What You Need To Know Regarding Discovery And The Context Of Your Car Accident Claim

Discovery is a process that comes about if your attorney is unable to settle the claim with the insurance company in what’s called pre-litigation. 97% of cases will be settled in pre-litigation.

This means that the insurance company has accepted liability on the part of their driver, and your lawyer goes ahead and collects all of your medical and other important relevant records, like police reports, and he or she sends them to the insurance company. They evaluate them, make an offer and then it settled. That’s how the overwhelming majority of cases actually go by the wayside. There’s never a day where you really have to go to court because the entire system is built towards avoiding court.

Typically, the reasons why you would go into litigation is going to be either a valuation situation in which case the insurance company feels that the injury and the wreck don’t dictate the sort of demand that you’re claiming for your auto accident, or it’s a question of liability and they actually feel like you contributed in some way to your own collision.Those are the sorts of issues that you typically see litigated at the context of your car accident. 

Discovery is the process that happens once your lawyer actually files a lawsuit. The problem with discovery specifically in Charleston County is that you’ve got to look at how long it’s going to actually take to get into court. Because of the backlog of cases and common pleas in Charleston County, the typical wait is about a year before you can even get on to the list of where you might be called for a jury trial, and the whole point behind discovery is that prior to that, both sides are going to exchange information such as: medical records, prior medical records, your police reports, past driving records, past criminal records etc.

Anything and everything that could possibly be discovered will be discovered and that’s because the nature of discovery under South Carolina law is incredibly broad as far as what you can actually pull.

Therefore, it’s not just going to be the medical records that are actually relevant to this particular car accident. In all likelihood, the insurance company is going to go back and get at least five years of your prior medical records. The reason being is they want to go back and look and see if they could find some reason why you were injured previously to that part of your body and that way they can say, “We’re not responsible for this. This is just a re-aggravation of an injury that you had two or three years ago that shows up in your general practitioner’s medical records.”

All of that kind of goes into the pot, and discovery is that pot. It's essentially everything that could possibly be relevant, and anything under the sun is considered relevant and as soon as that summons and complaint is filed, your entire life is basically open to discovery from both sides and that can be a good thing and a bad thing. Some people find it invasive and that’s why a lot of people are more inclined to go ahead and settle their case in a pre-litigation context, to not worry so much about the valuation and not worry about going into a lawsuit. Plus they don’t want to wait a year.

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A lot of these things are considerations that a lawyer is going to sit down and talk to you about before you ever get to the point where you file a lawsuit. It’s definitely a conversation that needs to be had and I would strongly encourage you to talk to a lawyer if you’re in that situation.

If you have questions about discovery, I would strongly encourage you to pick up the phone and call The Hartman Law Firm at 843-300-7600 and speak with me today.

4 Reasons Why Pedestrians are Frequently Hit on South Carolina Roads

The law regarding pedestrians on South Carolina roads is that cars have to come to a stop at crosswalks both marked and unmarked and if they don’t do so, then their drivers are potentially negligent for any injuries that result as a result of striking a pedestrian.

There are four different contributing factors to why pedestrians are struck by vehicles.

1. Speed

People approach the intersection too fast and don’t realize that there’s a crosswalk there. They’re driving too fast for conditions and as a result, they’re unable to stop and they strike a pedestrian and obviously common sense is going to tell you if you’ve got a car meeting a human being, human being typically loses that battle and the potential injuries that can result from that can be absolutely devastating to someone. That’s an unfortunate thing and it’s certainly something that they need to be protected for and they’re potentially going to need a lawyer for is they’re going to need a lot of help to get back to where they were before or at least close to it.

2. The driver's age

Meaning, someone who is a little bit further along in life and their vision isn’t necessarily as good as that of a much younger driver. As a result of their vision being a little bit poor, they don’t see that pedestrian at the crosswalk or the fact that there’s a crosswalk there until it’s too late and they strike the person and then the person is injured as a result of the collision.

3. Impairment

The driver is drunk or intoxicated on some sort of prescription drug or something that is ultimately impairing their ability to see what’s going on around them and keep a proper lookout. As a result, when they approach that crosswalk, they don’t see the person until it’s too late and then they strike them and then again the person is injured very grievously.

4. Poor lighting

A lot of times people are struck at twilight, right around the time where the sun is just going down but it’s not completely night. So you don’t necessarily have your headlights on. Obviously that is the worst time for a human being as far as visibility is concerned. So when you have someone who’s crossing the road at twilight, they’re less visible and as a result, they tend to be struck more and if you look at the statistics, you’re much more likely to be struck around that particular time of day than any other time of day. So visibility plays a significant role and lack of visibility in this particular case.

An experienced Charleston personal injury lawyer can provide help. Protect yourself and your loved ones by contacting Hartman Law Firm, L.L.C. for a free, no-obligation evaluation of your case. We represent clients throughout Charleston and South Carolina. Call us today at 843-300-7600 or use our online contact form.
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Why Motorcycles are More Dangerous than Cars on South Carolina Roadways

The reason why motorcycles are more dangerous on the road is pretty obvious when you sit back and think about it. They’re a lot smaller. So when people are driving in traffic, a lot of times they don’t necessarily see them in your rear-view mirror or your side mirrors and consequently, they get hit because they’re not seen by other drivers, and because motorcycles are roughly a third size of a regular car.

For those reasons, it’s quite frequent that they’re struck and since the other driver doesn’t even realize that they’re there, other factors may come into play. Perhaps the other driver of the actual car is driving distracted or they’re intoxicated. There are all sorts of potential variances that can come into play but reality is that it really comes down to just sight. Are you able to see him or are you not able to see him? The way the cars are constructed, with the mirror construction being the way that it is, there’s just a natural blind spot that allows for a motorcyclist to just disappear behind you.

Other Factors that Contribute to the Dangers Motorcyclists Face:

• Motorcycles are a lot smaller mass-wise, so that when they go to brake, it’s much more sudden because they’re not bringing a 2000-pound car to a stop. They’re bringing a 700-pound motorcycle to a stop. So they’re able to stop at a much quicker rate and they get struck from behind by other vehicles that are unable to stop at the same rate and unfortunately since you’re out and you’re not surrounded by that metal casing of the car, you have a tendency to go flying and you get injured pretty significantly.

• Roughly 70 percent of motorcycle accidents happen at an intersection and the reason why that is, is because cars that are sitting at the intersection are – again, it comes down to sight but their line of sight is being obscured by trees or signs or shrubbery or whatever it is that may be in the way, buildings, if you’re in the downtown area and it prevents them from seeing a smaller vehicle that’s coming around the corner. They pull out from a stop sign and then the motorcycle strikes them.

The byproduct of all this is, is that people who are riding motorcycles, it’s not even their fault. A lot of times, they end up severely injured and almost invariably it’s the other driver’s fault. But that’s not going to make you feel any better when you’ve got broken bones all over or you’ve got some sort of debilitating long term injury that has come about as a result of the collision.

Proving negligence in a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit based on a car crash can be complex. It takes an investment of time, experience, and money. An experienced Charleston car accident lawyer can provide these advantages. Protect yourself and your loved ones by contacting Hartman Law Firm, L.L.C. for a free, no-obligation evaluation of your case. We represent clients throughout Charleston and South Carolina. Call us today at 843-300-7600 or use our online contact form.
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