance of success.
If the insurance company does not treat you fairly, going to trial is your best option. In a trial, not having an attorney will put you at a serious disadvantage. The insurance company will likely have a whole team of attorneys – you should too.
Complex cases that go to trial can take a long time to be completed – over a year in certain cases. A Mesquite accident lawyer will keep the process going in the right direction and make sure all documents and timelines are in order.
Having an attorney from the beginning can allow you to focus on your recovery instead of speaking with insurance companies and collecting evidence.
How to File a Car Accident Lawsuit in Mesquite
Learning how to file a car accident lawsuit is important to you and your family’s future. After a crash that leaves you with expensive medical bills, serious personal injuries, property damage, and impacts on your career, you deserve to take legal action to secure recovery for your damages. Follow these steps to file your car accident lawsuit in Mesquite. As always, don’t hesitate to contact our Mesquite accident lawyers if you run into any issues, have any questions, or simply want assistance while filing your claim.
Prepare Your Case
Before you file your claim, gather as much information about your crash as you can. This includes photographs of the scene, medical documentation of your injuries, and a copy of the official police report. Keep track of all communications with insurance companies, as well as any bills and expenses relating to your collision. Write down everything that happened, along with information such as the names and address of other drivers and eyewitnesses.
Contact Your Insurance Company
A lawsuit can often result in greater compensation for your damages than an insurance claim settlement, but you must still file with your insurer first. Call your insurance company, or that of the at-fault driver, and report the crash. You must do this right away to fulfill your end of the insurance contract. Do not accept a settlement offer right away. Instead, wait until you speak to an attorney.
File Your Claim Against the At-Fault Party
Once you know who might be liable for your accident, it’s time to file claims against them for your damages. Do this by sending a formal written letter to each individual or company you believe is responsible for your crash. You can serve these letters yourself or hire someone to do it for you. You will then have to wait to hear responses from these parties to proceed with your lawsuit.
Start Compensation Negotiations
You might be able to settle your claim without having to go to trial. With help from an attorney, you can negotiate your case with an insurance company during pre-trial mediations and negotiations. Note, however, that insurance claims adjusters will try to get you to settle for as little as possible to save the company money. If settlement offers aren’t satisfactory, it’s time to file your claim with the courts.
Review Your Deadlines for Filing
As a general rule, start your car accident lawsuit as soon as possible. Waiting too long can lead to fuzzy accounts of what happened and the loss of important evidence. It can also lead to losing your opportunity to file. You must bring your claim within Texas’ deadlines – or statutes of limitations – which is within two years of the date of your car accident. There are exceptions to the rules in which the courts will “toll,” or extend the deadline. Talk to a lawyer for details about your particular claim’s deadline.
Retain an Attorney
If your case gets to this point and you still don’t have a lawyer, now is the time to retain one from Fielding Law. You will need to file an official complaint with the proper Mesquite court according to the value of the damages you are seeking. Once the defendant receives notice of the official complaint, the lawsuit begins.
Mesquite Road and Highway Facts
At Fielding Law, we’ve helped hundreds of clients in all types of accidents on rural and urban roads. We’ve seen everything from minor to catastrophic injuries and have helped individuals and families put the pieces back together. The more you know about roadways and collisions in Texas, the more aware you can be while driving. The facts you learn here can inform your decision making and help you avoid becoming a statistic. Here’s some recent data about Dallas, Fort Worth, and Texas as a whole:
Texas had about 80,000 miles of highway in 2012. This breaks down into 28,441 miles of U.S. and state highways, 3,231 miles of interstate, 7,031 miles of frontage roads, 40,939 miles of farm-to-market roads and ranch-to-market roads, and 331 miles of park roads. There are more than 1,000 construction projects ongoing in Texas at any given time.
There is no major street grid. Instead, there are a number of confusing interchanges and intersections at awkward angles between streets. Streets often change names across borders and over the Trinity River. This can make navigating the city difficult, especially for tourists.
The High Five Interchange is a five-level stack of interchanges like many around the region. It’s located at the Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway and Central Expressway. Popular Mechanics named this interchange one of the “World’s 18 Strangest Roadways” for its height and “labyrinth of lanes.” It is 12-stories high, with 43 permanent bridges.
In 2016, there were 3,773 car accident deaths in Texas, a 5.45% increase from 2015. Dallas saw 180 fatal accidents, 192 deaths, and 1,137 incapacitating injuries. There were 82 fatal crashes, 84 deaths, and 659 incapacitating injuries in Fort Worth.
The most common contributing factors to accidents on urban roads in Texas were: failure to control speeds, driver inattention (including texting while driving), unsafe lane changes, and failures to yield. On rural roads, failure to control speed was the number one contributing factor to car accidents, followed by driver inattention and unsafe speeds.
There will always be car accidents in Texas. The question is, will you become a victim? Obeying roadway rules such as speed limits and right-of-way rules can greatly reduce your odds of getting into a crash. If you do become a car accident victim, know that you have rights. Regardless of who was at fault, contact our attorneys for a free consultation. You might discover you’re eligible for significant financial recovery.
Common Types of Car Accidents
Avoiding a car accident starts with recognizing the most common causes and elements contributing to them. In our years of legal experience, we’ve learned to identify several common types of crashes in Mesquite. Knowing the most common types may improve your safety on rural roads, urban highways, and city streets. Here are eight of the most typical types of car accidents, in no particular order:
Rear-end collisions
If a driver isn’t paying attention, is speeding, or is driving while drowsy or intoxicated, he or she can cause a high-speed Mesquite rear-end collision. These accidents often cause damage to multiple vehicles in a line of stopped traffic. A driver who slams into the back of another vehicle can cause serious injuries.
Single-vehicle crashes
Not all car accidents involve more than one vehicle. Single-vehicle crashes can occur when drivers are traveling too fast for conditions or driving while intoxicated. Drivers may take turns too fast, collide with guardrails or trees, or flip their vehicles, going off the road.
Low-speed accidents
Fender benders are often more inconvenient than damaging, but they can result in injuries such as whiplash, plus property damage. On Mesquites busy and congested highways, low-speed rear-end collisions are common. Keep proper following distance from the vehicle in front of you to avoid liability for these collisions.
T-bone accidents are common at intersections when one or more driver ignores the right-of-way. When traffic crosses an intersection from both sides, vehicles must be careful to watch for oncoming cars and always yield right-of-way. Running red lights and turning in front of oncoming vehicles can cause major crashes.
One of the most severe types of accidents, head-on collisions, may happen when one vehicle drifts into oncoming traffic or when a driver enters a one-way road going in the wrong direction. In a head-on collision, the speed at impact is the speeds of both vehicles combined. The forces in a head-on crash can be immense and can cause serious head injuries which could result in significant medical bills and the need for lifelong care.
Pedestrian & bicyclist collisions
In busy urban areas like Mesquite, collisions with vulnerable road users are common. Pedestrian and bicycle accidents outside the vehicle always sustain worse injuries than drivers. Drivers must pay attention at intersections and crosswalks, and obey traffic signals at all times.
In Mesquite, it is illegal to operate a motor vehicle on a public road without carrying vehicle insurance. There are minimum coverage amounts all drivers must maintain that will kick into action should an accident occur. In the event of a car accident, victims will seek damage recovery through the insurer of the at-fault driver. If you find yourself in this situation in Texas, here’s how to file your claim. When in doubt, call our attorneys for assistance.
Prepare Information Before You Make the Call: When you call your insurance agent, he or she will ask you a lot of questions about your accident. You need to gather the facts of your crash to be better prepared for your conversation. Get the name and contact information of the other driver, as well as the name of his or her insurance company and policy number. Record as many details of the accident as you can, including its location, how it happened, how many people were involved, and descriptions of any injuries or property damage. Get your police report number as well.
Call the Phone Number on Your Insurance Card: There should be a number on your insurance card specifically for filing new car accident claims. If you can’t find the number, perform an internet search for your company’s toll-free policyholder helpline. Call your insurer to report your crash as soon as possible. Insurance companies typically enforce tight deadlines for reporting your crash. If you miss your deadline, you could lose your chance to recover through your policy. You will speak with a representative of your insurance company about your accident. Your agent will guide you through the steps of filing your claim. Stick only to the facts of your case when speaking with your insurer. Do not speculate or make guesses as to who or what caused the crash. Do not admit fault or place blame on yourself in any way. Simply list the facts, such as how fast you were going, what direction both vehicles were traveling, and where the crash occurred.
Speak with an Insurance Claims Adjuster: A party might call you soon after your accident called the insurance claims adjuster, claims adjuster, claims analyst, or claims specialist. This person is a representative of the other driver’s insurance company and works for the company or for a third-party company the insurer contracted. The most important thing to remember during a conversation with a claims adjuster is that his or her goal is to save the insurance company as much money as possible. The claims adjuster may ask to record a statement from you. Politely decline. If you record a statement, the adjuster can and probably will use what you say against you later. You are under no obligation to agree to a recorded statement.
Wait for Further Instruction: After your conversation with the claims adjuster, days or weeks might pass while both insurance companies conduct their own investigations into the accident. In the meantime, your insurance agent may give you instructions about where to bring your damaged vehicle, where to seek medical help, and how to submit evidence of your crash for analysis. Once you hear from an insurance company about a possible settlement, talk to one of our attorneys.
Call Our Auto Collision Attorneys: A Mesquite car accident lawyer at Fielding Law can evaluate your case for free and help you understand the true value of what your claim could be worth. We can recommend settling your claim or holding off for a better settlement. We can also take your insurance claim to trial if necessary for maximum compensation. Our accident lawyers can assist you with the entire insurance claims process in Mesquite, from beginning to end.
To succeed in a personal injury claim, the plaintiff must prove four things in court:
Duty: The plaintiff must show the court that the defendant owed the plaintiff a duty of care at the time of the accident.
Breach: Next, the plaintiff must show the court how the defendant breached or violated this duty of care. In a texting and driving case, texting behind the wheel constitutes a breach of duty. The plaintiff’s attorney will likely gather evidence including traffic camera footage, witness statements, and possibly even subpoena the defendant’s cell phone records to prove he or she was texting at the time of the crash.
Cause in fact: The plaintiff must prove that his or her damages were the direct result of the defendant’s breach of duty.
Damage: The plaintiff must have suffered actual harm to sue. If he or she incurred no injury or economic loss, there is no claim.
Usually, the hardest part of winning a lawsuit against a texting driver is proving he or she was in fact texting at the time of the accident. The right attorney will know how to approach this and help the client build a strong case. At Fielding Law, our personal injury attorneys in Mesquite have experience handling all types of civil claims for vehicle crashes, and we believe in providing comprehensive legal counsel to every one of our clients and maximizing their recoveries after serious accidents. Contact our team to schedule a free consultation about your distracted driving case in Mesquite today, and we can let you know what to expect from suing the at-fault driver.
Liability in Texas Car Accidents
To receive compensation after an auto accident, one must prove another party’s liability for the crash. This comes down to the question of fault. Texas is a fault state, meaning the party at fault for causing the wreck is the one who will have to pay for damages. Some states are no-fault states, in which case each individual will recover through his or her car insurance, no matter who caused the crash. In Texas, fault matters when it comes to who will pay for the damages a car accident causes.
Parties who may be at fault for an accident include the drivers, a third-party bystander, a property owner, the city in charge of maintaining the roadway, and a product manufacturer. Liability can go to virtually anyone or any entity that contributed to the collision. It often takes an attorney to investigate the crash and name the appropriate defendant(s), or responsible parties. Factors such as distracted driving, a malfunctioning stoplight, or a pothole in the road may all lead to compensation for victims.
In Texas, injured car accident victims may still recover compensation if they contributed to the crash. Texas is a modified comparative negligence state, in which a claimant may recover damages if his/her percentage of responsibility is 50% or less. If claimants are more than 50% at fault, they lose the right to seek financial recovery. Talk to a lawyer if you believe you are partially at fault for your recent car accident. You may be eligible for a proportion of a compensation award. The courts will simply reduce your award by your percentage of fault.
Fatalities From Car Crashes By State
In 2016, Nearly 4,000 people were killed in car accidents in Texas. The state has the highest number of annual deaths in the U.S.
Common Causes of Deadly Car Crashes
Fatal car accidents can happen under a variety of circumstances, but certain driving behaviors increase the likelihood a crash will result in death. Common contributing factors include:
Speeding
Driving above the speed limit causes close to a third of all traffic deaths according to the Highway Safety Association. Speed increases the amount of force your body must endure upon impact. High speeds frequently contribute to catastrophic injuries and death, and is the most common form of reckless driving.
This is a form of aggressive driving where drivers get too close to cars, not having enough time to break when an accident happens. Tailgating causes more than 20-thousand accidents every year and thousands of serious injuries. It is 100% avoidable.
Road rage in Texas is a big problem. More than one thousand accidents reported were attributed to road rage in the state. The behaviors associated with road rage can reduce the amount of time a driver has to react and cause serious rear-ending and rollover accidents.
Dallas had the fifth highest rate of drunk driving deaths among 25 of the largest cities in the United States and the fourth highest rate of traffic deaths in general.
Failure to follow the rules of the road
Many fatal accidents occur when drivers fail to stop at traffic signals or crosswalks or to look carefully around turns. These careless accidents typically involve motorcycles, bicyclists, and pedestrians who don’t have as much protection as motor vehicle drivers.
Auto defects
Defects such as the Takata air bag defect, which has claimed 12 lives so far, can contribute to traffic fatalities. Malfunctioning brakes, accelerators, tires, and other parts can prevent even the most capable of drivers from avoiding an accident or serious injury.
Deadly car accidents happen fast and leave families grieving for lives lost unexpectedly. Fielding Law helps spouses and families move forward when careless behaviors cause fatal car accidents in Mesquite and surrounding areas.
In 2017, fatal crashes in Mesquite and surrounding areas highlighted the diversity of fatality events: A young man lost his life after his truck tire failed and he lost control of the car in Payson. A drunk driver on I-635 killed two individuals standing on the side of the road after an accident. A big rig on I-30 near Fate failed to stop, causing double fatalities in a rear-ending accident. The area has seen fatal rollovers, distracted driving collisions, and more involving single drivers and multiple vehicles.
Everyone faces a certain level of risk when they drive. You can control your behaviors within a vehicle, but you can’t control other drivers. When car accidents lead to untimely deaths, our firm represents survivors in wrongful death claims and survival actions.
In fatal car accidents, some people die instantly as the result of blunt force trauma. Others spend days or weeks in a hospital bed fighting for their lives before succumbing to their injuries. The attorneys at Fielding Law will fight for your family’s right to compensation for your losses, including the time your loved one spent in the hospital and the future losses you will endure because of the accident.
We Offer Big Firm Power with Small Firm attention
Our attorneys will devote personal attention to you and your case. We do not view you as a name or number on a list of cases; you are an important client that we work with personally. Your goals are ours at Fielding Law, and we will work with you to understand every individual case.
From day one, you will meet with a lawyer one-on-one. We will not have you sit in a waiting room, only to speak with an office staff member – never actually reaching an attorney. Personal injury requires swift and personalized attention. Our lawyers will not put you on a waiting list and forget about your case. Our experience and knowledge are at your disposal, and we will not settle unless you receive fair compensation for your losses.
The attorneys at Fielding Law will approach your case with the power of a big firm and the personalized attention of a small firm. This balance means you will have the best legal counsel and representation, but you will not be lost in the reeds.
Call Us – We’re Available 24/7
No one can predict a car accident – no matter how well you drive. When you are in an accident, you need persistent and expert representation to receive the compensation you deserve. Auto accidents can happen any time of day, any day of the week. If you find yourself in need of legal counsel, our firm is available 24/7 to discuss your needs. Fielding Law will advise you on your next steps, and has the experience and compassion necessary to take care of your case. If you speak Spanish, hablamos español. Contact our firm today.
“Mitch poured his heart and his soul into our family and offered a piece of himself to us! We are forever grateful for all of the help that Mitch offered our family! He is one of a kind! We would highly recommend him and would be happy to speak with anyone who would like to inquire about the quality of his services!” -Jane & John Lacasse
